Being Alone with Our Life Philosophy

If we want to ensure that we’re heading in a good direction, it’s not enough to just hit the gas. We also need to know where we are, what brought us here, and what’s going to get us where we want to go.

I get the sense that I’m not the only one fascinated by the TV series Alone. I think in a lot of ways in connects us to our evolutionary roots AND our Roman gladiator roots all in one show. We get to watch some human ingenuity while thinking “Well, my life might be rough, but I haven’t resorted to eating snails because my gill net isn’t paying off.”

One thing that I find particularly significant in the show is the evolution not just of the contestants abilities—though it really is amazing to see how the first season’s folks barely lasted a couple of weeks and didn’t build nearly the significant structures that later seasons’ did—but also how their psychology evolved as well. They start talking about their goal to test their abilities and resourcefulness and about their goals and aspirations. And the ones who last a few months, seem to all rally around some core philosophy for life of some deeply rooted purpose: making their Dad proud, helping their kids have a better life, and so forth.

There have only been 8 seasons I believe and that means 80 contestants. That might not be a large enough sample to really draw unbiased scientific conclusions, but it certainly has made me think a lot about what my purpose and core driving force should be. When we strip away the trappings of our jobs, our titles, or uniforms or important responsibilities, what’s left? Our identity and core values. I know sometimes I let my job set my identity for me. It’s so pervasive that how do we typically first talk to people when we are getting to know them? We ask what they do. And the typical response is a relaying of our professional life.

That can certainly be a part of why we do what we do, but we certainly weren’t born accountants or school teachers or business people. It seems like to me that the longest lasting contestants have something figured out maybe. They talk a lot about family and their introduction to the outdoors as being a sacred experience for them.

And though we might not want or need 70 days of extremely hard survival while being completely alone the whole time to discover these sorts of deeply rooted life purposes, I’ve found even sitting down for half an hour here or there during our weeks to either think of write journal about what matters most to us can be incredibly significant. And if we’re willing to dedicate a bit more to pull out our important stories from our lives and contemplate why they are the important stories for us, we might start seeing some key themes that, once recognized, can help us understand why some interactions end up with hurt feelings or why one experience is amazing and another is a disappointment. If we want to ensure that we’re heading in the direction we want to, it’s not enough to just hit the gas. We also need to know where we are, what brought us here, and what is going to get us where we want to go.

We don’t have to be religious to believe that somethings are bigger than us. And that humility can be a remarkable strength because it can make us curious about others and recognize that we don’t have everything figured out either.