I’m serialising my book “The Observing I: A guide to living a more authentic life” on Substack, with a new chapter being released every Wednesday. I’m a big believer that philosophy should be available to the masses, not locked behind paywalls or hidden away in dusty archives. So I’m making my book available here.
This is Chapter 13.
In the preceding chapters, we dived into concepts such as authenticity, gratitude, agency, and holistic goal-setting. All of these principles and ideas are fundamental to creating the foundation of our manifesto, but it’s how we apply them practically where the true transformation of self takes place.
In this section, we’re going to look at how to create our own personal manifesto. If you’ve not come across this term before, or if the only manifesto you’ve heard of is the communist kind (I won’t hold it against you), then allow me to explain.
A manifesto is simply a declaration of our values, beliefs, and intentions that we’re going to use going forwards as a kind of roadmap for life.
What a manifesto is not, because I always find it helpful to define what something isn’t as much as what something is, is a list of goals. It’s not a catalogue of ambitions and aspects of change. It’s a document that encompasses the numerous dimensions of our human experience. Mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual.
As we navigate through life, there will invariably be times when we are buffeted off course. A good manifesto should act as our compass, pointing us in the direction of who we want to become. It supports us in keeping aligned with our values and our goals.
Think of it as akin to painting a self portrait. You don’t just throw a tin of a paint at a canvas and go “et voila! c’est moi!”. Well, you might if you were into abstract expressionism, but abstract expressionism isn’t going to help us define ourselves in a way that’s useful or coherent.
You’re creating this art in more than a single stroke, and it must be an exercise of reflection and self-examination.
Let’s think about how we go about creating this manifesto. In our first steps, it’s going to be a daunting task. We might not know where to start, or what values we want to align ourselves with. This is entirely OK. In fact, the first manifesto I wrote took me weeks. Back and forth I went, ideas written in notebooks and on post-its on the wall. Iteration after iteration.
The first thing that I found to be helpful was to set the scene. Find or create a space in which to write your manifesto. Somewhere comfortable, quiet, relaxed, familiar. This is a deeply personal exercise and requires some focused thought, so make sure that the environment that you’re working in isn’t going to cause you any distractions.
Next, and I am sure I am stating the obvious here, but I’m going to say it anyway - put that phone away. Hit do not disturb on the tablet or whatever other attention seeking electronic devices might be in the near vicinity.
When you create your manifesto, it has to resonate with both your heart and your mind. This is where it can get tricky, but it’s where (hopefully) you can apply some of the ideas and methodologies that we’ve talked about in previous chapters to really get down to the roots.
Remember - your manifesto is not about societal expectation. It is not about what the world wants of you, or your boss, or your partner. It’s about what you expect from yourself. So breathe that in.
How do we structure this manifesto then? The first thing to recognise is that it doesn’t have to be as long as Karl Marx’s, nor does it have to attempt to usher in a new social order.
What it must be is clear, accessible, and easy for you to read when you come back to it. You’re not outlining your party political agenda. This is a roadmap for your future self, so have your future self in mind when writing it. That’s your audience. This isn’t for your friends or your Instagram reel. You’re writing it for you.
It also doesn’t have to be an essay. This is not a dissertation on your subconscious motivations, it is the outcome of attempting to understand them.
My manifesto, as an example, is 15 bullet points with each point being a sentence or two long. Nothing fancy. Nothing grandiose or dramatic. I’m not outlining how I’m going to change the world. I’m outlining how I’m going to change myself.
In order to create our manifesto, we need to understand the values that are important to us. Hopefully, some of the ideas that I’ve talked about in previous chapters will empower you with the understanding to at least begin to be able to think about what your values are.
Recognise what’s important to you, and recognise those values that come from you. Those external values, the ones that are projected onto us from society and work and friends and family, they need to go.
This is going to be the most difficult part of creating your manifesto. In fact, the actual manifesto itself, that’s the easy part. Getting an understanding of your values, of what’s important to you and the sort of person that you want to become, that’s going to take some time.
Our values become our foundation. They’re the guiding principles that we want to adhere to, the scaffolding for our future identity. We need to distil them from the noise and let go of those values that aren’t serving us and that may come from outside of ourselves.
During this process of filtration, you may find that there are external values that you agree with and want to keep. We should expect this - we can’t exist in isolation in society. There’s going to be some impact from the external on how we want to think and act, because we’re communal creatures and have to exist within that society.
