How to Write Your Personal Manifesto

<p>Today we talk about how to write your personal manifesto and why it’s worth doing.</p><p> </p><p>A personal manifesto is a declaration - even if simply a declaration to <i>yourself</i> - about what your core values and beliefs are and how you want to live your life.</p><p> </p><p>It’s usually a combo of what you want to create in this life (intentions), a statement of your values, and also, because y’all here have a little - or a lot - of rebel in you, a somewhat rebel list of the way you want to live this life, what you want to do and how you want to do it.</p><p> </p><p>And I say rebel because it will ideally, call you to challenge the status quo and assumptions about how things “should” or “need” to be. <br /> </p><p>A proper manifesto is also provocative. It gives you the <i>ziji</i> to make changes that you need to make so that you’re aligned: your internal values are consistent with your external reality.<br /> </p><p>When you take the time to sort this all out, you have a lot more clarity, and your manifesto can act as a sort of North Star, giving your life not just meaning, but direction.</p><p> </p><p>In Buddhism, we talk about taking refuge in the Buddha, dharma, sangha - it reminds us where we want to be, what our priorities are, and how we can come back home. A participant at a silent retreat I was on  - a personal retreat - they said, “in Mandarin, the translation for “refuge” was coming home, and not just coming home, but coming home after a long journey.”<br /> </p><p>That’s a different energy, right? What if this manifesto is what guided you and could hold space for you, even after a long journey where you felt you had nothing left?<br /> </p><p>A manifesto is a bit different from a business mission and vision, which are meant to unite people under a common vision or mission, whereas a personal manifesto is meant to ignite action. Light a fire under your ass (like Carl Marx’s <i>Communist Manifesto</i>, right?). <br /> </p><p>So it’s not just a statement of what you believe in, but also a call