Still one of the best people I know that will make you think.
PHILOSOPHY
Philosophy is the chief cornerstone in the foundation of The Five Major Pieces To The Life Puzzle. A major factor in determining how our lives turn out is the way we choose to think. Everything that goes on inside the human mind in the form of thoughts, ideas and information forms our personal philosophy. Our philosophy then influences our habits and behavior, and this is really where it all begins.
ATTITUDE
Our lives are greatly affected by what we know since what we know determines the decisions we will make. Just as we are affected by what we know, we are also affected by how we feel. While philosophy deals essentially with the logical side of life -- information and thinking habits -- attitude focuses primarily on the emotional issues that affect our existence. What we know determines our philosophy. How we feel about what we know determines our attitude.
It is our emotional nature that governs most of our daily conduct in our personal and business worlds. It is the emotional aspect of our experiences that determines our behavior. How we each feel about life’s events is a powerful force that can either freeze us in our tracks or inspire us to take immediate action on any given day.
Like thoughts, emotions have the capacity to propel us toward future fortune or future disaster. The feelings we carry within us about people, our work, our homes, our finances, and about the world around us collectively form our attitude. With the right attitude human beings can move mountains. With the wrong attitude they can be crushed by the smallest grain of sand. Having the right attitude is an essential prerequisite for success and happiness. The right attitude is one of the fundamentals of the good life. That is why we must constantly examine our feelings about our role in the world and about our possibilities for achieving our dreams. The feelings that we have affect our prevailing attitude, and it is our prevailing attitude that ultimately determines the quality o our lives. Attitude is a major determining factor in how our lives turn out. Since everything in life affects everything else, we must make a careful study of everything and everyone that might be having the wrong affect on our current attitude.
ACTIVITY
There is an ancient story known as the Parable of the Talents. According to the story, one day the master of the household gathered his three servants together and announced that he would soon be going away on a long journey. Before leaving he gave each of his servants a certain number of talents. In those days a talent was worth several years’ wages to the average laborer, so each talent represented a substantial sum of money. To one servant he gave five talents; to another he gave two; and to the third he gave one talent. He cautioned the servants to look after these talents in his absence and then left. While the master was gone the servant with the five talents took them to the marketplace and traded with them until he had converted the five into ten. The second servant did the same, trading his two into four. However, the third servant, being a very cautious man, took the one talent that he had been given and buried it in the ground for safekeeping. After a time the master returned and gathered his three servants together to inquire about what they had done with the talents he had given to them. The first servant explained how he had wisely traded the five talents he had been given and presented his master with the original five plus the five he had earned. The master said to the servant: “Well done!” The second servant came forward and said that he had also traded wisely and presented his master with the original two talents he had been given plus two more. Again the master said, “Well done!” Finally the third servant stepped forward and told his story. “Fearing that I might lose your money, I carefully buried it in the ground.” He then proudly presented the master with the one talent he had been given to look after. The master took one look at the single unused talent and said, “Take the one talent from him and give it to the one who now has ten.”
Many people are not very happy with the way this story ends. After all, it does not seem fair to take the little that the third servant had and give it to the servant who had ten. But remember, life is not designed to give rewards in proportion to our level of need, it gives them in proportion to our level of deserve. The moral of this story is that whatever life has handed us, whether is one talent or a hundred, it is our responsibility to do something with what we have been given! That is how we change pennies into fortunes and obstacles into opportunity -- by taking all that we have and all that we are and putting it to work. Sooner or later we must convert knowledge and good feelings into activity. And as the parable also clearly demonstrates, the more we start with, the more we will receive for all of our disciplined work. That is why starting with a sound personal philosophy and the right attitude is so important. The more we know and the better we feel about ourselves and our opportunities, the greater our chances for success will be. But a growing awareness and a positive attitude are not enough in and of themselves. What we know and how we feel merely determine our potential for achievement. Whether we actually achieve our goals is ultimately determined by our activity. We can have a well-balanced philosophy, great depth of character, and a good attitude about life, but unless we put these valuable assets to work, we may find ourselves making more excuses than progress. What we know and how we feel are important factors that affect the quality of our lives. But remember, they re merely the foundation upon which to build a better future. Completing the rest of the picture requires action.