What we need to do is question those external values once we’ve identified them and ask ourselves “does this serve me in a positive way”?
Let’s say, for example, during the process of self examination, we find that we’re clinging to the value of getting a promotion at work. Firstly, look at what other thoughts and emotions are bubbling up when work comes to mind. Are there any contradictions? Do we feel that we need a promotion, but also notice an inrush of stress or anxiety surrounding that idea? Is there any resistance? Is some part of us quietly pushing back against it?
Perhaps we’ve set our sights on being a lawyer, or an architect, or a journalist. We’re in the midst of studying for it but notice that we’re procrastinating in our work, or even unconsciously sabotaging our efforts. What’s going on here? What’s driving this behaviour?
I’d call this a red flag. We’re working towards something that doesn’t necessarily align with our true values. It’s a prime example of our goals coming from outside of ourselves, and not something that we authentically want.
Think about what we’ve mentioned in previous chapters. Think about societal expectations, about prioritising your own needs, about the ideas of freedom vs security. Challenge those thoughts that arise from our autopilot and question where they come from. Really question them. Shine the spotlight in their eyes and start the interrogation.
That’s why this is the most difficult part of putting together our manifesto. Looking at the choices that we’ve made that have brought us to this point in life and getting to the root of why we’ve made those choices. No one really equips us for this. No part of our formal education empowers us to explore it.
All I can say is don’t rush this bit. You don’t have to finish your manifesto in an afternoon, or a week, or even a month. No one expects you to come at this with a sudden, instantaneous understanding of who you are and what you want. I certainly didn’t, so don’t think I’m some guru that was born with all the answers. I might be just a bit further down the road than you are, and my hope is that, through this, you’ll be able to make it further down the road too.
Once you’ve got a handle on your values, you need to turn towards your aspirations. These are going to become our destination, because we need a target. A point of focus to aim our intent and our efforts.
Remember that our aspirations are not goals in the traditional sense that we may be used to. This isn’t like filling in the blanks on a corporate KPI questionnaire. They must reflect what matters to us and the kind of life that we want to build for ourselves.
Take a moment to imagine what your life might be like if money and societal pressures weren’t an issue. Ask yourself: “What kind of person would I become?”, “How would I make my mark on the world?”, and “What would I dedicate my life to?”.
When answering these questions, remember that this is a representation of you. Cross things out. Write comments in the margins. Get a stream of consciousness going. Let everything flow out of you. Turn off those self censoring, analytical mechanisms and get into your heart.
For this exercise, the important thing is to get everything down on paper. It doesn’t have to make sense or be a long form piece of content - you just have to get the ideas out of you.
There are a few activities you can try if you’re struggling to get your aspirations down on paper. The first is to draw a timeline of your life from the present moment and into the future. Put some markers on the line to represent your age at certain intervals. For mine, I placed one every 5 years. So 40, 45, 50, all the way up to 100 (yes, I am optimistic).
At each marker, write down what kind of experiences, achievements, relationships, and contributions you would like to have accomplished by that time. On mine, I had “Finish a book” at 40. I’m a little late, but I won’t hold it against myself.
Once you’re done, and again, let me iterate that there is no rush, you may notice some recurring themes or patterns cropping up. Long held dreams that you’ve yet to manifest. These are going to form the basis of your manifesto.
Another exercise that I quite like is writing a story about “Future You”. Imagine you, but 10 years in the future. What sort of life are you living? Visualise the job that you might have, what your family looks like, where your home is.
It doesn’t have to be long. The point is to let your values and your imagination inform the narrative. It’s OK to be a little off the wall as well. You’ll find that those aspirations will seep into the story, even if you find yourself living in a cyberpunk future with an electric sheep for a pet.
Have fun with this process. As Alan Watts said, we’re living in a cosmic dance, and this is all a play. Treat it as such. Understanding ourselves is a liberation, not a burden. It’s your personal manifesto, not a performance review. We don’t have to worry about how feasible it is and we’re not going to be judged on it by some esoteric branch of cosmic HR afterwards.
Once we’ve got our aspirations down, we need to go back and check in on our core values. Do our newly discovered aspirations align with those values and, if not, how can we rethink and refine them?
This is going to be yet another iterative process, but it’s important that our aspirations adequately reflect our core values. Otherwise, we’re just going to grow into a person that doesn’t align with our authentic selves.
