Orienting map for personal development

[Carl-Richard]

Steps from most fundamental and metaphysical to concrete and practical:

 

Being (connect with reality):

• Tell the truth
• Accept yourself
• Contemplate
• Meditate

Meaning (what should be happening in reality?): pursue what is meaningful.

• Abstract principles and virtues (what is meaningful?):
  • goal-oriented movement
  • functionality
  • health
  • balance
  • holism
  • integration
     
• Concrete domains (what is meaningful?):
  • Systemic: commit to long-term goals and daily habits; write lists, plans, journals; do yearly, biyearly, monthly evaluations of progress.
  • Bio - psycho - social (Engel); also, id - ego - superego (Freud); reptilian brain - neocortex - limbic system (MacLean); competence - autonomy - belonging (Deci & Ryan); monster - man - lion (Plato).
    • Bio: diet, exercise, pleasures, hobbies.
    • Psycho: knowledge, wisdom, self-insight, values, self-esteem.
    • Social: friends, family, partner, community.

 

Summarized, you should connect with reality and pursue what is meaningful in reality; in alignment with abstract principles and virtues; using systemic techniques, habits, goals and practices; while covering all of the three bio-psycho-social domains.

To illustrate with one example of each (not at all exhaustive): you should meditate, balance all aspects of your life, work for a set period every day, while going to the gym, expanding your knowledge base and hanging out with your friends.

Another version: you should tell the truth, pursue health, write down everything your mind tells you is important to do or remember, engage in some short-term pleasures if you so desire, act in accordance with your inner values and keep up with your family members.

As a side note, this map shows what happens when things work as they should. It's not a given that things will work as they should, and in those cases, you need to fix yourself. Often, fixing yourself is not a matter of knowledge or will, but of untangling unconscious mechanisms and trauma. For that, conventional therapy, energy work and even psychedelics might be useful. In other cases, it may boil down to medical problems, which require medical solutions. Even though the map will fall short of addressing certain pathology, it does lay the foundation of health (in my opinion), and it's therefore relevant to everybody.

Edited September 25, 2023 by Carl-Richard

[Danioover9000]

@Carl-Richard

2 hours ago, Carl-Richard said:

Steps from most fundamental and metaphysical to concrete and practical:

 

Being (connect with reality):

• Tell the truth
• Accept yourself
• Contemplate
• Meditate

Meaning (what should be happening in reality?): pursue what is meaningful.

• Abstract principles and virtues (what is meaningful?):
  • goal-oriented movement
  • functionality
  • health
  • balance
  • holism
  • integration
     
• Concrete domains (what is meaningful?):
  • Systemic: commit to long-term goals and daily habits; write lists, plans, journals; do yearly, biyearly, monthly evaluations of progress.
  • Bio - psycho - social (Engel); also, id - ego - superego (Freud); reptilian brain - neocortex - limbic system (MacLean); competence - autonomy - belonging (Deci & Ryan); monster - man - lion (Plato).
    • Bio: diet, exercise, pleasures, hobbies.
    • Psycho: knowledge, wisdom, self-insight, values, self-esteem.
    • Social: friends, family, partner, community.

 

Summarized, you should connect with reality and pursue what is meaningful in reality; in alignment with abstract principles and virtues; using systemic techniques, habits, goals and practices; while covering all of the three bio-psycho-social domains.

To illustrate with one example of each (not at all exhaustive): you should meditate, balance all aspects of your life, work for a set period every day, while going to the gym, expanding your knowledge base and hanging out with your friends.

Another version: you should tell the truth, pursue health, write down everything your mind tells you is important to do or remember, engage in some short-term pleasures if you so desire, act in accordance with your inner values and keep up with your family members.

As a side note, this map shows what happens when things work as they should. It's not a given that things will work as they should, and in those cases, you need to fix yourself. Often, fixing yourself is not a matter of knowledge or will, but of untangling unconscious mechanisms and trauma. For that, conventional therapy, energy work and even psychedelics might be useful. In other cases, it may boil down to medical problems, which require medical solutions. Even though the map will fall short of addressing certain pathology, it does lay the foundation of health (in my opinion), and it's therefore relevant to everybody.

    This is a very nice map. Is this from Daniel Schmachtenberger and his consilience project?

[Carl-Richard]

13 hours ago, Danioover9000 said:

@Carl-Richard

    This is a very nice map. Is this from Daniel Schmachtenberger and his consilience project?

Nope. I thought about it while reading the last article in my scientific methodology course. I think my mind was getting tired of being in left-brain mode all the time and needed a break.

Edited September 24, 2023 by Carl-Richard

[Yimpa]

I appreciate how symmetrical that model is.

[Buck Edwards]

I think you forgot emotional. 

[Carl-Richard]

16 hours ago, Buck Edwards said:

I think you forgot emotional. 

The concrete domains (bio-psycho-social) should be thought of as the core domains you need to engage in to achieve things like well-regulated emotions. In a way, emotions skew towards the "lower" bio-social domains (reptile-limbic), but really all of it goes into developing your emotions (which goes back to the virtues of balance, integration, etc.). You could model it in a different way of course, but I like the bio-psycho-social split because it seems to pop up everywhere; from the Ancient Greeks, to modern psychology, to neurobiology.

Edited September 25, 2023 by Carl-Richard

[Carl-Richard]

On 24.9.2023 at 7:53 PM, Yimpa said:

I appreciate how symmetrical that model is.

The virtue of balance again ?

