Working Through Your Relationship with Humanity

Same technique as the group work. Different scale. Bigger results.

You’re going to alternate between two questions, letting answers surface without filtering, and continue until something shifts. The goal is to release whatever weight exists between you and humanity so you can engage at this scale freely. Usually 20 to 30 minutes.

Why This Work Belongs Here

Most people have a complicated relationship with humanity. On one hand, they care about people in general. On the other hand, humans can be terrible. Wars, cruelty, exploitation, indifference — there’s plenty of evidence that humanity isn’t worth the trouble.

That ambivalence creates a block. You want to serve at scale, but part of you has written off the species. You want to contribute, but another part says “why bother, they’ll just ruin it.”

This isn’t cynicism. It’s unworked-through weight. And it limits what you’re willing to build.

The Practice

Get your notebook. Clear your schedule so you can stay with this until it shifts.

First question: “How could humanity aid my survival?”

Let answers come. Think broadly. Humanity has given you language, infrastructure, knowledge accumulated over millennia, culture, technology, connection. Other humans grew your food, built your roads, discovered the medicine that kept you alive. You exist within an astonishing web of human contribution.

When answers slow down, switch.

Second question: “How could I aid humanity’s survival?”

This is the bigger one. Let answers come without judgment. What do you have that humanity needs? What could you contribute that would make a difference, even a small one? What’s your unique offering to the collective?

Keep alternating. Back and forth. Let the questions do the work.

What Usually Surfaces

The first few rounds tend to be intellectual. “Well, humanity provides infrastructure and I provide my skills.” Fine. But keep going.

Deeper layers often bring up grief. Grief about what humanity could be versus what it is. Grief about suffering you can’t fix. Grief about the gap between potential and reality.

Sometimes anger surfaces. Anger at injustice, at systems that don’t work, at collective failures that didn’t have to happen.

Let it come. All of it. This work isn’t about feeling good. It’s about clearing what’s there so you can engage with what is, rather than with your accumulated reactions to what was.

You might also notice something unexpected — gratitude. As you sit with what humanity has given you (language, culture, infrastructure, knowledge, connection), you might find that the cynicism loosens. Not because you’re pretending humanity is perfect. Because you’re seeing the whole picture, not just the parts that hurt.

After Working Through

When something has shifted — and you’ll feel it — ask yourself: what specific contribution could I make to humanity?

Not a fantasy. Not “I’ll solve world hunger.” Something real, something you could do, connected to the work you’re already doing.

Maybe it’s making your work available to people who can’t afford it. Maybe it’s applying what you’ve built to a problem that extends beyond your market. Maybe it’s teaching what you know so the knowledge spreads.

Whatever it is, write it down. Make it concrete. This becomes the seed of your expanded purpose.