One thing we do need to consider when it comes to our aspirations is a certain level of specificity. We’re not looking for “be more creative”. That doesn’t give us anything to work with. We need something more concrete, more measurable. Something we can actively move towards without losing it in the fog of vagueness.
Take one of mine, for example. I started with “do more writing”. That’s nice, but how do I know when I’ve done it? There’s nothing measurable. I had to introduce something more specific. Evolve it into something meaningful. It became “finish a book before I hit 40”. This being the book, and even though I’m marginally older than that now, I’m still counting it as a win.
Likewise, if you find yourself landing on an aspiration such as “be more creative”, try and hone that into something more precise. Maybe “I want to get into still life painting” or “I want to write a book of short stories”. We need our aspirations as things that we can action, because it’s far too easy to take “be more creative” and just let that float around in a forever future.
Here’s an example of a few aspirations from my manifesto as it currently stands, to give you some ideas of what you could put together:
I am the owner and heir of my choices in life. I am responsible for what they bring and am mindful that this can be good or bad.
I do not fear change, for from change can come wondrous and unexpected things.
In my actions I am courageous. I choose that which lies outside my place of comfort.
When creating your manifesto, it’s down to you how you want to lay it out. I went with a list of bullet points because that suited me, but you may want to present it in a more traditional series of paragraphs. Your manifesto is a reflection of you, so do whatever you feel works best.
Once you're done, take a moment to congratulate yourself. This is a big deal, the outcome of a challenging process. Recognise the effort involved. Give yourself some credit.
I find it helpful to keep the manifesto somewhere that’s readily accessible. Filing it away in the bottom of a drawer that we rarely open is not conducive to us following our aspirations. We need to remind ourselves of where we’re going and use the manifesto as a kind of “values totem”.
Frame it and put it up on the wall somewhere that you can easily see it, or keep it on your phone so you can quickly review it. Remind yourself of those core values and aspirations. Reinforce them in your mind.
Like us, our manifesto is not static and unchanging. It evolves alongside us, changing and adapting as our values and aspirations change. Some of our aspirations we’ll meet, and we’ll need to define new ones. That’s why we need to schedule in some time to revisit and adjust our manifesto accordingly.
For me, it’s a yearly review but, again, you do you. If you want to review it every 6 months, then go for it. I wouldn’t personally do it any sooner than that, otherwise you’ll spend all your time adjusting your manifesto and not focusing on yourself. That turns the entire exercise more into a “paralysis by analysis” than doing the actual work that we set out to do in the first place.
When it comes time to review, much like when we started out with our manifesto, we want to find a suitable space to go through it. Find some quiet, put the phone away, and thoroughly re-read your manifesto again. Sit with your initial reactions. How do you feel about the manifesto? What emotions come up as you read through it?
The next thing to do is check whether each point resonates with where we are in the present. For each one, take a moment to reflect on whether it still rings true. Does it incite the same excitement that you felt when you wrote it, or have you drifted away from it over time?
As you go through each point, consider rating them from 1 to 5 based on how relevant you feel they still are. If it ends up with a low score, then we need to question whether or not it needs to be pruned from the manifesto. Don’t be sentimental about this process - if something is no longer serving you, then it needs to be replaced by something that will.
Once we’ve rated each point in our manifesto, it’s time for a reality check. Ask yourself:
Have I taken any action towards my aspirations in the past year?
Now, don’t kid yourself. If you haven’t, admit it. We aren’t doing this so that we can beat ourselves up and feel bad about not working towards them. The purpose of this activity is to question - if we haven’t made any progress, why is that?
Have there been external barriers that might have hindered our progress, or have we lacked internal motivation?
Be honest. If you’ve lacked the motivation, ask yourself why that is. It may be that your initial aspiration didn’t quite align with your values, or that your values have changed since you added this point to your manifesto. Both of these answers are entirely valid.
Whatever conclusion we arrive at, we mustn’t see this as indicative of some sort of failure. Our manifesto isn’t about success or failure. It’s about us, our evolving self, and the person that we want to become. It’s OK for our values and aspirations to change over time. In fact, it would be highly surprising if they didn’t.
If our values and aspirations have shifted, then we need to determine whether or not these are already reflected in our manifesto. If they aren’t, we need to make a note of them so that they can be included in our next revision.
