Coaching practices for Philosophical Role Model
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Philosophical Role Model, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I have abstract ideas about the kind of person I want to be, but in a hard moment I freeze because I don’t actually know what that looks like in practice
- I’m standing at a choice where I can feel myself about to take the easy, lesser road, and abstract principles aren’t holding me
- I’m realizing how much of what I believe about myself and the world I just absorbed from somewhere and never actually checked against my own experience
- Every conversation I have about anything that matters turns into each side trying to win, and I’m tired of it
- On paper I know exactly the kind of person I want to be and what I believe, but when I watch how I actually behaved this week there’s an embarrassing gap between the two, and the knowing clearly hasn’t closed it.
Practices that may help
- Choose and study role models deliberately
Select a specific person whose character in a specific domain you want to internalize, and study how they act — not just what they say.
Virtue Ethics, Made Practical - Act as if sages were watching — the practice of the philosophical community
Before any action, ask: would a person I genuinely respect — who embodies the values I aspire to — approve of this?
Pierre Hadot’s Spiritual Exercises - Philosophy as a Way of Life
Pierre Hadot argued that ancient Greek and Roman philosophy — Stoic, Epicurean, Platonic — was not primarily a system of theories but a set of "spiritual exercises": repeated, structured practices for transforming how you perceive, judge, and live. The academic thesis is Hadot’s own and is well established in classical scholarship. The practices he describes overlap with studied mechanisms in mindfulness, CBT, and behavioral change — though that was not Hadot’s own claim. - Prioritize direct experience over inherited belief
Test philosophical claims through personal practice rather than accepting them on authority.
The Perennial Philosophy, Made Practical - Philosophical dialogue as a practice
Use careful, good-faith conversation — not debate — to examine your assumptions together.
Philosophy as a Way of Life - Live what you study
Make your practice your philosophy — not a separate reading life and a separate daily life.
Philosophy as a Way of Life - Learn from a phronimos (a practically wise person)
Identify someone whose judgment you respect, and study how they read situations — not just what they decide.
Phronesis: Aristotle’s Practical Wisdom - Practice philosophy as a daily exercise
Reserve time each day not for reading philosophy but for performing a philosophical exercise.
Philosophy as a Way of Life - Keep the final end in view (telos check)
Before any significant action, ask: does this move me toward the life I’m trying to build, or away from it?
Phronesis: Aristotle’s Practical Wisdom - Learning through exemplar study
Study the conduct of a person you consider exemplary and identify one specific behaviour you can emulate.
Confucian Self-Cultivation: The Mencius Approach
Related concerns
- Ancient Philosophy Practices
Pierre Hadot argued that ancient Greek and Roman philosophy — Stoic, Epicurean, Platonic — was not primarily a system of theories but a set of "spiritual exercises": repeated, structured practices for transforming how you perceive, judge, and live. The academic thesis is Hadot’s own and is well established in classical scholarship. The practices he describes overlap with studied mechanisms in mindfulness, CBT, and behavioral change — though that was not Hadot’s own claim.
- Elenchus Philosophy Practice
Test philosophical claims through personal practice rather than accepting them on authority.
Prioritize direct experience over inherited belief
- Hadot Living According To Logos
Act in accord with your rational nature and with the nature of the whole — not by instinct alone.
Live according to nature
- Peripatetic Philosophy Walking
Use a regular physical practice (walking, exercise) as the occasion for philosophical reflection — as the ancients did.
Pair philosophical practice with physical exercise
- Philosophical Community Practice
Form or join a small group that meets regularly to examine how to live well — not just to succeed.
Creating a philosophical community of practice
- Philosophical Dialogue Practice
Use careful, good-faith conversation — not debate — to examine your assumptions together.
Philosophical dialogue as a practice
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