Hey Owen,

Haha you have even been more synthetic than me!

Almost a year from now, after being slightly depressed and dissatisfied about my life and the career choices i had done, i went through the same process.

Here are my own core principle that matter to me :

- Expressing one's uniqueness through creativity (for me, singing and writing)
- Helping other people by using the skills i am proficient in
- Being intellectually/politically active in order to improve what can be done on a larger scale

They sound rather vague but i think if one takes time to understand what they mean, he will find some sense to it rather than thinking its just another commonsense set of mantras.
I am glad to have somehow brought a synthesis between individual and sociological approaches. One basically says that you have to change yourself before you can claim to change the world, the other says that the individual alone has little power, and that what matters is social and political activity (note that how i understand "political" is a larger than politics per se).
I think both approaches are legit. You can do both of them, and make the world a better place while improving yourself as a person. About helping other people, it sounds like commonsense, but in my opinion, it is the words "using the skills i am proficient in" that are important. I have also acknowledged the fact that if i want to intervene, i am more inclined towards the intellectual side.

Okay, so, now, the actions i have done :
- Quitting a management oriented career, while i dedicated two years of my life full time to earn it
- Starting a new career as a teacher (social sciences and economics). Not sure where it will take me. I may consider also working on a thesis.
- Singing, singing, singing!
- Sleeping more and eating healthier
- Stop buying meat (although i still eat salmon)
- Improving a lot of daily patterns such as listening more to what people say, paying attention to my own emotional state etc

One thing is that you never take time to count what has been accomplished because once you are into this process, you discover each day the bulk of the things you have to improve!