Your ideology is nothing more than a set of values, rules, beliefs and ideas that you use to make decisions. Every decision you make, if not based on emotion or subconscious beliefs are ultimately based on your ideology. Your ideology can be a very emotional thing and it might be hard to distinguish between an ideological or an emotional root for your choices. It is OK for emotions and ideology to mix for now. At this point, the task is to focus on defining your ideology and putting it into practice in your life.
Try the following…
First, write down what you want your beliefs or values to be about…
Religion
Politics
Social / moral issues
How you should treat others
Food and nutrition
Health and wellbeing
Anything and everything else
Your list will start to get pretty overwhelming but just keep going. Even if it takes weeks to get your list together, it is worth it. Write it all down.
Next, ask yourself why you want these particular beliefs?is it because other people (parents, friends, etc) have suggested (overtly or through their behavior) that these are what your beliefs should be? Is it because of your experiences? Is it to avoid negative consequences? What consequences are you trying to avoid?
Be honest about what you truly believe at this moment and why you believe it. Examine whether you think those beliefs need to change or perhaps be re-explored or updated in some way?
When you have your list, understand why you believe each item, and have made any updates needed, it is time to aggregate them to the level of PRINCIPLES. Principles are not issue-specific. Principles are meta-beliefs. They are the reason behind several beliefs. For example, your beliefs might include that credit cards are evil and car loans are a bad idea and payment plans are also a bad idea. The principle behind all of these is that debt in any form is a bad idea; or you might say that the principle is that debt is slavery and you don’t want to be a slave. That is really two principles there… debt is slavery… and I will not be a slave. The principle of, “I will not be a slave,” might have have spawned many other beliefs in your ideology all by itself. Principles here are the root of beliefs.
Are there underlying principles that are common to your beliefs? What principles are the overarching guides? Could you use principles for your ideology instead of specific rules/beliefs?
Using principles gives you a more general framework for making decisions as well as a shorter list of items in your ideology. Dozens of beliefs and rules might boil down to just a small number of principles. Principles also play another wonderful role – they highlight our inconsistencies and hypocrisies.
Are some of your beliefs in contradiction to your principles? List your beliefs in one column and your principles in another. Do you have any principles that are in conflict with each other? Do you have any beliefs that are in conflict with one of your principles? How can you update your principles and beliefs to eliminate contradictions and inconsistencies?
Lastly, can you put your principles in priority order? Are some more important than others?
At the end of all of these exercises, you should have a comprehensive list of your principals, in priority order, that you can use to make better decisions, whether at your job, in the voting booth, choosing what to eat and everything else.
Understand that your beliefs/ideology will evolve with you and that is natural and a good thing. Be ready to evolve your ideology as you learn and experience new things and perspectives.
