What is the Virtuegraph

I don’t know how to define it

I have circled around many definitions for the Virtuegraph. What stroke me was that I came up with the most varied definitions, depending on how I was using to tool. By patience and observation, it was seen that it’s uses are varied, but it’s always meant for inner work. Depending on my state, I’ve described it as an instrument that assists in fulfilling personal potential. Boots to cross some shitty terrain. Kanban for personal development. A mirror reflecting my ugly face. A staircase where going “up” feels intuitive.

Let’s explore what it is

I’ve pondered if I should call it a tool, an instrument, or a technique. It is a tool because it is the hammer that flints off the stone to build a handaxe. The skill relies entirely in the user of the hammer, the hammer itself is useless without a skilled user. It is very clearly an instrument: it’s a measuring device that can serve as a dashboard of your own performance throughout a cycle. It is a technique, because skill improves with use, and sometimes guidance is needed on how to get unstuck. The best metaphor I can come up with is “inner abacus”, so the concept of a tool that serves as an instrument which requires technique is well-represented.

Let’s explore it’s validity

To this day, the user is only one, and my own accomplishments are questionable. I cannot rely it’s validity on my reputation, for this is involving one’s ego in the game, so I would work towards protecting my ego instead of becoming the objective scientist required to do this task. I cannot even claim to have great results, under most measures of society I would be a failure. But I am happy with myself and I find a lot of meaning in my life.

Then, what is it that makes the virtuegraph valid? I do not posses any evidence, and here is some work to be done.

inwardly I have proved the hypothesis, but outwardly there is work to do.

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What is a virtuegraph

A virtuegraph is a method for self development. It’s both a technique and a tool, in the same way Kanban is a technique and a tool for project management. I’ve used it on myself for a number of years, and I’ve seen good results using it. No grandiose claims are made about it’s effectiveness. In the same way Kanban doesn’t transform a small company into a great one, it will not transform you from a lacking person into a self-actualized one, but it facilitates the actions required to get there.

At it’s heart is is simply a way of registering commitments you make to yourself, and following up on them. The current generation of tools for self-development seem to come from people who have an opinion on what it means to “live a good life”, and thus try to put a life-coach in your pocket. The virtual life-coach reminds you to meditate, he cheers when you accomplish a goal, encourages streaks, gives you tips on how to get out of a rut, and so on. In theory it sounds great, but in practice it’s having MS Clippy in your pocket.

Honoring the great variety of personalities and approaches to life, a virtuegraph does not have an opinion on what a “good life” entails. That is for yourself to work out. You can use it for following your ambition, your pleasures,

What is the virtuegraph

At a certain point in life, the big questions of life come in full force: why am I here? What is the meaning of my life? How to I become who I am supposed to be? If one has scratched at the surface, the answer always points in one direction: seek within yourself.

But, how is one supposed to seek within the self? An internal dialogue is established, and as one keeps on digging some gems constitute the bounty that one was supposedly looking for. But it never seems to be enough, the inner complexity takes on so many forms, and from every head we cut off it seems twice as many sprout out.

How one lives this process is his own territory. I cannot explain except in the vaguest terms what constitutues this inner struggle. Attention comes forcefully to the big questions, but the process of each one of us is a universe in itself.

That I describe the territory that I have explored is beyond the point. I, for sure, would have lost interest in the task of following a stranger’s life into the unknown. However, as one comes back into the known, it is noticed that—in order to fully come into reality, it is necessary to point towards the right direction.

But, what is the right direction? If each one of us comes from different genetics and different upbringing, who am I to say “this is your path”? And thus I can only recommend: seek within yourself, you will find your answers through experience. There is no path of the soul, but paths where we might encounter our soul.

Fortunately, each one of us carries within an intuition about where to find it. It inhabits our deepest longings, our highest goals, our intolerable itches, and our conscious and unconscious dreams. How is it that we would be granted awareness of our own inner landscape, and yet be crippled to explore it?

Yet, in the matter of inner life, many of us act like insects: we are flies with teared wings who insist they can fly, spiders missing legs that go hobble along wondering why we don’t move as fast as before, or simply larvae that feast on the first thing that appeared to us, oblivious that more nutritious sources of sustenance at hand.

If you disagree with this assertion, you can verify it by taking mental note of all the “shoulds” that come up in your life: I should be more careful, social, or responsible. Or the other side of the coin: I should be less pessimistic, less indulging, or less caring. Track them in the virtuegraph and see if you can do anything about them. If you are indeed able to take charge of them (and I’ve known a few people who indeed can), you can stop reading here. You don’t need further instruction.

From here is where we ought to start. Why is it that I know the direction of my self-realisation, and yet I seem uncapable of accomplishing it?