“The Unexamined Life Isn’t Worth Living”

This is a hard hitting quote by Socrates, the Greek philosopher credited with being one of the founders of Western Philosophy (he was kinda smart).

Socrates said this quote while on trial for supposedly “corrupting the youth” by encouraging them to pursue wisdom above all else, which inherently meant questioning what the leaders (religious fanatics) were preaching.

Socrates practiced a method called “Elenchus”, what we now call the Socratic Method, which is the process of debating a topic that doesn’t have a concrete definition. He considered this his reason for existence or his “raison d'etre”, which is a rad phrase.

His whole reason for living was to pursue wisdom through shared dialogue and discussion. Getting exiled would have meant being unable to practice this process and to him that was worse than death.

One of the most revered philosophers spent his entire life examining his own life and when faced with the possibility of not being able to do that, he opted for death instead… how does that make you feel about how you’re examining your life?

I believe there’s a line each of us crosses where we go from “unexamined” to “examining”.

Until you take the conscious, personally aware, intentional step to start examining your life, you’re missing out on what life is all about.

You’re in the stands. You’re a spectator. You’re not in the game. You’re un-popped.

This simple analogy of “popped vs un-popped” is a phrase that Sam Elick, founder of Brain Juice, asked me when I was explaining The Guide.

“Is The Guide for the popped or the un-popped?”

I use this phrase repeatedly in explaining the line people cross when they “get it”.

People cross it after a near-death experience, through hitting rock bottom, sometimes thanks to psychedelics or just through pure pursuit and hunger for a full life.

This line is intangible, internal and irreversible (without drastic consequences). And although it’s a one time choice, it’s also a daily choice.

Only you can see this line so it’s up to you and only you to know if you’ve crossed it, if you’ve popped.

Donald Miller said it best…

“And once you live a good story, you get a taste for a kind of meaning in life, and you can't go back to being normal; you can't go back to meaningless scenes stitched together by the forgettable thread of wasted time.”