SELF IMPROVEMENT FRAMEWORK FOR 2020

INTRODUCTION

2020 is just around the corner I honestly am feeling really hyped about the start of a new decade. I have developed a simple framework of self-improvement which divides the subject into a series of logical categories which represent (from my point of view) the most important aspects of personal development in an ascending order of importance (you can also disagree with the importance of each category). I believe that most common issues people face regarding improving themselves can be solved if you correctly apply the principles presented in this guide.

This guide isn't meant as an in depth explanation of each of the categories, I will explain what each category is, the importance of it, and some starting resources and personal examples. It is meant for you to evaluate your current situation in life and identify a possibly better future at a concrete level, by determining where you are and where you want to be you can thus identify the necessary steps you must take in order to achieve it. I believe this diagram might be of help for some people (Source: Biblical Series, J.B.Peterson).

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WHAT IS (Unbearable Present)	--Planned Sequence of Behavior->	WHAT SHOULD BE (Ideal Future)
^ Information	Descent
^ Information	Descent	WHAT IS --Planned Sequence of Behavior->
CHAOS (The Unknown) --Ascent-^

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Also since this is a basic guide with a very superficial overview of the categories indicated, please feel free to add your advice, tips, resources in the comments to make it a more complete guide.

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THE FRAMEWORK

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Category	What it is	What you develop
Social	Family, Friends, Relationships	Social Relationships
HISA	Hobbies, Interests, Skills, Art	Personality
3 F's	Food, Fashion, Fitness	Personality
Mission	Purpose	Personality
Life Philosophy	Values	Character

p.s I think family and friends are at the importance of life philosophy but I just left them in the social category for simplicity.

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LIFE PHILOSOPHY

The categories are divided into different aspects of life / self-improvement as well as in an ascending order of importance, I place Life Philosophy at the most fundamental position of importance with the purpose of developing your Personal Values and Character which determines precisely how you want to go about living life, from my point of view developing character is one of the most important things we can (and must) do as human beings.

Character

My notes on character

Character is the foundation of personality, it is defined in your habits, motives, thoughts, etc and relate to morality in particular integrity, it is something you build through virtuous behavior.

Character can be divided into 3 categories:

• Moral Discipline: self mastery, the dominion over your impulses and desires, moral disciplines is a quality that not only allows you to bear hardship stoically, but even to actively seek out a rougher, more austere life.
  • How I develop Moral Discipline: Stoic Philosophy
    • Epictetus: The Art of Living
    • Seneca: Letters
    • Marcus Aurelius: Meditations
• Moral Attachment: "moral order through the medium of individual nature" character is about something greater than yourself and includes the self as a part of the community.
  • How I develop Moral Attachment: Theology
    • Old Testament
• Moral Autonomy: character is a product of judgment, discretion, and choice - it is born from your free choice, we cannot act morally if we do not have free will.
  • My personal view of Free Will: I consider human beings as entities with free will that act in a world governed by natural laws (Newton, I'm still not sure what role quantum mechanics plays in free will), we are conditioned by the external world mostly through culture / society and one of my goals is to reduce the amount of external influence thereby increasing my freedom of choice (this is a whole different subject I am developing). I see free will as an imperative for responsibility, and I personally don't see how considering humans as purely determined entities is productive whatsoever in the field of self development.
  • How I develop Moral Autonomy: Existentialism
    • Nietzsche

Source: The Art of Manliness, Character

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Other sources for my life philosophy

• Jordan Peterson: Biblical Series, Maps of Meaning, Personality Lectures (you can find them on YouTube)
• Ernest Becker (Doctor in Anthropology): The Structure of Evil

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I don't believe there is an objective right way of living life, I think different people have different inclinations on how they want to live their life so in order to develop your values what I suggest is to start reading into different life philosophies, you might click with one single philosophy or in my case I combine several philosophies for myself them being Stoicism, Existentialism and Theology.

