Coaching practices for The Examined Life for My Teenager
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For The Examined Life for My Teenager, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I’m living by a whole set of rules about how life should go, and it’s started to dawn on me that I never actually chose most of them
- I say family and health are what matter most to me, but if you looked at where my hours and attention actually went this month you’d never guess it
- My days just blur past on autopilot and I crawl into bed having never paused to ask where I was at my best today and where I drifted from who I want to be
- All my attention goes to what I’m earning, achieving, and how I’m measuring up, and almost none of it to what kind of person all that striving is quietly turning me into
- There’s a "this is just how it’s done" rule everyone in my world treats as gospel
Practices that may help
- The Examined Life
Socrates’ claim that "the unexamined life is not worth living" (Apology, 38a) means that a life lived without sustained reflection on one’s values, beliefs, and actions is a kind of sleepwalking. The Socratic method — elenchus — is a specific form of examination: honest questioning that surfaces inconsistencies and untested assumptions. As a practice, it overlaps with metacognition and reflective practice, which have genuine evidence bases, though Socrates’ philosophical claim is stronger than any psychological finding. - Conduct a regular examined-life audit
Periodically ask: which of the beliefs I am living by have I actually examined, and which am I just inheriting?
The Socratic Method, Made Practical - Know thyself — map your actual values against your actions
Compare what you say you value with what your behavior reveals you actually value.
The Examined Life - The daily examen (end-of-day review)
Spend five minutes each evening reviewing where you were most and least true to yourself today.
Svadhyaya: Self-Study as a Daily Practice - Prioritize the health of your soul above external goods
Ask regularly whether you are attending to who you are becoming, not only to what you are acquiring.
The Examined Life - Question what everyone takes for granted
Choose one widely shared assumption — in your field, your culture, or your circle — and examine it honestly.
The Examined Life - Audit whether you are living your life or someone else’s
Identify the places where your choices reflect others’ expectations rather than your own values.
The Regret of the Dying - Write a brief final accounting
Write as if you’re reporting on your life: what did you do with your time?
Memento Mori: Using Mortality Awareness to Focus What Matters - The Daily Examen: Reviewing the Day
The Examen is a short, structured evening review from the Ignatian tradition: you replay the day with gratitude and honest attention to where you felt drawn toward or away from your values, then carry one resolve into tomorrow. It is a centuries-old contemplative practice; its benefits are best described as mechanistically plausible and widely reported rather than established by controlled trials. - Keep it brief and daily
Do a short Examen most days rather than a long one occasionally.
The Daily Examen: Reviewing the Day
Related concerns
- The Examined Life As A Caregiver
Socrates’ claim that "the unexamined life is not worth living" (Apology, 38a) means that a life lived without sustained reflection on one’s values, beliefs, and actions is a kind of sleepwalking. The Socratic method — elenchus — is a specific form of examination: honest questioning that surfaces inconsistencies and untested assumptions. As a practice, it overlaps with metacognition and reflective practice, which have genuine evidence bases, though Socrates’ philosophical claim is stronger than any psychological finding.
- The Examined Life With My Team
Socrates’ claim that "the unexamined life is not worth living" (Apology, 38a) means that a life lived without sustained reflection on one’s values, beliefs, and actions is a kind of sleepwalking. The Socratic method — elenchus — is a specific form of examination: honest questioning that surfaces inconsistencies and untested assumptions. As a practice, it overlaps with metacognition and reflective practice, which have genuine evidence bases, though Socrates’ philosophical claim is stronger than any psychological finding.
- Care Of The Soul Socrates
Ask regularly whether you are attending to who you are becoming, not only to what you are acquiring.
Prioritize the health of your soul above external goods
- Elenchus Self Examination
Pick one confident belief and interrogate it as Socrates would: What do you mean? How do you know? What would refute it?
Practice elenchus — cross-examine your own beliefs
- Examined Life Socrates
Socrates’ claim that "the unexamined life is not worth living" (Apology, 38a) means that a life lived without sustained reflection on one’s values, beliefs, and actions is a kind of sleepwalking. The Socratic method — elenchus — is a specific form of examination: honest questioning that surfaces inconsistencies and untested assumptions. As a practice, it overlaps with metacognition and reflective practice, which have genuine evidence bases, though Socrates’ philosophical claim is stronger than any psychological finding.
- Socrates Know Thyself
Compare what you say you value with what your behavior reveals you actually value.
Know thyself — map your actual values against your actions
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