I believe we are currently living in a fear-based culture that blocks a lot of possibility. That’s why I am advocating for an expanded worldview.
In my opinion, worldview is simply lived experience plus exposure. Throughout this article, I’ll show you how you can apply this equation to your life in order to expand your worldview. To do this, I want to introduce you to the VIEW framework.
“V” is for vigilance. “I” is for intention. “E” is for expanding environments. “W” is for warrior mindset.
Vigilance
Be vigilant of social constructs and power dynamics.
A social construct is simply an idea that has been created and accepted by people in a society. Masculinity, femineity, race, money, school, government and countries are all examples of social constructs. We created them to make sense of our world. We have behaviors attached to these social constructs but we are not always aware of them until confronted with others.
I want you to create two columns for these two things.
Under lived experience, write the following: “What current social constructs do you subscribe to and why?” Under exposure, write the following: “Who or what exposed you to these social constructs?”
This will give you an idea of how you categorize the world. It will also keep you alert to disinformation and misinformation.
The second thing we need to be vigilant about is power dynamics. To understand power dynamics is to understand how influence and control are distributed. Observe all your interpersonal and professional relationships. Are you comfortable with what you see? Are there moments of imbalance, oppression and suppression?
Look at those two columns again — lived experiences and exposure. Under “lived experiences,” record your response to the following questions:
• Who are the authority figures in your life?
• When have you been an authority figure in life?
• Who do you create social distance from today?
• Who have you created social distance from in the past?
Under the “exposure” section, answer the following:
• What are moments you have refused to act when you knew deep down that you should have? Why?
• What are moments you’ve seen institutions refuse to act when you expected them to act? Why do you think they didn’t?
A constant vigilance on social constructs and power dynamics means a constant vigilance on systems because these are the contracts that we sign with society and people every day.
Intention
Now that you have a sense of how you see the world, you need to intentionally create a culture of accountability in the environments created by your social constructs and influenced by the power dynamics around you. We need to do this because we have a habit of rewarding bad behavior over and over as a culture.
Look at some of the codes we have today.
Guy code. Girl code. Blue wall of silence.
Each of these codes are engineered to protect members of a group — often at the expense of the harmed. This is what leads the proverbial “they” to say that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I don’t believe that’s 100% true. I believe Uncle Ben when he said that with great power comes great responsibility.
Your responsibility here is to understand the emotions that are preventing you from being accountable. This is what you will answer under your “lived experiences” column. As you begin to understand these emotions, it will be easier for you to acknowledge the impact you have made without being defensive. The default response is usually something like, “That can’t be me? I’m a good person. I’m a great person. Ask him. Ask her. Ask them.” You can be a good person who is operating in a bad system, and the only way a bad system crumbles is if there are checks and balances. Under the “exposure” section, ask yourself what methods of accountability exist around you.
The more you do these exercises, the more you train your mind to promote transparency and feedback loops.
Expanding Environments
This is really about understanding what I call equally as good alternatives and increasing access to information. Equally as good alternatives are exactly what it sounds like. Too often we act like the world is binary when it is indeed nuanced. There are multiple ways to express yourself.
As we become more vigilant and intentional, we become more aware of our privileges. Our privileges can then be used to create access in environments that prevent multiple stories from being told.
We expand our environments by inviting more stories of belonging, support and success. As a professor I see this every day. Particularly during COVID, I found it imperative to ask myself these three questions:
• What does support mean to you?
• What does belonging mean to you?
• What does success mean to you?
I invite you to know the answers to these three questions when you are in new environments.
Warrior Mindset
Audre Lorde once said, “Sometimes we are blessed with being able to choose the time, and the arena, and the manner of our revolution, but more often we must do battle where we are standing.” That’s what it means to have a warrior mindset. It is a lifestyle. It also means being a critical thinker. The secret to critical thinking is knowing how to express yourself and why you express yourself the way you do.
As you become more reflective, you’re less reactive. Critical thinking is your tool for war because it allows you to challenge effectively.
Remember: “V” is for vigilance. “I” is for intention. “E” is for expanding environments. “W” is for warrior mindset.
