MIND newsletter: Ancient philosophy on how to live well
Happy New Year everyone! Wishing you and your loved ones a year of good health and joyful moments.
Do you recall our last newsletter of the year 2022, with 8 steps for a career checkup? I hope you had a chance to set new priority for the new year, as “we are what we repeatedly do” (Aristotle). Yesss, today we will borrow some perspectives from ancient wisdom to lay a good foundation for the 2023 good life project.
1. M (Challenge your mindset)
While according to Socrates “the unexamined life is not worth living”, Aristotle said “an unplanned life is not worth examining”. I took it as a suggestion for self-reflection and self-discipline.
A life where you live but never question how to live better is perhaps just a life where you survive. A life with merely just ideas in mind without action is perhaps just a life with illusion and daydreaming.
He went further to say that there is one ultimate road map for everyone on how to live well. Indeed I think these 3 words from him can offer a good start for a new life, or at least a new year: courage, temperance, and justice.
Plus, they are easier to remember than a long list of resolutions.
2. I (I’m my own coach)
- Temperance: or voluntary self-restraint/self-control, is listed as one of the moral virtues. Doing nothing in excess. Doing the right thing in the right amount and right way. And not only doing, but also feeling – control your emotions.
One useful tip: Out of sight, out of mind.
If you are continually feeling you are not good enough, stop reading social media posts that trigger comparison and envy. If you want to eat healthily but walk past a fast-food store daily, you may need to change your route to avoid temptation.
- Justice: is to understand that we as human beings can’t pursue living well alone. We need social interaction and the way we carry our act on any social interaction is the best way to help correct unfair distribution.
A doable good daily act: being an active citizen who is socially responsible, who cultivates fairness in teamwork and leadership.
- Courage: “doing things that cause us temporary discomfort or pain to ultimately achieve some higher good”.
The key takeaway here is if we can overcome that discomfort little by little every day, so that we become more persistent in our action and thought, we will also achieve higher integrity and authenticity.
It’s perhaps the most important of all the virtues as ”without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently” – Maya Angelou.
3. N (The power of Now)
Are you living well?
4. D (Do)
What is one temptation you will remove from your daily life?
What is one act you will do to be more socially responsible?
Which discomfort would you decide to face?
