Tag: Acquiring Wisdom

Find The Quiet In The Storm

Achieving Goals, Happiness, Health, Success
Find the quiet in the storm,
Find the path in the chaos.
The quiet is the mountain,
The path is the light.
Find the balance between the two.

We all live through challenging, noisy times and chaotic times, too. Not necessarily every day, but it happens to us all. To try and control the storm or the chaos would be a fools errand really as the world can not be controlled. The only thing we can realistically control is ourselves; our minds and the paths we choose to follow.

To find quiet in our minds amongst the storm around us, to find it despite the storm is a skill that can be practised and mastered. To practise meditation is to lift the mental weights that build the capability to be quiet and calm when all around you is not.

Similarly, the paths we choose in life define us, but there are so many paths, so many choices to make each day. To choose a path and to stick with it is also a skill. To follow a path amongst the chaos is not easy, but it is possible. The trick is to see the light that illuminates your chosen path and to follow it, no matter what.

These two things, the stillness in your mind and the path you follow, are different things, both with their own importance. The challenge is to balance them both. Too much stillness, and you don’t get anywhere. Only follow the path, and you can get lost along the way. This is the challenge of living a wise and intentional life.

2022 Goals: Defining Your Purpose

Happiness, Success, The Pathway To Fulfilment

There is a lot of talk about finding your Purpose and then everything being good in your life. It is not as simple as that, but it is important to figure it out.

Step 5 in the Pathway To Fulfilment is Defining Your Purpose. This step comes after Step 1 and 2, where you firstly Acquire Wisdom and then develop Self Knowledge and then Self Mastery.

This process involves figuring out what your beliefs, values and ethics are. Then looking at the reason you do everything you do in life. Behind each reason is your Purpose. My Purpose is to help others live well.

So, what will you do this year to work on defining your Purpose?

You could look at what principle you already live by, you could define your beliefs about the important things in life, you could figure what you value or what your ethics are.

2022 Goals: Acquiring Wisdom

Happiness, Success, The Pathway To Fulfilment

The first Step on my Pathway To Fulfilment is Acquired Wisdom. It is the first step because without wisdom it can be hard to find happiness and success, and therefore fulfilment. On the path through life we can make bad choices and make big mistakes that cause us to suffer, due to a lack of wisdom.

What wisdom can do is reduce the suffering we experience in life, through the usual trial and error, and help us to find the right kind of happiness and success for us.

So, what ways will you seek out wisdom in 2022?

One way to acquire wisdom is to read good books. There are plenty of good books in the Recommended Reading List on the Resources page. You could also find a lot of wisdom on YouTube and where you listen to podcasts. You can also seek out mentors. There are lots of ways to acquire wisdom.

The Lessons Of Life

Happiness, The Pathway To Fulfilment

The experiences we have help to steer our way through life by causing us to pull away or pull closer to aspects of life, depending on what happens to us, and the meaning we apply to the experiences.

There is a saying that ‘when the student is ready the teacher will appear.’ I believe that this is true of the experiences we have. If we look through the lens of a student as we navigate through life, then the experiences we have become our teachers.

There is a danger, however, that unless we have the clarity of wisdom, we will likely draw inaccurate conclusions and make assumptions that skew our understanding. This is why Acquiring Wisdom is the first Step in my Pathway To Fulfilment.

Life can be a great teacher when we begin with wisdom, because it opens us up to new and unexplored wisdom. If we begin with ignorance, the lessons that life offers are often not even seen and we succumb to fear, shame and anger; emotions that dominate those without wisdom.

Your Best Self Is Yourself

Leadership, Success, The Pathway To Fulfilment

Many of us want to be like Steve Jobs or Michael Jordon or Barak Obama, but the world already has these people. If we are to strive to be like anybody else we lose, because we lose ourselves in the process.

We can certainly learn lessons from these people, in fact we should learn their lessons, but more important are the lessons we teach ourselves through trying and failing and trying again. When we try new things we learn how We do such things, what our strengths and skills are and how we can use them effectively in the world.

Don’t strive to be the next anybody, strive to be the best version of yourself that you can. Read, watch and learn the lessons of others, understand the wisdom that has come with their experience, but never avoid going out into the world and gaining your own wisdom through your experience.

If nothing else, learn how to be yourself and seek to make a difference in the world, and you will.

Why Should We Read?

The Pathway To Fulfilment

The first step on my Pathway To Fulfilment is to Acquire Wisdom. It is essential, I feel, to have a grounding in wisdom, because on a journey to living a fulfilling life the more wisdom we begin with the less time we spend making mistakes and going down blind alleys.

The traditional way of acquiring said wisdom is to read, to read lots and read broadly. This is still an effective way to do it, and I will explain why in a moment, but the same information can be obtained through conversations with well informed people, exploring websites or watching YouTube videos. Many universities have lectures on any subject you could want to study free on YouTube.

The advantage I have found in reading books is that often someone has poured their life experience into the book they have written and this is invaluable. Also, a book does not require batteries and can easily be carried around and shared with others.

When you have acquired a number of books you will end up with your own personal library and simply looking at the books you have read will remind you of snippets of wisdom without needing to read the books again. Though reading some books again after you have lived a little bit of life will bring a new perspective to the ideas and words in them.

So, read frequently and broadly, but also take advantage of the masses of resources available on the world wide web. I have a list of books that I recommend on the Resources page, please do have a look.