Going back to what I wrote earlier I personally believe being an individual of character (having absolute values which don't change based on circumstances) is one of the most, if not the most important thing you can do. Your set of values will affect every single aspect of your life, how you treat your job, how you treat other people, and how you treat yourself, thus it is of utmost importance to develop your life philosophy.

If you have no clue where to start I personally suggest reading the Stoics (Epictetus, Seneca, Aurelius), Buddhist philosophy is also very popular although I haven't read into it yet, reading into theology from a point of view of moral development has also been a very enlightening journey, I also suggest if you go down this road not to read one set of doctrines but expose yourself to as much as possible (ex. Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, etc).

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MISSION

Seneca

If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.

Your Mission is your calling in life, it is what guides your actions, your decisions, your degree, your career, its what motivates you to get out of bed every day. I don't think there is a determined way to identify what is your mission, from my experience it mostly consists of trying new stuff and deep personal psychoanalysis to see what makes you tick in life. My purpose has been very influenced by how I developed in my teenage years, but I only realized that after several months of thinking why I was so passionate about the things I was interested in.

A book I highly recommend is Mastery by Robert Greene.

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FITNESS, FASHION, AND FOOD

I call these the 3 F's, this category takes care of your health and your appearance.

• Fitness: calisthenics, weightlifting, triathlon, basically anything to keep your body healthy and in shape -> this also has a massive impact on your self-esteem and confidence which perpetuates throughout your life.
  • I personally go to the gym (weightlifting) and follow a PPL program (Push, Pull, Legs) 2x week and run 3x a week
  • r/bodyweightfitness r/Fitness r/bodybuilding
• Fashion: I divide this into Hygiene and Clothes
  • For Clothes I suggest checking out TeachingMensFashion, Alex Costa and Alpha Male on YouTube (sorry girls I don't know any female fashion channel)
  • For Hygiene some basic advice:
    • Get a skin routine (for the face)
    • Get a haircut that suits you
    • Shave or have a beard that fits you
    • Use deodorant
    • Brush your teeth and floss
    • Trim you nails
• Nutrition: imo nutrition is such a huge topic that its better if you do your own research but at the common sense level don't eat fast food and don't drink soda you will feel better.
  • r/nutrition

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HOBBIES, INTERESTS, SKILLS, ART

Ok so basically HISA is what makes your life interesting and it's also what makes you an interesting person. I'll give some of my personal examples of what I'm interested in and what I want to/am learn/ing.

• Hobbies: Writing, Film, Shuffle (dance), Hiking.
• Interests: UToM, cognitive science, mass shooters, quantum physics (Theory of Everything), energy geopolitics, music/art/literature.
  • UToM r/UToM (Unified Theory of Man) is basically my passion for the study of man and society from a multidisciplinary perspective as indicated above, it consists of: Philosophy, Theology, Art, Anthropology, Psychology, Biology, Economics, History, Politics, if this sounds very interesting check out Ernest Becker: The Birth and Death of Meaning and The Structure of Evil r/Ernest_Becker.
• Skills: learning languages (chinese, hebrew, croatian), public speaking, financial literacy, first aid, excel and word.
• Art: Piano and Sketching

I gave my personal examples to serve as inspiration, if you have no HISA just pick one thing that might interest you regarding each category and just try it out, one hobby (ex. historical reenactment), one interest (ex. genetics), one skill (ex. lock picking), and one artistic activity (ex. painting).

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SOCIAL

If everything previously mentioned is going well honestly this section should just be a natural outcome of what you have developed.

Friends: I have a small core group of friends and then many acquaintances, that is how I like to treat my social relationships.

Family: this is something I have to work on myself, but I think having a healthy relationship with your parents/spouse/children is very important.

Relationship/s: from my point of view after having a solid foundation in everything previously mentioned, now is the right time to develop a relationship with someone (if you want to of course).

Submitted November 21, 2019 at 07:50AM by TW2P https://ift.tt/2KFWQ2C