Defined as our function or end goal, our telos can be used as our overarching purpose in life. We can be sub-telos as well to look at how we can break this down into our different pillars.
Today, I’m going to be having a look at my current purpose and how this can be expressed, so that I can continue to improve my performance of an excellent life and improve.
The Stoics talk about living a smooth life, or a life that is in accordance with virtue (excellence) or nature. One of the interesting things about philosophy is that it means we can use our reason to make choices to ensure alignment. Living a smooth life is going to look differently for everyone. We are in different stages and places in our lives.
For me, I think about my current telos as:
To be a present father who serves, sees beauty, and creates joy.
With this telos established, it becomes easier to look at and accept the trade-offs that need to happen in our lives. There are an infinite number of things that we can be doing with our lives. Where we want to go, where we want to live, who we want to be, what we want to do, and so forth. If we aren’t looking closely at these decisions, we can end up living other people’s lives, and, importantly, come up with friction as life will inevitably bump up against us, not knowing how to weather the storm or even knowing if it is worth enduring.
Living our telos puts us on a path to reach eudaimonia, a life of wellbeing and flourishing. If we are living our purpose, expressing/achieving our proper function, adapting and being a part of the world, how can we not be fulfilled?
To put some of Seneca’s writings in my own words, it’s not that life is short, it’s that we so easily waste it and blow the hours away. If we use our days intentionally, we can have a long and fruitful life.
Which comes to our foundations. Excellence in what we do.
This is a difficult thought. We all lack knowledge and need to seek this wisdom from trusted sources. Then we need to practice these skills, like a craft or performance, and improve over time.
When I think about areas of focus in our lives, I think about the image of a template with four pillars. The roof is our telos. The ground level that sets the foundation is arete, our pursuit of excellence in life. The four pillars that hold up the template are:
- Psyche – the soul and mind
- Soma – the body and health
- Koinonia – the tribe and our connections
- Techne-Bios – the craft and livelihood
Consistent with all of these is the idea of prosoche, being attentive to the present moment. Focused on the conversation, or what I’m typing, or my technique and lift at the gym.
These four pillars are the practical expression of our telos. While I’ve established my main purpose here, we will look at how the pillars break down our purpose into actionable, daily choices in future posts. For now, we can begin to examine our decisions through the lens of our guiding telos.
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