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| Education for Enlightenment

10 Most Life-Changing Ideas I’ve Discovered after 700+ Posts

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After 700+ posts on this site (including 150+ book summaries and 200+ newsletter issues), it’s time to curate a top-10 list of the most life-changing ideas I’ve discovered to date.

Whether you’re new to Sloww or have been following for years, this is a great place to jump in. The post is organized below by the Sloww Stages:

What is Sloww Overview

Post Contents:

📘🌀 Sloww Stage Support (Lifelong Learning & Deeper Development)

🌎 Sloww Stage 1 (Intentional Living)

🧭 Sloww Stage 2 (Life Purpose)

🧠 Sloww Stage 3 (Mental Mastery)

☯️ Sloww Stage 4 (Spiritual Seeing)

Sloww Awaken & Actualize the Art of Living

10 Most Life-Changing Ideas I’ve Discovered after 700+ Posts

Sloww Stage Support Lifelong Learning Deeper Development

📘🌀 Lifelong Learning & Deeper Development (Sloww Stage Support)

The first two ideas are related to: Sloww Stage Support (Lifelong Learning & Deeper Development): How do I develop by learning?

1. Adult Learning

This can be considered an umbrella idea for many concepts: living inquiry, lifelong learning, adult learning, transformative learning, synthesizing, interdisciplinarity, etc. While those concepts do have nuanced definitions, there’s a thread that seems to run through adult questioning to adult learning to adult development. This topic is extra impactful to me because I now understand that it’s how I seem to be wired and how I can give myself to the world. I describe myself as an independent, inquiring, interdisciplinary integrator (in other words, a “synthesizer”). It’s been such a big realization that it’s even the topic of my first online course.

Living Inquiry (or adult questioning):

Transformative Learning (or adult perspective transformation):

  • “Understanding and Promoting Transformative Learning” by Patricia Cranton (Book Summary)
  • “Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning” by Jack Mezirow (Book Summary)
  • “Learning in Adulthood” (Book Summary)

Interdisciplinary Learning (also multi-/trans-disciplinarity):

  • “The 7 Transdisciplinary Cognitive Skills for Creative Education” (Book Summary)
  • “Introduction to Interdisciplinary Studies” (Book Summary)
  • “Interdisciplinary Research” by Repko & Szostak (Book Summary)

Synthesizing Minds:

2. Adult Development

Similarly, this is an umbrella idea that includes many concepts: adult development, human development, psychological development, vertical development, perspective transformation, etc. It has completely transformed how I view myself, others, and life itself. Of all the theories I’ve seen, Susanne Cook-Greuter’s “ego development theory” and Robert Kegan’s “subject-object theory” have resonated the most. Why? Because I didn’t discover them until after I had already gone through several “stages,” and it was incredible how closely my own lived experience matched the descriptions. Stage theories have their fair share of critics out there (see the Nora Bateston post below), but I’ve found learning about them to be a net positive in my life.

Human Development Overview:

Meta-Crisis Overview:

Ego Development Theory (Susanne Cook-Greuter):

Integral Theory (Ken Wilber):

Hierarchy of Needs (Abraham Maslow):

Sloww Stage 1 Intentional Living

🌎 Intentional Living (Sloww Stage 1)

The next two ideas are related to: Sloww Stage 1 (Intentional Living): How do I design a lighter life?

3. Slow & Simple Living

The discovery of the concepts of slow living, simple living, voluntary simplicity, and downshifting completely rocked my worldview. Prior to this discovery, I had no idea there were people out there intentionally choosing slower and simpler lives. These ideas I discovered in late 2015 and early 2016 planted the seed for all things Sloww.

