newsletter

I’m at an interesting period in my life where the possibilities of the future feel at once infinite and yet confined by circumstance. In the last three years I’ve become a husband, a father, and adopted a myriad of job titles, all of which awkwardly flirt in a messy portfolio career that refuses a one-line description. I’m either on the cusp of mastering an increasingly elaborate juggling act or moment’s away from all the pieces collapsing around me. It’s a delicate equation. Regardless of how much one examines the landscape; sharpens his abilities - most variables remain cloaked in mystery; new balls tossed into the rotation seemingly at random; known unknowns in constant motion. How does one, then, orientate themself?

what is your worldview

There is a universality in this state of questioning that is probably the most uniquely distinctive feature of “humanness” - the key differentiator between us and the innumerable beings that cohabit this spinning rock we call home.

Unlike us, they do not labour over the pursuit of self-actualisation or how they ought to exercise their will within a moral construct. An innate motivation seemingly imbues their actions and they follow in accordance with their primal dispositions. As modern humans, we are not afforded this existential simplicity. Even when our basic needs are catered for, the question of how to move in the world given the inexhaustible directions one might take becomes crucially life-defining, but for most of us the answers remain far from self-evident.

If you’re wired like me, this is cause for much agitation. Over the years I’ve come to realise that these answers can only truly be derived from first interrogating perhaps the most fundamental question of all: what is your worldview?

Everything we choose to do stems from our worldview. How we find meaning, purpose, our ethics and values; how we design cities and homes; how we interact with each other; how we measure success or failure; our relationships with our bodies; families; institutions; environment, the Divine. How we subjectively perceive reality is all downstream of our worldview. My concern from my own experience is that many of us unconsciously inherit our outlook on life, rather than consciously developing our own.

The times that I’ve felt most dissatisfied with life haven’t been due to some oppressive external force, but a feeling of misalignment, directionless or stasis. The fact that these coincided with my most worldview-agnostic periods isn’t lost on me. Oscillating somewhere between hedonistic and nihilistic, my principles were so flexible that even the supposed “good” I did in work or business ultimately missed the mark in providing fulfilment.

a patchwork

My first attempts at writing outside of the confines of university assignments is what provided an opportunity to take stock. It was a canvas to unpack the past; reframe narratives and ultimately reform my worldview, maybe for the first time, based on what resonated with me.

That is not to say that forming your worldview requires a blank canvas, if that were even possible. I was raised catholic in a Ghanaian-immigrant household in South London. My sense of achievement was almost solely linked to academic or economic success. In my teens I became agnostic, even antireligion at a point, before landing somewhere in the loose, unstructured spiritual. I practiced Vipassana in my early twenties and embraced Islam in my mid-20s. A worldview is baked into each and every one of these identities, experiences and decisions, yet the common link between them all is of course, me.

Even when you inherit a worldview, individuality must be embraced for it to authentically be made your own. It is impossible to download wholemeal because our unique vantage points impacts how we receive information. Learning this has been an empowering realisation for me because it puts the onus on me to create cohesion with the disparate pieces that have made me who I am, and craft the principles for who I strive to be.

the nana principles

This newsletter is an attempt to unapologetically follow my curiosity, using heart and reason as a filter to distill my worldview. Feeling through all the fabric that makes an impression, discerning truth, keeping what resonates and weaving a patchwork of principles tailor made for me, by me.

It's a space where I unpack personal perspective and gleam insights into the universal enquiry - how to cultivate a life well-lived. Expect field notes and essays that touch on spirituality, creativity, fatherhood, and more, as I read, observe and experience life week-to-week.

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