I believe that persons are capable of crafting meaning for themselves in the world and achieving that meaning. I don’t only believe this, but I think that we owe it to ourselves as creatures with that capability and endowed with the rational capacity to act on it.
Excellence — the achieving of goals relative to the meaning crafted by the individual — may consist in different things for different people. For myself, it consists in always moving towards a goal — having the wind at one’s back — and using opportunities negative and positive for growth towards future goals. All happenstances, even those that are seen as negative, are relative to these goals, so growth can be gleaned from the worst of situations.
I have formalized this striving towards excellence in a personal challenge that I call the Project for Individual Excellence — or PIE. PIE is a self-development project, something that I challenge myself to achieve. The habituation of the tenets of the PIE is one of the virtues of it — no external force or mechanism coerces me to stay on-track, only my self-willed development of habit can.
I break this down into four tenets of excellence:
- Intellectual
- Physical
- Creative
- Virtuous
These four tenets of excellence help me stay truly “well-rounded” and develop several of the capacities I see as central to leading a happy life.
Specifically, I have assigned the following habits/goals to each:
- Intellectual — Read 3 books per month
- Fiction
- Non-fiction
- Miscellaneous
- Physical — Actively engage in two fitness routines
- Sport
- Strength training
- Creative — Create something new and tangible every day
- Virtuous — Abstain from personal vices, with a new one every month
I have assigned the following tasks to myself to achieve these goals this month:
- Intellectual — Read 3 books for March
- The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
- The Underground History of American Education (John Taylor Gatto)
- Multiple books on Sudbury Schools
- Physical — Actively engage in two fitness routines
- Krav Maga and fitness classes at least 3 nights a week
- Strength training at least 2 days a week
- Creative — Blog at least once every day, either here, at blog.discoverpraxis.com, or at third party blogs.
- Virtuous — Abstain from cigar smoking.
Each of these goals are designed to allow me to strive towards being the best I can be. While Physical and Creative will not change from month-to-month, it is my goal to assign at least 3 different books per month and to find another personal vice to abstain from (e.g., carb-heavy food, caffeine, staying up too late, etc.).
While my primary focus of my blog is and will continue to be my commentary on issues of interest — entrepreneurship, schooling, education, and innovation — this will also serve as a point to update my progress on my PIE.