The Flourishing Manifesto
The Flourishing Manifesto
You don’t achieve an excellent life, you live it. An excellent life emerges naturally when you create the right conditions: when you act with purpose, embrace virtue, and remain mindful of life's ordinary beauty. These are the insights I've explored over 120+ episodes of Live Well and Flourish, and now I'm excited to share them in a new form, The Flourishing Manifesto.
The Flourishing Manifesto was created while working on a new book I’m writing, Live Well and Flourish: Axioms for Living an Excellent Life. My plan is to write the book over the next few months, then make it available via Amazon or as a pdf or epub document. I may also release some of the chapters through the Live Well and Flourish podcast. Be sure to subscribe or follow to catch these episodes. You can do that at https://www.livewellandflourish.com/. You can also sign up for the Live Well and Flourish newsletter there.
I decided to write the book because I missed thinking about how to live a flourishing life. Since I put the podcast on pause, I haven’t spent enough time thinking about this, so I decided to write a book organized around axioms, or rules, for living a flourishing life of excellence. Remember, excellence is a journey, not a destination. The axioms and the practical wisdom they represent can help you on your journey as they have helped me.
After coming up with the axioms, I asked ChatGPT to put them together into an overall philosophy of life. The Flourishing Manifesto is the result.
Disclosure: What follows was written by ChatGPT, based on more than 120 episodes of Live Well and Flourish. I liked it so much that I wanted to share it with you. Although ChatGPT wrote the words you’re about to hear, the foundation for the manifesto comes from over 125,000 words of Live Well and Flourish transcripts. Even though the words you’re about to hear aren’t mine, the thoughts are. Here’s the Flourishing Manifesto.
The Flourishing Manifesto
Flourishing is not a destination. It is a way of being in the world.
It is not measured by wealth, status, or fleeting happiness,
but by how you live, how you love, and how you grow.
Flourishing begins with agency.
You are not a passenger — your choices define your character.
Every act, however small, is a thread in the fabric of who you are.
Flourishing is guided by virtue.
Courage, justice, kindness, and wisdom are not lofty ideals,
but daily practices that, repeated, become habits,
and habits, lived, become who you are.
Flourishing thrives in the ordinary.
It is found in small wins, quiet acts of kindness,
and the “between times” that most people overlook.
To savor the small is to multiply joy.
Flourishing demands mindfulness and reflection.
Without awareness, life passes unnoticed.
Without reflection, experience remains unshaped.
Together, they turn moments into wisdom.
Flourishing embraces imperfection and impermanence.
Life is unfinished, transient, interconnected.
Beauty lies not in what endures forever,
but in what changes, fades, and gives birth to the new.
Flourishing is oriented by purpose.
Not a rigid plan, but a North Star —
something to guide, to shape, to steady,
as you adapt to life’s shifting terrain.
And flourishing is reciprocal.
Your growth uplifts others.
Their flourishing enriches yours.
A better world is built one kind act, one choice, one moment at a time.
To flourish is to live with virtue, purpose, mindfulness, and compassion,
practiced daily, embraced humbly,
in both the grand and the ordinary.
These principles emerged from years of exploring what it means to live an excellent life – through conversations, research, and personal experience. They aren't just philosophical ideals; they're practical guideposts for daily living. As I develop these ideas further in my upcoming book, I’ll share my thoughts in new episodes of Live Well and Flourish.
I invite you to join me in this exploration of how we can create the conditions for excellence to emerge naturally in our lives.
What matters most is not just understanding these principles, but living them. Start small. Choose one area where you can exercise your agency today. Practice one virtue mindfully. Notice one ordinary moment. That's how flourishing begins.