On the way to experiencing fulfilment we need a place to start. Every journey begins somewhere, but I don’t mean the day we were born or some moment of revelation. What I mean here is the creating of a foundation for our sense of self; the me, the I, the self. I believe that this Foundation has three parts to it.
The first part is a deep knowledge and understanding of ourselves. This comes from continuous questions and answers about how we tick, how we see the world and what makes us feel the whole spectrum of emotions that we feel. It also means trying out new things and seeing how we respond to them. This can be done at any age but I recommend starting to do this in the first quarter of your lives. If you are further along your life journey like me, begin from where you are, as it is a continuous process. The art of fulfilment is in the act of living our lives well, and to do this we first need to know ourselves deeply.
The second part is the acquiring of wisdom. This should be a constant endeavour. Wisdom enriches our lives and guides us along our life long journey. Reading, watching or listening to wisdom every day will give us the ability to make wise choices, to behave nobly and to help others to live their lives well. Wisdom is never self serving, it is always focused on the greater good. It is the constant mixing of this self knowledge and acquiring of wisdom that builds the Foundation from which we experience and interact with the world.
The third part of this Foundation is what I call our Foundational Prism, the prism of our values and beliefs that we view the world through. This prism affects what we think, say and do in every moment and is a major key to living a life well, and living a life well is how we can experience fulfilment. This Foundation is a kind of alchemy, a mixture of self knowledge, acquired wisdom, our values and beliefs. Fulfilment is not something we find, it is a biproduct of living our lives well, starting with our Foundation. This is deep living.
What is stopping you from getting to know yourself deeply?
The Fullfilment Project 