There are many ways to get started on developing your life philosophy. The post on Easing Into Actively Developing Your Life Philosophy looked at understanding your motivation, life situation and expectations. Beyond that, getting started involves exploring with intent.
Establishing and maintaining a breadth of perspective is a necessary part of developing a life philosophy. Your collective understanding of yourself, life and the broader world forms the foundation of yours.
Getting started can be as simple as revisiting and outlining your perspective. Think of it as creating a broad map of what you know, think and feel. It doesn’t need to be in great detail, just broad strokes of what stands out.
This map has a number of uses for your life philosophy. The first is using it to help you evaluate the breadth of your perspective. Robust life philosophies are based upon a broad and current understanding. There may be areas that you want to revisit as they are not clear in your thoughts or have changed. There may also be areas that are not included that you want to explore.
Map or no map, perhaps the most enjoyable way to get going is to actively expand or refresh parts of your perspective. Whether you are exploring new areas or revisiting those you already know it is not only enjoyable, it is essential. A life philosophy that is based upon a limited or dated perspective will be of limited value.
Later, as you work on bringing shape to your life philosophy, your map of your perspective will be useful to identify areas that stand out to you as are important to you. As you have new experiences and keep this in mind. It’s helpful to flag those that stand out. It’s similar to adding locations to your favorites on a digital map.
Getting started on your life philosophy is not as intense as you may think. It’s not a deep dive into your psyche. It’s more about creating a habit of expanding your perspective and keeping what you already know up to date. Enjoy!
