99. Ladies, Live an Examined Life and Listen to Your Gut

At the end of the day, people live one of two lives: an examined life or an unexamined life.

An unexamined life is when you move through the years mindlessly, not really thinking about what you’re doing or why you’re doing it, or even if you like doing it. You’re just doing it, whatever “it” is, because that’s what other people are doing—because that’s what you think you’re supposed to do. Or because, quite frankly, it’s easier. Living an unexamined life means living a life someone else designed for you.

The examined life is different. The examined life is when you tune out the voices, sounds, and visuals in your midst and make important decisions based on what you want and on what you believe is right. More than anything, it means dismissing cultural trends that conflict with your core beliefs.

IN THIS EPISODE:

2:40  Living an unexamined life means living a life someone else designed FOR you

3:30  Most of the noise today comes in the form of the media

4:10  If your goal is to get married and stay married, you have to avoid the media

4:20  Spend time with like-minded people

8:15  Women are making very real decisions about their very real lives based on something they absorb as real but isn’t

10:40  If you regularly absorb pop culture, you are absorbing the wrong ideas about men and marriage

11:50  “Spin sisters” are a group of media elite who influence the ways every day women think

13:50  Stop caring about what other people think and do

14:35  Women have been taught to value money and prestige over love and family

15:05  Don’t let the opinions of others drown out your inner voice