From the Beginning

The first step toward freedom is not fearing or being offended by ideas. Once one has the capacity to ponder a concept without bias then one is able to begin fully exploring the possibilities of that concept as opposed to denying entrance into your internal conversation of any idea which on the face of it appears to be antithetical to your present belief system. Employing a bit of the Pyrrhonistic idea of Epoché in other words. (Cf. Pancritical Rationalism)

This allows one to increase the depth of ones philosophical palette. This, in turn, furthers the philosophical 'opportunities', so to speak, one may pursue, which enriches the routes one may take to fulfilling the desire of a satisfying, productive and successful life.

Values

Applying systems theory and the like to looking at our systems of belief and our overall philosophy so that we may 'perfect' them and clarify them. This allows us to make sound and consistent decisions in our daily lives.

Studying systems theory with this in mind helps us with identifying the organizational structures of our ideosphere. It helps with understanding what fundamental concepts we employ in deciding which more complex concepts we choose to believe, as well as which are inconsistent with our fundamental principles.

Once we identify our value system we may further look to see why we make the choices we do and whether these are consistent with our belief system as we claim it to be. Our actions truly illustrate what our actual values are.

It must be noted that these actions are by no means congruent with our stated values. Our stated values, those which we may only superficially think we hold, are nothing but stated values if, when it comes time to act accordingly or not to said values, we choose the latter. Thus, actions speak louder than words.