Crafting Your Path to an Excellent Life: A Framework for Flourishing

What does it mean to live an excellent life?

In this episode, we explore four fundamental pillars that create the foundation for true virtue, reason, purpose, and connection.

You'll discover how these elements work together to help you create not just a good life, but an extraordinary one.

Whether you're feeling lost, seeking meaning, or simply want to live more intentionally, this framework will give you the tools to begin your journey towards excellence.

Welcome to Live well and Flourish, where I help you understand what it means to live a flourishing life.

I'm your host, Craig Van Slyke.

If you're ready to think beyond material and external success, if you're ready to take control of who you are and the kind of life you live, if you're ready to flourish, this is the podcast for you.

Welcome to Live well and Flourish, the podcast that helps you live an excellent life.

I'm here for that one reason to help you live an excellent life.

Not just a good life, not just a successful life, but a truly excellent life.

And yeah, I'll admit, I also love thinking about these big questions.

Before you can live an excellent life, you have to understand what that means.

I suppose you could stumble onto excellence by accident, but that's not likely.

What does it mean to live an excellent life?

Despite the thousands of years of effort by philosophers, the truth is, nobody knows, or more precisely, nobody knows what an excellent life is for you.

That's something you have to figure out for yourself.

If you truly seek excellence, you'll never stop pondering what it means to live an excellent life.

So the question of excellence is a big one and an important one.

I can't tell you what it means for you to be excellent, but I can give you a start on figuring it out.

The good news, really good news, is that even though you may never fully understand what excellence means in your life, you'll live more excellently just for having pondered the question.

Remember, excellence isn't a destination, it's a journey.

To help you along your journey, I'm going to give you my framework for living an excellent life.

This is a framework, not a recipe.

In other words, I'm going to give you the foundational principles of excellence as I see them.

You're going to have to fill in the details through learning, attention, and reflection.

By doing so, you'll create the conditions that let excellence emerge naturally.

There are four elements to my excellence framework.

Four pillars supporting a life of excellence.

I've thought a lot about this and tried to keep things straightforward, although I wouldn't call it simple.

My pillars of excellence align with and pull from different philosophies as interpreted by me, combined with my own reflections here are my virtue, reason, purpose and connection.

Virtue is about being the kind of person you should be morally.

Virtue is the absolute bedrock of excellence.

Virtue is also what drives your actions, your decisions, and to an extent, even your thoughts and how you view the world.

To understand virtue, you have to understand what it means to be a good person.

To me, virtues are the characteristics of a good person that make them courage, kindness, wisdom, honesty.

The list is slightly different for everybody.

The Stoics, for example, have four cardinal wisdom, courage, justice and temperance.

Ben Franklin had 13 virtues that he pursued.

You'll have a different list, one that may keep adapting throughout your life.

The main point here is that to be a good person, you have to understand what a good person is.

Others lists can get you started, but at the end of the day, your list is your list.

The second pillar is reason, as in the use of one's ability to think logically.

Reason, in this context is the application of thoughtful reflection to guide action.

In other words, it's thinking about what the right action is in any situation.

Reason is about logic.

But it's not just about logic.

It's about logic directed at the right goal.

That's where virtue comes back into play.

Virtue guides what right action means.

But virtue and reason aren't enough.

You also need a purpose.

Aristotle wrote about excellence in terms of living according to nature, but he didn't mean nature is in the natural environment.

At least not just the natural environment.

He means the true nature of being human.

I believe, and many others would agree, that it is in the nature of humans to live in pursuit of some purpose.

That purpose may never be fully achieved, but it should always be the star that guides your life's journey.

Connection the final element of my framework also relates to the nature of humans.

Humans are social creatures.

We feel a sense of unease when we lack connections to others.

This is an element of many ancient philosophies, and it's an element of modern psychology as well.

To live life well, you need relationships with other humans.

Well, that's my list.

I've thought about other elements, such as mindfulness and acceptance, but I think these are embedded in the ones that I presented.

Or maybe they amplify those.

Although I presented these separately, they really work together.

Virtue serves as your moral compass and foundation.

It defines the values that guide all your decisions and actions.

Without virtue, the other pillars might lead you astray.

Purpose without ethical boundaries could justify harmful actions.

Reason without moral grounding could become cold Calculation and connection without virtue might lead to toxic relationships.

Reason serves as the practical application of your virtues.

It helps you determine how to live virtuously in complex situations, how to effectively pursue your purpose, and how to navigate relationships thoughtfully.

Reason without the other pillars would just be directionless intellect.

That was not easy to say.

Directionless intellectual purpose provides direction and meaning.

It channels your virtuous character and reasoned thinking towards meaningful goals that align with your values.

It gives you something to strive for that transcends immediate pleasures or concerns.

Without purpose, virtue and reason might exist without direction and connections might lack depth.

Connection grounds everything in human relationships.

It reminds you that excellence is not a solitary pursuit.

It's a pursuit that emerges within community.

Connections provide feedback to your virtues, challenge your reasoning, and sometimes contribute to your sense of purpose.

Without connection, the other pillars might become theoretical rather than lived experiences.

The real magic happens when these things work together in each, supporting and strengthening the others.

Your virtues shape what purpose you find worthy.

Your purpose directs how you apply reason.

Your purpose and virtues direct how you apply reason.

Your reason helps you cultivate virtuous character.

And your connections provide context for virtues, purpose and reasoning.

This creates a self reinforcing system where growth in one area naturally promotes growth in the others, helping excellence emerge organically over time rather than through forced effort.

So how do these pillars work together in practice?

When balanced and in harmony, they create a foundation for excellence that's both stable and flexible.

This isn't about perfection, it's about integration.

On days when you feel lost, focus on connection.

When you feel ethically challenged, return to your virtues.

When you're confused, engage your reason.

And when you feel adrift, reconnect with your purpose.

Excellence emerges not from mastering each pillar separately, but from the ongoing interplay between them.

It's in that balanced interplay that an excellent life takes shape.

Here's what I want you to take away from all of this.

Living an excellent life isn't about following someone else's recipe or checking off items on a list.

It's about understanding and developing these four fundamental aspects of human flourishing.

Virtue, reason, purpose, and connection.

When you work on these pillars together, excellence emerges naturally.

Not as a destination you'll reach one day, but as a way of being that grows stronger with every step of your journey.

You can't force excellence, but you can create the conditions that allow it to emerge.

Until next time, stay excellent, my friends.