To get the most out of life or to put the most into life, one must have a life-philosophy.
When developing a life-philosophy it is best to start by answering two questions like:
Who are we human beings?
and
Why are we here?
Otherwise, if we start a life-philosophy without covering these first bases we will end up stalling. If we do not cover these important questions then sooner or later we will find the pieces making up the life-philosophy will not mesh or hold together.
Who are we human beings?
There are two most-common views. One says our ancestors are apes and, over eons of time, we have undergone a remarkable string of adaptations to evolve from primordial ooze into human beings. The other says we were created by a greater intelligence.
From my studies, I believe there is no material and empirical evidence to support either view. There is no paper trail to prove human beings evolved from anything but human beings and there is no unchallengeable proof human beings were created by a greater intelligence.
With no proof for either view, what does common sense tell us?
Actually, I mean:
What does my common sense tell me?
and you can test that against
What does your common sense tell you?
My common sense tells me Man did not evolve from primates let alone from primordial ooze. That is not to say I disagree with evolution. I do believe Man and other living things can evolve over time. I read about flea experiments and I believe scientists when they say they have induced generation-to-generation changes in fleas. I read about Darwin’s observations of birds and his conclusions that birds adapted to fit their environments…adapting beak length, etc. This makes sense. So, I can accept the concept of evolution. However, I do not think it is reasonable to conclude Man or any other species evolved from some other species, let alone conclude all creatures sprang from a starter-molecule or a starter-creature dwelling in primordial ooze.
My common sense tells me there is a greater intelligence out there. Two things influence my thinking: the sheer complexity of the things we perceive to be real and the baffling mystery behind those things we perceive to be alive. As examples of the sheer complexity, I cite (1) the amazing human brain, (2) the stupendously-big thing we call the Universe, and (3) the stupendously-small, sub-atomic things which we now believe we will never be able to see. Simply stated, the more we learn about the human brain, the cosmos, and the infinitesimal pieces of matter and/or energy the more complexity we uncover. And, the more we learn about the human brain, the cosmos, and the infinitesimal pieces of matter and/or energy the more we uncover what we do not know.
Having now given the matter enough serious thought, I am convinced there is greater intelligence than that possessed by human beings. I mean, out there, somewhere or perhaps everywhere, there is greater intelligence than mine and yours...and all of ours put together. Not only is there a greater intelligence, there is a far-greater intelligence.
We human beings are a unique and gifted species on our planet. We are here for a reason and that reason is somehow tied to an intelligence far greater than our own. None of us know with certainty who or what that far-greater intelligence is. None of us know with certainty how our existence is tied to that far-greater intelligence.
During the last five or so millennia, written records confirm some of us human beings have experienced enlightenment: Krishna, Abraham, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, and others. These prophets experienced a personal connection with this far-greater intelligence, which, like others before me, I call Universal Intelligence. These prophets shared their experiences with others and over time formal religions evolved. All of these major religions share common aspects. Each religion is founded on the existence of Universal Intelligence. Each religion encourages good behaviour by human beings. All current major religions are based on the experience of prophets who lived as Men. All major religions consider human beings to be worthy and capable of achieving their best accomplishments when they live their lives in synch with Universal Intelligence.
The bases of religions contain accurate thinking. Human beings are worthy. And, human beings will achieve their best accomplishments when they live their lives in synch with Universal Intelligence. We human beings may never fully understand Universal Intelligence. And, we may never know how our existence ties in with Universal Intelligence.
I have chosen to do my best to enjoy the experiences of the linkage with Universal Intelligence on my own, in my own way, rather than through celebrating or following the experiences of other people, including the prophets who initiated the world’s major religions. That is not to say I believe the prophets are wrong in any way. Rather, it seems to me my experiences with Universal Intelligence will be more meaningful if I explore them and figure them out on my own.
I am one human being. I do not know the full sequence of events that got me here. I believe there is a far-greater intelligence out there, which I call Universal Intelligence. I know my life is somehow tied to Universal Intelligence, however, I do not know how or when that began and I accept I may never know those aspects of my existence.