Fun fact: the model has a cultural East-West split in two places ("Being"-"Meaning" and the two "wings" on the abstract bubble). All wisdom traditions are equally represented (balanced).

Also, the concrete domains look visually like a brick wall, and the abstract principles and virtues look like connecting thoughts. I did put some thought into it

Edited September 25, 2023 by Carl-Richard

[Yimpa]

6 hours ago, Carl-Richard said:

Also, the concrete domains look visually like a brick wall, and the abstract principles and virtues look like connecting thoughts. I did put some thought into it

Sweet, @Breakingthewall might like that!

[Carl-Richard]

1 hour ago, Yimpa said:

Sweet, @Breakingthewall might like that!

Now I removed most of the strong black colours so it's even easier on the eyes.

[Buck Edwards]

Where is toxicity in all of this? 

Parts related to toxicity from a lacking environment and self sabotage. 

This model looks like an ideal set up that doesn't accommodate for low quality circumstances. 

Account for? 

Hunky Dory kind of a model. 

 

Edited September 26, 2023 by Buck Edwards

[ReidJustin]

Wow, your roadmap for personal development is truly impressive! It's like a journey from the abstract and metaphysical to the practical and concrete, covering all the essential aspects of life. I resonate with the idea of connecting with reality and pursuing what's meaningful. It's like finding that balance between inner contemplation and taking tangible actions in the world. Speaking of actions, I recently stumbled upon a training provider in Malaysia that offers a wide range of intriguing courses. They might be a fantastic addition to this personal development journey.

Edited September 27, 2023 by ReidJustin

[Carl-Richard]

5 hours ago, Buck Edwards said:

Where is toxicity in all of this? 

Parts related to toxicity from a lacking environment and self sabotage. 

This model looks like an ideal set up that doesn't accommodate for low quality circumstances. 

Account for? 

Hunky Dory kind of a model. 

Read the side note on the bottom:

On 24.9.2023 at 1:28 AM, Carl-Richard said:

As a side note, this map shows what happens when things work as they should. It's not a given that things will work as they should, and in those cases, you need to fix yourself. Often, fixing yourself is not a matter of knowledge or will, but of untangling unconscious mechanisms and trauma. For that, conventional therapy, energy work and even psychedelics might be useful. In other cases, it may boil down to medical problems, which require medical solutions. Even though the map will fall short of addressing certain pathology, it does lay the foundation of health (in my opinion), and it's therefore relevant to everybody.

 

[Carl-Richard]

3 hours ago, ReidJustin said:

Wow, your roadmap for personal development is truly impressive! It's like a journey from the abstract and metaphysical to the practical and concrete, covering all the essential aspects of life.

That was the idea ☺️

Edited September 26, 2023 by Carl-Richard

[Yimpa]

17 hours ago, Carl-Richard said:

Now I removed most of the strong black colours so it's even easier on the eyes.

Wow, I always assumed you were American for some reason. Crazy how one single letter can change one’s perception completely. As can changing the intensity of a single color.

[Carl-Richard]

2 minutes ago, Yimpa said:

Wow, I always assumed you were American for some reason. Crazy how one single letter can change one’s perception completely. As can changing the intensity of a single color.

Even worse: I'm actually Norwegian. I will say both "colour" and "color" when it fits me ?

[Carl-Richard]

I was reading about Marr's Three Levels of Analysis, and I suddenly saw the similarities to this map.

https://blog.shakirm.com/2013/04/marrs-levels-of-analysis/

[SeaMonster]

On 9/23/2023 at 7:28 PM, Carl-Richard said:

• Bio: diet, exercise, pleasures, hobbies.
• Psycho: knowledge, wisdom, self-insight, values, self-esteem.
• Social: friends, family, partner, community.

It's not a bad map, but just so that we're not confused, these are not necessarily mutually exclusive boxes.

One can "live" self-esteem by doing things in the other boxes (e.g. doing exercise.)  In other words, I take a very behaviorist outlook on a lot of this stuff: self-esteem is how you act/behave, not necessarily some freestanding feeling or thought we have about ourselves.  I wouldn't reify self-esteem or wisdom or anything in the Psycho category -- it's more of a Forrest Gump thing (stupid is as stupid does.)

Edited September 30, 2023 by SeaMonster

[Carl-Richard]

2 hours ago, SeaMonster said:

It's not a bad map, but just so that we're not confused, these are not necessarily mutually exclusive boxes.

One can "live" self-esteem by doing things in the other boxes (e.g. doing exercise.)  In other words, I take a very behaviorist outlook on a lot of this stuff: self-esteem is how you act/behave, not necessarily some freestanding feeling or thought we have about ourselves.  I wouldn't reify self-esteem or wisdom or anything in the Psycho category -- it's more of a Forrest Gump thing (stupid is as stupid does.)

Yup. Like I said in a previous post, there are many possible ways to model these things, and there will be overlap, as life is complex and interconnected. The purpose of presenting the three-way split is to provide some broad coverage of the concrete domains that you inhabit, of the "implementation". I just prefer that split because it pops up in so many places.

Edited September 30, 2023 by Carl-Richard

[SeaMonster]

5 hours ago, Carl-Richard said:

Yup. Like I said in a previous post, there are many possible ways to model these things, and there will be overlap, as life is complex and interconnected. The purpose of presenting the three-way split is to provide some broad coverage of the concrete domains that you inhabit, of the "implementation". I just prefer that split because it pops up in so many places.

Thumbs up.