Package deals: breaking them apart

How many package deals are you accepting without question?

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We often accept the package deals life presents us because we assume we can't have the benefits without the burdens they come with. But what if that's not true?

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Throughout history, cultural and technological breakthroughs have come from challenging these "all-or-nothing" assumptions. By unpacking the elements of a package deal, innovators discovered ways to keep the benefits while shedding the unnecessary costs.

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Do you accept these pacakge deals (many people still do)

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• Having sex inevitably meant having babies.

• Sex outside of marriage made you morally inferior.

• A woman enjoying sex made her “a whore.”

• Being a wife required submitting to a husband’s authority.

• Goodness was synonymous with following a particular religion.

• Marriage meant being stuck with a partner, no matter how unhappy the union.

• Being homosexual required living in secrecy.

• Patriotism meant blindly fighting for your country’s agenda.

• A “real” marriage demanded living together and pooling finances.

• Working meant doing tasks you wouldn’t choose unless you were paid.

• If you're born in a country, it means that it's the best country for you to stay in.

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Using creativity and courage to break apart package deals

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Over time, some people and cultures have dismantled these rigid package deals, proving that the benefits don’t always require the costs. Yet, many of us unknowingly live with smaller, less obvious package deals in our daily lives.

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Ask yourself:

• Where in your life do you feel stuck, dissatisfied, or resigned?

• Could creativity and courage help you preserve the benefits while letting go of the burdens?

• Are the connections between the costs and benefits truly unbreakable?

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Take this example or another one relevant to your life

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Take your job, for example. If it feels unsatisfying, that dissatisfaction is the cost. But the steady paycheck is the benefit. Could you use creativity—your own and that of others—to make the job fulfilling? Or would courage help you find a new role or career altogether?

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Identify at least one package deal in your life. Break it apart. Redefine what’s possible. And most importantly, celebrate the courage it takes to challenge the status quo.

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What might you discover when you let go of “this or that” thinking? You might just realize you can have this without the unnecessary weight of that.