At the core of I Grow Younger is the belief that personal growth (positive change) is surprisingly easy. Resistance to change (inertia) is an evolutionary relic that helped our predecessors survive. Our chances of change are the relation between our motivation and our resistance towards a certain action.
The Hunter-Sheep model defines two ways you can feel, think and act in – modes that set current life direction. When we act like a hunter, we’re being driven by love, its physical manifestation (energy), and its intellectual manifestations (curiosity and creativity). When we act like a sheep, we’re being held back by fears and inertia.
When people in Hunter mode encounter a problem, they have a quick, small-scale and active solution, based on love and creativity or they dismiss the problem as not worth solving and forget about it. Sheep reactions tend to complicate things and lead to Passivity (no actions), Overkill (blowing the problem out of proportion), Passive Aggression (a solution based on fear) or Mental self-harm (ignoring the problem without forgetting about it).
Hunters do it; Then they do the next; And then the next. Sheep think about it; Then they think more about it; And then some more. Even before failure is confirmed, the Hunter has already moved on. They get extra motivation and become even more of a Hunter. They don’t overanalyze. This is contrary to Sheep, who take failure as personal defeat. Self-esteem drops and extensive useless analysis is done.
As for success, the Hunter takes it naturally. They don’t celebrate, just move on to the next piece of the big picture. They make sure every success has Added value. Sheep strategies rarely truly succeed. People in this mode of action often mistake achievements for success.
Every action you take creates and influences the next. A Hunter move leads to more Hunter moves, and Sheep moves lead to more Sheep moves. But it’s not the moves themselves that matter as much, it’s the mood you’re building, the direction of your life. Getting stuck in a long line of Sheep moves leads to chronic anxiety, depression, low self-worth and fearfulness. Being a Hunter is closely related to happiness. The happier you are, the easier it is to get into Hunter mode and keep being happy.
Being a Hunter is not about the quality of choices. It’s all about being fast, adaptive and autonomous vs. the Sheep way of being slow and following protocols. And scales and timescales matter. This concept is powerful because the effects of it touch everything in your life long after. Any Hunter or Sheep act in the present affects the growth of both your Game of Self and Game of Life.
And if your goal is to do good work and have enough money and freedom… this can be achieved with Hunter moves because our economy is built to reward them. Fast-paced trial-and-error and step by step improvements are at the core of starting and running a business.
