Tenet 5: Roll the dice to maximize growth
To radically grow, we need to systematically identify the edges of our built-in safety mechanisms and manually override them.
If Tenet 4 describes using dice to quell passive stagnation, Tenet 5 focuses on using dice to stimulate proactive growth. Growth is the expansion of our capabilities, awareness, knowledge, and boundaries. Expansion takes active, rigorous effort. There is deep, natural resistance to protect ourselves from change. We often refer to the inner circle of this resistance as our comfort zone. Our default comfort zone is influenced by the long tail of human history, the majority of which involves life requirements completely distinct from our needs today. Evolution paints with a broad brush stroke at macro scale. Its wide net capture contains instinctive responses and subconscious patterns that are unnecessary for individual survival and inhibit our growth trajectory. Our habits are not preconditions of our individuality. They are mutable training wheels. We can methodically hijack the apparatus by becoming aware of our programmed responses and rewriting the code.
Comfort generally carries a positive connotation of security and tranquility. To preserve our experience of comfort, our default response is to protect ourselves within its borders, to close ourselves in. Dice Theory teaches us to refocus our attention not on what lies within the boundaries, but on what exists beyond. The best way to protect our comfort zone is not to close ourselves deeper within it, but to stretch its frontiers. Comfort inside means discomfort and fear on the outside. Discomfort and fear indicate a lack of freedom. Rather than play defense for comfort, we should play offense for freedom. A defensive play style is a stress-inducing losing game with a constantly changing universe as opposition. When life knocks on our doors of discomfort, we risk being overwhelmed by its unknown forces. Instead, we transmute the comfort zone into the freedom zone and attack the borderlands directly through repeated, conscious exposure. By acquiring new territory outside the lines, we expand our diameter of possibility and become more free. We earn the byproduct of a larger comfort zone and mitigate possibilities of future trauma by fortifying our experience set. The more we intentionally seek discomfort and fear, the less we will experience discomfort and fear. Dice provides us with a tool to engage with the freedom zone and maximize our growth.
To maximize growth, roll the dice on anything inside the bounds of the freedom zone. Typically subconscious decisions operate within our comfort zone. These decisions reinforce non-growth habits and present excellent moments to inject randomness. As described in Tenet 2, a dice roll engages hyper-consciousness with the choice at hand. At the very least, we begin to build awareness of our edges of comfort by recognizing the decisions we would have otherwise subconsciously & comfortably made. The dice roll also invites the possibility to explore the less traveled path, unhinging us from the grips of comfort.
To maximize growth, roll the dice on anything outside the bounds of our freedom zone. There are infinite phenomena that lie beyond our current zone of freedom. Of course, the capacity to leap depends on a number of factors. It takes practice, time, and reinforcement loops to gain the confidence and trust needed to extend ourselves in extreme forms. However, as we continue to experiment and iterate on dice rolls, we start to feel incredible empowerment. The boundless territory outside the zone of freedom submits enormous liberty to play with growth. Life becomes its own playdough in our hands.
First, we need to recognize triggers that indicate a radical growth opportunity. Generally these triggers exist at the intersection of competing forces. We can train ourselves to associate heightened emotional states related to fear, discomfort, stress, and excitement as triggers to consider a dice roll. For example:
- Peer pressure - Outside pressure forces us to deliberate between a state of subconscious comfort (status quo) and pride. We should avoid doing something simply because the option is forcibly suggested. However, the outside pressure gives us the opportunity to become aware of our comfort/freedom zone when we otherwise may not be. The heightened emotional state can be a useful trigger to ask ourselves whether the decision carries the potential to expand our zone of freedom. If it is, then the suggestion of a dice roll both quells the pressure and provides us with a tool to face the fear.
- Temptation - Temptation forces us to deliberate between a state of desire (status quo) and willpower. We often struggle to overcome a desire we disagree with internally, and we blame ourselves for a lack of willpower. The shame yields negative reinforcement loops around choice that carry longer term implications. Dice allows us to abstract the choice to mitigate the negative reinforcement loops while training detachment of the desire over time, as described in Tenet 4.
- Risks - A risk-taking scenario forces us to deliberate between a state of fear (status quo) and excitement. Risk-taking is one of many scenarios that put us face to face with the unknown, which overlaps heavily with territory beyond our zone of freedom. Risks often commingle with nervousness. Nerves arm us with ample physiological reactions to trigger awareness for a dice roll, such as sweaty palms or butterflies in our stomach. Faced with risk, dice supplies pseudo peer pressure to either decisively take the leap or remove the guilt associated with inaction.
Playing with freedom zone expansion is the soul of Dice Theory. Until now, we’ve been establishing the foundation and habits needed to take on active control of our growth. Tenet 5 is where the fun begins, when we earn the ability to experience radical growth. The gameplay is established and we can become both the subject and the author of our narrative.
Similar to Tenet 4, the most constructive value of Tenet 5 lives at the meta-level with reinforcement loops. By making unexpected decisions more frequently and living through their outcomes, we become more comfortable not only with the new experiences we have, but also with the process of entering the unknown and coming out the other side with more freedom. We learn to better understand ourselves by repeatedly becoming aware of our boundaries. We become more confident in our ability to thrive in an absurd world. We gain hope in the prospect of a world with more freedom. Reinforcement loops teach us to embrace the experience of failure, discomfort, and fear because they become deeply associated with resulting growth and freedom. And when we learn to love even these experiences, the limit of our enthusiasm for life starts to grow towards infinity.
Removing the training wheels from our cycles of growth is scary. You need to build up trust, loyalty, and faith in dice over time. Your commitment to yourself will grow in parallel to your capacity to introduce new variables into your life. With that in mind, it’s important to start slowly. Roll on safe decisions before graduating to higher impact decisions. Give yourself early wins to build positive associations with dice rolling and consistency with obedience to the dice roll. Let the reinforcement loops play out repeatedly to deepen deep conviction in growth potential before engaging more aggressively with radical growth.
The goal of Tenet 5 is to convert subconscious comfort-seeking decisions into conscious growth-seeking decisions through rolling dice. Eventually, you swap roles with the dice as the growth-seeking orientation itself becomes subconscious.
Tenet 5: Roll the dice to maximize growth
Read Tenet 6