I am not trying to play the hypocrite.
If anything, it may even be the ultimate form of selfishness.
It should be easy to imagine that
when the people around you are happier,
it becomes easier for you to be happy as well.
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Then what is happiness?
In my view, it is
“Truly wanting to do something,
and believing that you yourself can do it.”
I think that is all there is to it.
“There is no way anything that convenient could be true!”
You may think so.
Anyone who does is probably in a state of having been thoroughly conditioned by many things throughout life,
so perhaps happiness may not come very easily to them.
But I want you to think about it calmly.
“All you need is to be able to ‘believe’ that you can do it.”
In psychological terminology: “self-efficacy (Efficacy).”
As far as “believing” is concerned, it is completed entirely within your own mind.
In other words, it is not determined by the many other conditions around you.
Can anyone say that this is absolutely impossible?
Of course, in practice, various forms of training and technique become necessary.
That is also related to why I have recently begun offering things such as
“Self-Efficacy Enhancement Sessions.”
But in the end, the point is that it is up to you.
Then does that truly lead to happiness?
If all you do is “believe,” will you not ultimately fail to achieve it
and simply be dragged back down into a miserable reality?
And yet, strangely enough,
when you are in a state of “believing that you can,”
you can move steadily toward what you truly want to do.
Moreover, when you are in that state,
you can discover “what you want to do” far beyond your present circumstances—
beyond your past life experience and the common sense you acquired from it—so that
“What you want to do” moves ever closer
to “what you truly want to do.”
As a result, a situation emerges in which you can advance toward the very summit of happiness at an ever-accelerating pace.
Within the context of cognitive science, these ideas have already been demonstrated to be significantly credible.
You have probably seen someone who is clearly successful and yet does not seem happy,
and wondered why that is.
It certainly varies from case to case, but in general,
it is often a pattern in which “what they thought they wanted to do” was not “what they truly wanted to do.”
You can probably imagine how that happens.
Of course, even such successful people are still on their journey while they are alive.
There is every possibility that they will discover what they truly want to do and begin pursuing it from here.
And because they have abundant resources, they do enjoy a considerable social advantage.
Age, in essence, has nothing to do with achieving happiness.
As I have said many times, all that matters is that you can believe you can do it—so it can be achieved in as little as five seconds.
What is known as the “sunk cost effect” is, after all, merely an emotional issue.
What I am trying to say is this:
Simply because people get the “order of thought” wrong,
“people who should be able to become happy” are unable to become happy.
That is the sorrowful nature of modern society.
Just think about it.
Has there ever been an age this abundant?
This is especially true in Japan.
Science and technology have advanced, and we are surrounded by convenient tools.
The roads are paved, and there are stores and convenience stores open 24 hours a day.
Virtually everyone carries, as a matter of course, a high-tech machine called a smartphone—
something most people could not explain the principles behind.
No matter how poor someone is, it is quite rare for them to be left with nothing to eat.
Overseas, of course, that is not always the case…
In such a prosperous age, in such a prosperous country,
“There is no way I could ever do what I want to do…”
To think that way is profoundly nonsensical
and profoundly unproductive.
And it is
“nothing more than a matter of your own state of mind.”
That is the point.
Once that is cleared away,
people need only do what they truly want to do,
maintain exceptionally high productivity through it, and contribute to society.
In a world where diversity is celebrated,
“what people truly want to do” should naturally hold many different potential forms.
All we have to do is fit them together like pieces of a puzzle to create organizations and communities.
If we do that, even extraordinary talents that have never found their place will no longer remain buried.
I call such a community a
Cognitive Team.
Some will ask, “Then who will do the work no one wants to do?”
But in twenty-first-century Japan, taking that question so seriously is itself nonsensical.
Before long, robots equipped with high-quality AI
will be seen everywhere throughout our cities.
If that is the case, then in considering coexistence with AI,
it will be an overwhelmingly better decision for human beings to focus only on things that draw on what is uniquely human.
It is about time we stopped treating the deliberate performance of “things we do not want to do”
as a virtue.
It is fine to call that effort.
But it is common for the efforts of great figures to look like effort to everyone around them,
while to the people themselves, they were “simply doing what they loved.”
Once you are doing something unwillingly, its prospects have already become rather poor.
Alternatively, changing how you see things may broaden your perspective,
and something you disliked may become something you enjoy—which is, of course, a wonderful thing.
So, in order for most people to reach a state in which they
“truly want to do something
and believe that they themselves can do it,”
I would like to introduce the things I am working on.
1. Self-Efficacy Enhancement Sessions
This is the most direct of these initiatives.
It is an effort to raise self-efficacy directly through one-on-one sessions.
The strategy is to begin with the people around me.
And, of course, as part of DAN Juku, the “High-Level Mathematics Course” is one of these efforts as well.
2. VS Dan Mitchel (Tai-Dan Mitchel)
This is a YouTube interview program that I created and appear in, which began last month.
I hope that the conversations on the program can help people raise their self-efficacy.
And of course, my other works of art serve the same purpose.
But above all, there is this…
3. Dandy Asobi Club
The notorious Dandy Asobi Club (DAC), which was thoroughly beaten up on Reiwa no Tora.
The sad part is that, during the show, I even forgot to say the proper name “Dandy Asobi Club,” haha.
So, in the end, what exactly was DAC?
DAC is
founded on the one and only philosophy of “Serious Play.”
It forms the kind of Cognitive Team described above—
a community with high collective efficacy. In other words, it creates a state in which
“everyone in the community believes they can do their own work.”
And that state is maintained by everyone involved in DAC—
not only the artistic team of performers and staff, but also the business team, the audience…etc…
With a team like that, we realize unusual projects that bring different cultures together,
then record them as programs throughout Japan.
If possible, we will conquer all 47 prefectures.
Ultimately, we will turn it into a film and share it with the world.
Through
“the extraordinarily intuitive power of moving images to influence people,”
we will communicate how wonderful a state of high efficacy can be
and expand DAC itself throughout the world.
Ultimately, I hope
“people of wisdom—‘philosophers’ who integrate intellect, sensitivity, and spirituality
at a high level”
will come to make up 10% of the world’s population.
Personally, I call that
“the evolution of humanity.”
If we reach that point, happiness around the world will rise considerably,
and I imagine life itself will become tremendously interesting for me as well.
To be honest, I do not particularly intend to become wealthy in the future.
Instead, relying on the DAC network, I hope to travel freely around the world with my family
and carry out activities suited to each place we visit.
I truly do not know how many years that may take.
But I have no intention of stopping my movement in that direction,
and for as long as I live, I intend to make it a reality someday.
And so, I have decided to establish the DAC Fund here.
This time, unlike the previous crowdfunding campaign, there will be no deadline and no target amount.
Previously, I limited the plan to Japan’s five major cities, but I have abandoned that as well.
We will aim to cover all 47 prefectures.
I thought we could begin with the projects that seem possible,
in the places where they seem possible.
At the moment, I still have absolutely no idea
what form it will ultimately take.
But I thought that this, too, could be something we all figure out together.
We are also accepting project ideas through the LINE OpenChat below!
OpenChat: “Dandy Asobi Club Planning Committee”