Which brings me nicely on to the process of updating our manifesto. The first thing I’ll say is that we don’t have to rip up the old one and start again. In fact, I’d advocate for keeping all of those values and aspirations that are no longer relevant and just crossing through them. Our past vision is a part of our journey, and it’s good for us to see how we’ve changed over time.
Any new aspirations or values that have cropped up as part of our reflective process, add those in. This will follow exactly the same method as we used before when we created our manifesto. Aim for specificity. Actionable things that can be measured in future.
If an existing aspiration is still relevant but doesn’t quite hit home as much as it used to, then amend it so that it better reflects your current values.
At the end of this process, we’re left with a new, revised manifesto that more accurately aligns with our changing selves. As before, put it somewhere where it’s easily accessible so that you can refer to it without too much effort.
Of course, having a personal manifesto is not just about writing a document and then periodically revising it. We need to live it. We need to find ways to actively incorporate its spirit into our daily lives and decision making processes.
Reinforcement of the manifesto is key. Life, the Universe, and everything is going to work against those values and aspirations that we’ve set. Not through any sort of malice, but simply because there’s a weight of influences out there and we can easily drift into the world of external expectations.
One thing that we can do is start our days by reading the manifesto, bringing it to the forefront of our awareness and reminding us of our values. That way, when we go out into the world, we’re keeping our aspirations closer to the forefront of our mind.
Another technique that I find quite useful is what I call the “Manifesto Question”. When faced with a major life decision, I take some time to reflect on it and ask myself “does this move me closer to the person that I want to become?” It may be something like a job offer that promises more money, but isn’t necessarily in the direction I want to go in. That offer of more money or better security is going to be tempting, and the thought of it could lead me away from what I’ve set out in my manifesto. Asking that question reminds me of my values, grounding me in the roadmap that I’ve set out for myself.
I also find it useful to have key points from the manifesto put in places that are easy to spot. Post it notes (I’m old and love a post it note) on the PC monitor, for example. Or on the fridge. Or, if you’re more digitally inclined, use a notes app on your phone rather than covering your home or office in tiny paper squares.
It’s important to remember that aligning your life to your manifesto is a process. You’re going to slip up. You’re going to revert to old ways of thinking and behaving, because you’re human, and subject to fallibility just like everyone else. It is not an exercise in perfection. You will not instantaneously become your manifesto.
I say this a lot, but remember self compassion is king. Essentially, we want to try and treat ourselves with the same kindness that we would an old friend or family member. Presuming there isn’t some terrible rift and you can’t stand each other, of course. Don’t treat yourself like that.
We have to recognise our humanity and acknowledge the struggles that we’re going to undoubtedly face when attempting to live up to the values within our manifesto, and we have to do this without judgement or criticism of ourselves.
If we don’t, then we run the danger of becoming trapped in a cycle of negative thinking. The old tropes of “I’m not good enough” and “I can’t do this” will start floating around in our thoughts, risking us becoming demotivated or discouraged.
Extending ourselves some self compassion also helps to bolster our resilience. Shit will happen and our journey towards the aspirations we’ve set out in our manifesto isn’t going to be a nice easy straight line. By recognising that we can actually handle the shit and realign ourselves to what we’re aiming for, it proves to us that we’re able to do it. Gives us some empirical evidence that we’re actually more capable than we might have thought we were.
You can’t do that if you’re beating yourself up for not quite meeting one of the points you’ve added in the manifesto, or if you’re having a stressful week and, through that, fall back into old patterns of thinking. We all know how dominating and impactful stress can be at throwing us off from our best laid plans.
However, whilst I mention self compassion, I want to remind you that it is not to be used as an excuse for complacency. I can’t be bothered, or I’ll start it tomorrow fall well outside of its scope. We have to recognise the difference between a genuine setback and intentional resistance. If you’re experiencing resistance and aren’t feeling motivated, then the question becomes “Have I included the right values and aspirations in my manifesto?” not “How do I overcome this obstacle?”
Our manifesto is our commitment to our values, and a statement of belief in our own potential. By integrating it into our decision making process, by using it as a mirror through which to measure our behaviours against our aspirations, we can start to live a life that is authentically ours.
It evolves alongside us. Reflecting our ever changing internal landscape, the continuous change in our values and aspirations.
For it to be effective, we must embrace the process with compassion, celebrate the victories, and learn from our failings. Only then can it become the catalyst for the life we are meant to live.
The book is available to buy from Amazon as a paperback or an e-book, if you want to add it to your book shelf.