Busyness:

Slow Living:

Simple Living:

4. Lifestyle Design

I’ve realized that much of intentional living comes down to lifestyle design. And, when it comes to lifestyle design, nothing has been more impactful for me than Jacob Lund Fisker’s work on Early Retirement Extreme. He’s applied systems thinking to lifestyle design, and it brilliantly covers all aspects of life. The most impactful idea I’ve taken from him is to design a “web of goals.” This concept helps you set up your life in a way where you have mutually-reinforcing positive goals and byproducts (maximizing synergy) while also reducing/eliminating negative byproducts (minimizing waste). The “web” focuses on the connections between your lifestyle choices and includes everything from health to wealth to wisdom. An example would be a web where you live within walking/biking distance of work and the grocery store—your commute doubles as your daily exercise (maximizing synergy) while eliminating the need for a car and saving money (minimizing waste).

Lifestyle Design:

Money:

Work:

Sloww Stage 2 Life Purpose

🧭 Life Purpose (Sloww Stage 2)

The next two ideas are related to: Sloww Stage 2 (Life Purpose): How do I find a higher purpose?

5. Ikigai

Ikigai was a concept I discovered either during my existential crisis in 2015 or in 2016 when I was searching for purpose. But, my discovery of the viral 4-circle diagram led me down a path to uncover that it’s not really ikigai. Eventually, I put 5+ years of research and experimentation into an eBook: Ikigai 2.0: A Step-by-Step Guidebook to Finding Life Purpose & Making Money Meaningfully (+ Bonus Workbook). This is the process I used to find my own purpose, and it’s still the approach I recommend to everyone who asks me the best way to find purpose. In my mind, you will not find anything more comprehensive (yet concise) than Ikigai 2.0.

Ikigai:

Purpose:

Monetizing Purpose:

6. Birth Lottery

This idea is literally something that I now think about daily and has positively altered my worldview and how I interact with others in the world. If I could put anything on a billboard, this may be it. And, the best part is that the lottery of birth requires no science or spirituality to understand. What is the lottery of birth? It’s a reminder that you did not choose or control: to exist, your nature, your nurture, the location you were born into, the time you were born into, and so much more. No one did! And all of those shape you and your life path—just like they shape every other human. It may be one of the most simple, yet most profound, realizations any human can have to lead to compassion for all.

Birth Lottery Overview:

Thought Experiments:

Sloww Stage 3 Mental Mastery

🧠 Mental Mastery (Sloww Stage 3)

The next two ideas are related to: Sloww Stage 3 (Mental Mastery): How do I build a better mind?

7. Mind Immunity

Mental models seem to get a bad rap from a lot of people. It seems to be because many think learning about mental models doesn’t equate to applying them. That’s true. But, at the same time, no awareness of something is a guarantee that it will not be applied. So, I fully believe in being aware of all these concepts, learning about them effectively through tactics like spaced repetition and interleaving, and integrating and embodying them through consistent practice in your day-to-day life. To help with this, I launched Mini Mind.

The Brain:

The Mind:

8. Free Will

This final idea falls right out of the previous one. As they say, “the self” and “free will” are two sides of the same coin. In other words, successful self-inquiry resolves the question of free will.

Start Here:

Moral Luck & Responsibility:

No Free Willers:

Sloww Stage 4 Spiritual Seeing

☯️ Spiritual Seeing (Sloww Stage 4)

The final two ideas are related to: Sloww Stage 4 (Spiritual Seeing): How do I see beyond mind?

9. Self-Inquiry

It’s only fitting that we start to wrap up this list with a concept that can hardly be described as a concept. While appreciating the mind, we simultaneously need to realize what’s beyond mind. The books and teachers below may just be “fingers pointing at the moon,” but they seem to be pretty good guides.

Seeing Your Socialization:

Self-Inquiry:

  • “Who am I? The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi” (Book Summary)
  • “Be As You Are” by Ramana Maharshi (Book Summary)

10. Beyond Mind/Self

It all points here.

Short Posts:

The Headless Way:

Direct Path Nonduality:

Advaita Vedanta:

What Sloww concepts have been life-changing ideas for you so far? Please let me know in the comments!

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