Manifesto Revision

Earlier this year, I was very gung-ho in my manifesto - the basic idea was carpe diem, or "seize the day." While this core philosophy is still held at its highest, its base is now more rooted in realism.

Although carpe diem is a powerful and very essential part of the enjoyment of life, sometimes setting expectations to those highest heights can create the opposite effect. In other words, if someone is reaching for carpe diem, but halfway through that "seize the day" moment realizes that time or other constraints make it impossible, suddenly he or she is faced with difficult choices. Should he or she lower expectations in order to achieve a portion of the carpe diem level, or she he or she continue putting in the same 10x effort, and stress his or herself to death?

A major part of carpe diem, I learned, is perfectionism. While being a perfectionist has its perks, it most of the time is a weakness that chains the perfectionist down into non-essential and nitty-gritty details. However, very often these details are completely unimportant, and are usually completely undetectable by audiences. Nevertheless the perfectionist will convince his or herself that these minute details are the make-or-break of an achievement, and will therefore spend an eternity perfecting them.

Thus, carpe diem is not only a philosophy for the highest ability of one's achievement, but also for the highest version of oneself. But this does not necessarily mean that the perfectionist is the only one that can "seize the day" - rather, it's the person that can accept shortcomings without feeling downtrodden, and therefore sees the perfection in seizing the moment as it is. In other words, life is imperfect, and perfection is rather meaningless if every person's version of perfection differs from another. What, then, is the standard that everyone should reach for?

This version of carpe diem is not a celebration of mediocrity, but an acceptance of life as imperfection. While some may argue that nature at its core is perfect down to the tiny ants that build colonies to the lion basking in the Savannah sun, I'll argue differently: some creatures are simply born without the same advantages as others. An example would be a creature being born without sight, or developing cancer in old age. How is this perfection?

Perhaps then the standard that everyone should reach for is the carpe diem within his or herself in each passing moment. The effort that one can put into one project or portion of his or her life may be different than the effort they can put in at a later time. This difference may be due to stress, time constraints, or simply the energy someone can put forth at any given amount of time. Life is always changing.

So carpe diem, says this manifesto. Life is an ever-changing, every-altering thing, that is imperfect in many ways but that is not reason to feel disillusioned. "Seize the day" by keeping your head up, and putting forth every effort you can muster at that moment to get things done.

Idealism meets just a little bit of pragmaticism.