Regardless, I have been blessed with a human life and I am on a journey, using it.
I am on a life-long journey of learning and improving.
I am developing a life-philosophy and I am happy with the progress I have made.
The next question…
Why are we here?
While none of us know how we human beings got here, and that may always be beyond our comprehension, after our arrival and after we as individuals gather a level of awareness we can understand why we are here.
Here is the framework:
- human beings are here to experience a physical life, feelings, thoughts, and actions
- human beings are here to learn and advance
- human beings are here to contribute and share experiences
- human beings are here to experience the link with Universal Intelligence
Here are the most-important details:
- human beings are here to cohabit
- human beings are here to procreate
- human beings are here to consume
- each human being is truly unique in make-up, in experience, and in perception
- each human being has a unique physical aspect
- each human being has a unique spiritual aspect
On purpose, every purpose is unique.
And, every person has a unique purpose.
Some feel a strong need to understand that purpose. Others do not.
I am one who has always felt a strong need to understand my purpose. It has taken many years of thought. And now I understand my purpose is to learn and to help other business people learn better ways of interacting with people. To accomplish this, I must have clearly in my mind my life-philosophy. My life-philosophy will contain the major things I have learned about people and how to interact with them; it will be my sourcebook for building tools and communicating to help others learn.
My life-philosophy will be grounded on the spiritual side and acknowledge the ‘real world’ we live in.
I do not want to teach spiritual things. I simply want to disclose the spiritual aspects I have embraced so people know where I am coming from.
Destined Fate or Self-Determination?
Destined Fate: Some people say things like “All things are subject to decay and when fate summons, monarchs must obey” [John Dryden ], “But blind to former as to future fate, what mortal knows his pre-existent state?” [Alexander Pope], and “Fate determines many things, no matter how we struggle” [Otto Weininger ]. Some people accept ‘their fate’ without really thinking much about it. Others think deeply on the matter and say it as their well-thought-out conclusions. Many people believe, at least to some degree, they have little influence over their future.
Self-Determination: Other people say things like “If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right.” [Henry Ford].”, “Our life is what our thoughts make it” [Marcus Auelius], “Whatever you create in your life you must first create in your imagination” [Tycho Photiou], and “Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice” [William Jennings Bryan].
These sorts of thinking are key facets of spirituality and some religions. They are also the backbone of most leaders’ philosophies and approaches to life.
What does my common sense tell me?
My common sense tells me I must consider moderation. I have read about zealous proponents of fate. That is the legacy of Alexander the Great…or at least it is the story that has become legacy…a Man who believed he was a god and invincible. I have read the words of a zealous proponent of self-determination, Robert Collier [The SECRET Of The Ages]. At one point in this book, he claims a strong enough mix of faith, thought, and action can remove aging and death.
While I believe Courage can lead to tremendous power and influence, common sense tells me human beings are not gods. While I believe Thought can lead to tremendous power and influence, common sense tells me human beings experience only a limited amount of and a limited control over physical life.
I believe in Self-Determination, bounded by realism.
For business, I believe in ‘Plan the Work and Work the Plan’. [Napoleon Hill] I believe the exercise of thinking and planning contains stand-alone, process value and I believe it allows us to engage a force conceptually similar to the force that gets engaged when a seed is planted in hopes of growing a flowering plant. As noted above, I believe human beings are here to contribute.
To begin to explain: we are here to construct, we are here to be constructive, we are here to apply our unique contributions as we construct. To the extent we accept we are here to construct we must start that construction somewhere…and we know the beginning point. The beginning is in our Minds. Construction begins with thought. Perhaps, it is a thought triggered by intuition. Perhaps, it is a thought triggered by instruction. Regardless of the origin of the thought, it becomes an image in our Minds…details get added until the image becomes clear enough to motivate first action. The early thoughts, the image, the details, and the actions that follow are done with a level of faith and belief in the end point. The construct of the Mind becomes a construction: a building, a painting, a piece of music, a piece of art, a road, a bridge, a skyscraper, a book, a philosophy, etc.