RESULTS
Any business or personal activity undertaken in the proper season, and combined with the passage of enough time, will produce a predictable result. The reason for the seasons is productivity, and the purpose of our activity is results. Results are the harvest that comes from our past efforts. If the farmer has planted only a handful of seeds in the spring, he cannot expect to reap a very bountiful harvest in the fall. Likewise, if a person has engaged in only minimal activity in the past, he should not expect significant results in the present. Results are always in direct proportion to effort. Those who rest in the spring do not reap in the fall, regardless of need and regardless of desire. Results are the reward reserved for those who had the foresight to seize an earlier opportunity. If the opportunity was missed, the reward will be withheld. The opportunity of springtime is brief. Opportunity approaches, arrives and then quickly passes. It does not linger; nor does it pause to look back. opportunity merely presents itself, and those who respond to its arrival with intelligent activity will realize a full measure of the desired result. All that we do determines our future results. Like the farmer who tills the soil in preparation for planting the seed, we must work to develop a sound philosophy. Like the farmer who cultivates and fertilizes his crop to destroy the weeds and nourish the growing seeds, we must strive to develop a new attitude. And like the farmer who tends his crop from morning until nightfall in anticipation of the future harvest, we must engage in labor -- in daily activity. If our past labors have produced a poor harvest, there is nothing we can do about it. We cannot alter the past. We cannot ask nature to make an exception to the rules no matter how hungry we are. Nor will nature permit us to ask the soil for an advance. The only thing we can do is to prepare for the inevitable arrival of another spring -- another opportunity -- and then plant, nourish and tend our new crop as diligently as possible, remembering the painful consequences of our past neglect. In remembering the consequences, however, we must not allow ourselves to be overcome by them. Their lessons must serve us, not overwhelm us. Throughout our lives we will experience a number of spring times and a number of harvests. Our future happiness is seldom the product of any one harvest. Rather, it is the result of scores of individual opportunities which are either well-used or sadly neglected. For our happiness lies in the accumulative effect of our past activity. This is why it is so important to study results. Checking our results on a regular basis provides us with an excellent indicator of how well we are using our opportunities. Our current results are an early indicator of what the future will likely hold in store as we continue along our present course. If our current results are satisfying, then the future will likely produce the same bountiful harvest. If our current results are not as we would like them to be, then we need to take a closer look at those factors that may have nudged or even pushed us in the wrong direction.
LIFESTYLE
The final blending of our philosophy, attitude, activity and results is what creates this final personal quest that we call lifestyle. Lifestyle is how we choose to live and how we design our lives. It is the sophisticated understanding of the difference between life’s trinkets and life’s treasures. Many have learned to earn well, but they have not yet learned to live well. It’s as though they have decided to wait until they become wealthy before they start practicing sophistication. What they fail to understand is that practiced sophistication is as much a cause of wealth as it is a result of wealth. Some attribute their poor attitude about life to their low level of income. They maintain that if they ever solved their money problems, they would show us what happiness is really all about. Obviously, they have not yet discovered that it was their failure to find happiness in the past that has affected their current income. If they continue with this error in judgment, their lack of happiness in the present will determine their future income as well. Until they have discovered that happiness is part of the cause and that wealth is merely an effect, their circumstances are not likely to change.
DEVELOPING A SENSE OF URGENCY
In summarizing all that we have shared in this book, perhaps it would be accurate to say that our ultimate success or failure depends on three fundamental things:
What we know;
How we feel about what we know, and;
What we do with, and about, all that we feel and all that we know.
But there is another fundamental that must be mastered if we are truly serious about making meaningful changes in our lives. This last fundamental is the glue that holds together all of the pieces to the life puzzle. You see, it is quite possible that even after applying all of the principles we have discussed in this book, some people will still fall far short of their objectives. Despite all of their efforts to refine their philosophy, to develop an attitude that is conducive to success, to work harder on themselves, to study their results, and to live a more unique lifestyle, all that they dream of becoming, seeing, having and experiencing may still elude them. Why would those who seem to be serious about making these important changes still be wandering around in circles rather than moving ahead? Why would those who are planting their seeds fail to reap a bountiful harvest?
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