My whole theory about life is that glory and accomplishment are of far less importance than the creation of character and the individual good life.
– William Alexander Percy
To an ever-increasing degree, I have been trying to orient myself toward living my individual Good Life. This is something that most practical philosophical traditions aim toward. In addition, I have been a long-time follower of Cal Newport, who has developed the idea of The Deep Life that has really resonated with me as well. This idea revolves around living a life filled with energizing, resonant, focused activities, contemplation, meaningful connections, solitude, and reflection. I think fairly constantly about how to live more and more in line with these ideas. Part of my effort lies in creating simple systems to help me in this effort.
I recently read an excellent article by Joan Westenberg on her Metabolic Workspace, which I have been experimenting with. Part of her system involves creating a WHAT note. This note is meant to be opened daily and to act as a guide. Joan describes it as the sun your system orbits. I really love this idea. As I have been experimenting, I added an additional section that resonated with me– I am calling it The Core.
The Core is a list of things that deeply resonate with the life I want to live. Some are fairly obvious and widely held, but others are more unique to me as an individual. These are things that I continually come back to as I reflect on my life. They come from a place of deep resonance and have pulled at my mind over long periods. It wouldn’t be incorrect to say they are part of my authentic self.
To clarify further, The Core is a bit different than a list of new habits I want to develop. They are deeper than that for me. They are things that are important enough to orient my life around and concentrate on making significant time for. They are my ultimate priority list, a filter through which I run decisions through, things that I have confidence in when it comes to the life I want to live. This is not to say I am perfect at engaging with them, just that they are deeper than new intentions and efforts. This list can change, but likely on a longer time frame and with much consideration.
The reason for adding them to my WHAT note is that I want them top of mind each day. Seeing them daily acts as a way to keep me honest. If I continue to see something on the list that I am literally never engaging with, then I must be honest with myself that I was incorrect that this piece was a deep part of me, or more likely, I need to move things around in order to engage with this aspect more and treat it as the priority it is. An unfortunate fact of life is that it is depressingly easy to push the things that are truly important onto the back burner, coming up with excuses for doing it. These excuses usually involve some secondary intention that makes us feel as if we are engaging with what is important to us, like working more now to make lots of money to one day stop working and then spend time with our family. Yet, life is not a dress rehearsal. This is it, and I want to acknowledge that fact daily.
Looking at this list in and of itself is not enough. It’s remembering them in the moment that is important. Looking at this list daily, as well as throughout the day, is meant to keep these things top of mind so that when I have a choice, I choose them.
This is part of my ongoing effort to truly live my life, rather than only exist within it.