If we believe in Self-Determination then we live lives laced with positive mental states like hope and faith. These mental states are accompanied by good, positive feelings. It makes sense we should choose these sorts of mental states and feelings.
And – our choices must be bounded by realism. ‘Big Hairy Audacious Goals’ [Collins] may work for some folks, but they do not work for most people. For most people goals must be challenging but realistic and goal-focused action must be properly paced, not too fast and not too slow. If goals are too big and hairy or the pace doesn’t fit, Courage and Confidence suffer. When Courage and Confidence suffer, people experience bad thoughts and feelings and these tend to shrink construction and spread to other people. All of this reduces the likelihood of achievement. In other words, unrealistic desires and goals work against their own construction.
We can influence our future. Our choices today influence our future tomorrows. Our gift of choice is double-edged. Good choices lead to good outcomes. Bad choices lead to bad outcomes.
Our gift of Self-Determination has limitations. Our goals must be realistic. We must truly desire the outcome. We must clearly imagine the outcome and its details in our Mind, we must have Vivid Vision...we must set images into our neuronal patterns.
We must Plan our Work. And we must Work our Plan. As we do these things we must call upon accurate thinking, worthy intent, and focus and we must act with persistence. We will encounter obstacles and we must make adjustments. With these things in place, our ability to construct is directly proportional to our ability to keep the desired end-point vividly imaged in our Minds and thoughts.
The Law of Attraction
The Law of Attraction has been a topic of discussion for millennia. While it was not called by that name until the last handful of generations, it is an important part of major religions: faith and belief are the mental states, desire is the message, prayer is the action, and the Law of Attraction enables completion of the communication.
A summary of The Law of Attraction: Our thoughts are pieces of unlimited energy. Our thoughts influence our future experiences. Our thoughts influence other people. Our thoughts connect with Universal Intelligence. We attract the ‘objects’ of our thoughts. When our thoughts are clear and focused and packaged with desire, faith, and belief we can attract to ourselves the ‘objects’ of our desires. We can, with intent, call upon Universal Intelligence to help us. Also, we can attract to us people who will help us achieve our goals, the ‘objects’ of our desires.
That, in summary, is the Law of Attraction.
One does not have to embrace formal religion to accept the existence of a Law of Attraction. However, I cannot see how a person can accept the Law of Attraction without accepting the existence of Universal Intelligence and the existence of connections between individual human Minds and that Universal Intelligence. Also, one has to accept the existence of a thought-force which operates ‘beyond’ the present laws of physics.
For over 100 years, there have been claims of experiments confirming the existence of this thought-force. However, the scientific community does not embrace the existence of it or Universal Intelligence.
Meta-physicists and many other people cite several common human experiences as evidence of the thought-force and/or Universal Intelligence. Examples include:
- synchronicity
- intuition
- déjà vu
- dreams
- memories of past lives [reincarnation]
- amazing recoveries from illness
- faith healing
- spreading of moods and mental states
- ‘clicking’ [Ori Brafman & Rom Brafman]
I believe there is at least one force operating ‘beyond’ the laws of physics as we now know them. There is at least a source-of-life force, which, as yet, remains unexplained by the laws of physics. This source-of-life force illustrates itself in plants and animals, differentiating them from other forms of matter such as rocks, water, and oxygen. It is no stretch to believe this source-of-life force is not constrained by the laws that explain the ways of matter and the ways of other forms of energy such as gravitation, electricity, and atomic forces.
I have read that this life force appears to kick in when the fertilized human egg is about 96 hours old. At that point in the cell-splitting something magic happens and things change…life appears to arrive.
Concluding Universal Intelligence must be limited to the presently known laws of physics and other sciences is a gross underestimation of Universal Intelligence and it is sheer arrogance. Mankind has made that mistake before on numerous occasions. [Galileo provided a glaring example.] We must accept the limitations of our knowledge and the danger of dogmatic claims. If Mankind has learned one thing, we have learned the more we learn the more we realize the enormous complexity and the enormous volume of things yet to be learned.
There is no question. Man has much to learn about thought and its interaction with Universal Intelligence.
