Get to know yourself by writing a personal manifesto
According to Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, a manifesto is "a written statement declaring publicly the intentions, motives, or views of its issuer." While issuing a personal manifesto can introduce the world to who you are and what you believe, perhaps the most important person a personal manifesto introduces you to is yourself.
Instructions
1. Establish your personal ideals, beliefs and goals by writing statements about who you are on the deepest level. If you are having trouble starting, write statements such as, "I am __," "I wish__," "I believe__," "I fear__," "I love__," "Happiness is__" and "Right now I __" on a piece of paper, then fill the blanks in to the best of your ability. Asking yourself how someone close to you, such as a spouce or coworker, would fill in the blank can help you overcome personal biases. The more honest with yourself you are, the better your manifesto will be.
2. Ponder these statements and ask yourself questions about them, such as: What are my strengths? My weaknesses? Is this what my family and friends would say about me? If not, why?
3. Decide what you think the clearest theme coming through in the brainstorming is and write an opening sentence encapsulating that theme as consistently as possible, a thesis sentence of your worldview that the body of the manifesto will aim towards spelling out in greater depth. For example, it could say, "It is our duty to leave the world a more loving place than we found it." If you are having trouble coming up with one, skip this step, write the body of the manifesto first, then come back and write the opening sentence once your ideas are clearer.
4. Write the body of your manifesto by turning the introspection on your personal statements into explicit, concrete beliefs and goals. For example, if you wrote, "I believe all people deserve to be loved," and upon considering it, you found you are not always as loving as you should be, you could write "I believe all people deserve to be loved, and that loving every person means listening and showing compassion to everyone I meet."
5. Choose a short title for your manifesto. This title should be you in a nutshell, something pithy that unites two seemingly opposed sides of your self into one harmonious you, for example "Personal Manifesto of the Pious Skeptic."
6. Build a support network. You are not in this alone; family and true friends want to help you become your best self. Your manifesto itself should help you identify the kinds of friends and support you truly need. Let these kindred spirits read your manifesto and, with objectivity tempered by love, they can best offer suggestions on improve and realistically live up to it.
7. Develop a realistic plan for living up to the principles articulated in your manifesto with the help of your support network. Looking at a list of priorities and personal ideals can be intimidating and without a step-by-step, day-by-day plan for implementation, can also be overwhelming. If you said "I believe happiness is putting family first," resolve to start by playing with your child today and calling your parents tomorrow.
