Stage-1: Creation — Work!
Rationale
The is the only Quest-mode that can exist self-sufficiently in any social situation. All the others are too dependent on social permission, environmental support, or external financing.
This is probably because creativity is in the and is intrinsic to all . The other Quests depend on Primary Domains: 
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Coping with life starts with a readiness to work. All work is creative, and all creation demands work.
Work which is mindless, coerced or micro-managed makes a minimal call on creativity. Such work is hard to tolerate and crushes the spirit. Insofar as the work earns a living and is perceived as temporary, it may be and often must be pursued as the foundation for coping. Apart from that, it weakens coping.
Refusal to Work is a Failure in Coping
A person who refuses to work hard may be lazy: having been accustomed to having someone else attend to all their needs, perhaps based on inherited wealth. However, a complete avoidance of work is likely indicative of mental illness because the result will be to become malnourished, homeless and a social outcast. Death commonly follows.
Values & Assumptions
Promoting Survival
Essence: Work hard!
As explained during the exploration of the essence of work, work is about altering reality for a good reason by exercising discretion and making judgements. The process demands autonomy, and is creative because something of value is brought into existence.
Note that the focus here is on working as a support for creativity, not being creative to support work.
Benefit: Create a socio-economic base
The primary reason for working is that this is the only way to earn a living. A sufficient economic base is the necessary foundation for coping and thriving in more sophisticated ways. The social environment of work may also be valuable.
Any inability to pay for basics like food, clothing and shelter or to meet challenges like illness, generates a sense of “not coping”. If this state persists, a person starts to become dysfunctional and breakdown is likely to occur.
Means: Exploit strengths and advantages
Everyone is unique and everyone has strengths as well as weaknesses, advantages as well as disadvantages. These may be personal, social, relational, financial, demographic, geographic, physical, emotional, intellectual etc. To get remunerative work and stay in work, it is necessary to identify and exploit whatever strengths and advantages are to hand.
Handling the Socio-physical Environment
Participation: Take necessary risks
Creativity involves evoking courage and (). That means being prepared to So coping, as a driver of thriving, is an outgoing and assertive process. It does not foster withdrawal into a shell to avoid being hurt or humiliated by failure.
Interaction: Hold a positive outlook
Coping requires a degree of : which involves, among other things, having faith, being open to creative opportunities, and seeing the humorous side even in the face of disappointments. It also helps to see yourself as an amazing cosmic miracle.
Individualization: Find a viable niche
What and where you work must be a fit for you. You need your own particular niche where others will allow you to function in your own way, and where you do not feel under constant threat. In a brutally competitive world or in communities that foster irrational ingrained prejudices, that can be difficult.
Channeling Your Functioning
Source of Endurance: based on Adapting
In this initial Stage, you are largely at the mercy of the environment. Your power is limited. If your strengths do not allow you to master a situation, you have no alternative but to adapt. Adapting reduces conflicts and ensures you cope in the moment. Whether that adaptation leads to an improvement or a worsening of your position in the longer term is another matter.
Limitations
Work that provides an economic base, allows a measure of autonomy, and is secure and well-adapted to the environment can be enough for some.
However, many will see such work as too instrumental and too disconnected from deeper potentials of the self. For them, such work soon becomes exhausting and unsatisfying.
If that is the case, then work can only be improved through greater control over the current entanglement with reality. This is the task of Cycle-1 and it starts with recognizing the need to assert personal values. To do this, it is necessary to look to the for guidance.
Ruling out Alternative Moves
Moving to involves putting others first, which would be difficult if you are struggling. Moving to and seeing reality for what it is will not help without already having a strong personal position.
While could reduce stress, it does not deal with the instrumentality of work, and even worsens the burden of instrumentality. Moving to with its detachment from the self would likely interfere with working.
Moving on…
- Continue to Stage 2: Meaning Mode
Originally posted: 9-Dec-2022, Last updated: 28-March-2023.