Until we learn more, we should accept thought is a force, a special gift enjoyed by human beings. A force so special must be tied to Universal Intelligence. As we have done with other forces, we should experiment to see the value tied to this thought-force. As we have done with other forces, we should use this thought-force to construct.
That is what I am working to do.
The Differences and The Strengths
People are unique.
Some view that comment as a trite point that ‘goes without saying’.
Other people have vehemently argued ‘that’s just plain wrong!’
Our sensory faculties continually tell us people are different: we see it every day and we hear it every day, every time we sense and observe others. Yet, many of us underestimate the extent of The Differences. We tend to stereotype: we tend to see ‘us’ in contrast to ‘them’. In addition, we suffer from attribution bias and a spectrum of other biases: we are not objective, we tend to view others’ actions more harshly than we view our own actions, we tend to seek justifications, etc.
To improve our dealings with other people we must:
- understand people are unique
- work to understand individuals rather than stereotype
- be objective as we work to understand others
Everyone has Strengths and weaknesses. Most people dwell on weaknesses, their own weaknesses and the weaknesses they perceive in others. Perhaps, the Pareto Principle applies here…if we could isolate the time people spend thinking about Strengths and weaknesses then we might find people spend 80% of that time on weaknesses and only 20% on Strengths…that seems about right.
I work at minimizing the amount of time I spend thinking about weaknesses. I believe there is no such thing as constructive criticism. Constructive criticism - that’s an oxymoron. My experience tells me very, very few people receive criticism as constructive. And, that applies regardless of how well we try to package the criticism so it is constructive. So, we should minimize the amount of criticism we deliver. That applies whether or not the criticism is written or verbal or conveyed by body language.
Some people are born with a natural talent and ability to self-monitor. They show poise and they have a genuine and deep interest in other people. These people listen well. These people are magnetic. They possess an interpersonal gift. I am not one of those people. I gain comfort knowing, while most of us are not born with this gift we can learn enough to succeed and even excel in interpersonal relationships.
One key to interpersonal success is the ability to focus interest in others while setting aside, temporarily, interest in self. Another key is being non-judgmental. Judgment is criticism regardless of whether or not or how it is expressed. The best way to minimize conveyance of criticism is to remove criticism-thoughts from your Mind. Rather than think criticism-thoughts, think about The Differences and seek to understand The Differences and particularly, seek to understand other people’s Strengths.
I am not naturally skilled at self-monitoring. I have had to learn how to self-monitor and how to observe others. I have had to learn how to reduce my tendency to judge others.
I have had to work at understanding, developing, and putting to good use my Strengths. I try to manage around or through my weaknesses and avoid trying to make strengths where strengths cannot be made. Also, I work to help other people do the same thing.
Appreciate The Differences.
Promote Strengths.
Use Strengths to construct.
The Power of Positive Thinking
There is no question. Positive thinking has much constructive potential. It is contagious and magnetic. Positive thinking leads to a pleasing countenance…pleasing appearance, pleasing tone of voice, etc.
Similarly, but in the opposite direction, negative thinking is destructive. Negative thinking is contagious and repulsive because it leads to an unpleasant countenance, unpleasant body language, etc…repulsive physical manifestations.
What does my common sense tell me?
Common sense confirms the above. I know how I feel uplifted by some people. I know we feel a need to avoid other people. I know it takes quite a bit of thought-control and practice to develop thick enough skin to withstand the force of unpleasant people.
With the exception of the use of negative-logical thinking in certain circumstances [Black Hat thinking as explained by Edward de Bono], there are no good arguments in favour of the merits of negative thinking. Conversely, it is very difficult to come up with meaningful arguments against the merits of positive thinking. These two facts apply regardless of other aspects of one’s life-philosophy.
Since positive thinking is so vital, it is important to check it by performing regular self-analysis. It is important to observe, as objectively as possible, how other people react to our presence and the things we say and do. This analysis leads to self-knowledge. Self-knowledge enables self-improvement. Continuous self-improvement work is required because positive thinking is not just an aspect of a pleasing personality it is also tied to Courage and Confidence. And Courage and Confidence are essential for action and for success.
...to be continued