As summarized in About Thin Difference,
“The purpose of Thin Difference is to explore life choices and directions while discovering ways to widen the edge and lead an inspired life.”
How can we “widen the edge?”
One way is to develop a personal philosophy. Have you ever thought about what your life’s philosophy is? Do you have one defined?
Let’s start with the basics. Philosophy is defined as:
the most basic beliefs, concepts, and attitudes of an individual or group.
My focus is on personal philosophy, and the essential philosophical elements are centered on beliefs, concepts or ideas, and attitudes. Simply asked, what is your approach to living your life?
Putting your approach into philosophical terms may seem unnecessary, too elementary or just an academic exercise. Yet, I believe it is an indispensable way to make better choices and lead a more inspired life.
To define your personal philosophy, answer six key questions:
- What do you get up each and every morning wanting to do?
- What directs your actions and decisions, especially the impulsive ones?
- What gives you a sense of satisfaction at the end of the day?
- What feeling is in the core of your soul that you know to be self-evident? Sounds constitutional, and maybe that is good.
- Why are your beliefs important to you?
- How does your philosophy measure up to higher standards or ideals?
Thinking through these questions, I believe, will enable you to define your personal philosophy.
Don’t make it complex. Keep it simple (plain statements). Make it memorable.
Most importantly, live it each day. Our lives are filled with a constant stream of choices, so let’s make the best ones possible.
Join the conversation. What helps you define your life philosophy?
Other related posts which you may be interested in reading:
I have been newly introduced to philosophy. Its therefore a great pleasure to have read through your approach to personal philosophy as it has made me take a step to exploit my individual abilities. as a teacher trainee, I acknowledge my sincere thanks to you because yuor ideas have helped me accomplish my research and course work about the necessity of creating a personal philosophy. Thank you;hope you will post more ideas for us.
Thank you, Aggrey. I am glad you are developing your leadership philosophy. I plan to continue to focus on this area so more to come. Thanks! Jon
1. You don’t need anyone in your life to make you miserable. You can be miserable all by yourself. You don’t need the help.
2. Be good to yourself and do good things for yourself from time to time. If you don’t, no one else will.
3. Learn to love yourself… if you don’t, you can’t expect that others will.
4. You have a choice as to whether you want to exist in this world or actually live. Anyone can merely exist, but to live, you have to be willing to take risks from time to time. If you never take risks in life, you are not truly living… you are existing in a non-tangible shell intended to protect yourself while keeping others out.
5. Always give people the benefit of the doubt. You never know… sometimes people will actually surprise you.
6. Take the time to listen and observe the things and people around you. Most communication is NOT verbal, but rather non-verbal. – 90% of all communication is non-verbal.
7. Listen more; say less. Then, when you have something say, people will actually listen.
8. Anger takes way too much energy… it isn’t worth the effort or the energy to carry a grudge so save yourself the headache… forgive regardless of the offense and do your best to go on from there.
9. Never attribute the actions/behaviors of one person to other people. No two people are alike, therefore, refer to number 5.
10. God is not like people. He doesn’t abandon, hate, abuse, trick, deceive, forget, or ignore us; Nor does He ever act maliciously against us. If you talk, He will listen. If you ask, He will always provide an answer… you just have to be willing and open to receive it. (2007)
11. When God decides to bless you, accept it; don’t ignore it; don’t abuse it; don’t throw it away… otherwise, you may live to regret it. (2007)
12. When you are the one in the fish bowl, ask someone else that you respect & trust what their perspective is on your situation. Everyone needs a reality check from time to time. (2007)
As a philosophy professor, when I first started out, it used to drive me nuts to hear people talking about their own “personal philosophy.” As I’ve taught for some time, read more, thought more, I’ve come to see a different side to that issue. It does strike me that the sort of questions you use to formulate the ongoing task for your reader are quite helpful — something that one ought to do, and in fact consonant with the actual practice of those great philosophers we study.
I would add one thing to what you’ve got here: many others have for generation after generation, going back millennia, explored these very questions and come up with decent answers, or answers about other questions that can shed new light on your own answers to these questions. I’d suggest that one reason why studying philosophy and philosophers is extremely valuable is so that one need not entirely “reinvent the wheel” when grappling with such questions and developing a personal philosophy
I’d be very interested to hear other people’s take on this
Thanks for your comment. I agree that reading and studying philosophy should be done, especially to gain their insights and also spur our own thoughts and inquires. Reading is an important element to developing a personal philosophy. Close to it is thinking about what you have read! It is interesting to read your first reaction to “personal philosophy.” Anything spur that change in thought?
Thanks again!