When we were toddlers we so much wanted to grow up and start school. Some of us were attracted by the school uniforms worn by our simblings, the fascination of seeing them being able to count form one up to ten, the food tins that mom prepared for them every evening with some nice treats in them and so forth. Once we had our opportunity of starting school we never ceased dreaming. We imagined ourself graduating high school, we envisioned ourself attending that matric dance function towards the end of our schooling days and started dreaming about our ideal careers. All of the above explain one thing, and that is the teleological nature of man.
What does that mean? It means that as humans we've got that thing inside us that whisper to us that our being is completed by our future status qou. That is the point where dreams begin to play a major role in our lives. As we dream about our future being we automatically set goals for ourself. Ironically we interprete our future being in the context of our current experiences, naive of the fact that life is not constant but ever changing. Consequently we begin to face real challenges in life as we meet up with the unexpected.
Waldo Emmerson, America's modern philosopher clear's this dicotomy through his theory called the law of motion. Emmerson's law of motion explains that nothing is stationery in life. Which means that everything is constantly moving. A person could be moving forward or he could be moving backwards with his life, I could be building my life or I could be demolishing it, another person could be growing or he could be dying. Therefore I totally agree with Emmerson's law.
Now that I v'e explained the two schools of thougth, i.e. the teleological nature of man and Emmerson's law of motion I would like to propose strategies that could be applied to encourage growth in our lives.
i) Be aware of your thoughts and action at all times: - The law of attraction which is explained well in a book called the secret, wriitten by Rhonda Byrne explains that thoughts are things. Whatever we think about right now could determine our actions and our direction in future. Being aware of our thougts and actions will hint to us if we are taking a forward or backward motion in our life. If we are making a forward motion we are growing and if we making a backward motion then we are dying.
ii) Live your life proactively - Avoid living your life passively or through trial and error scenarios. Take the driving seat of your life. You can poactively and purposefully influence the direction that your life inclines into.
iii) Read widely - Ignorance is a sure thing to take your life into a backward motion. Those of you who are christians will agree with me. The holy bible makes it clear in a scripture that says "My people perish because of lack of knowledge'. If you are ignorant you dont grow and finally you perish (die). Read a lot of books magazines, websites etc and read from diverse subject matter. This will enrich the depth and the magnitute of your thinking patterns. The richer your thinking patterns the richer your growth potential.
iv) Find your self a mentor or coach - Find yourself someone that you can look up to. Someone you could you have confidence in and you can look up to that person as your role model, someone who can guide you though the journey of your life. Experience has taught me that a mentor does not neccessarily have to be a person you intereact with face to face. You can make yourself a mentor from people out there that you respect a lot. These could be politicians, World class entrepreneurs, authors etc. You can read their biographies, articles, books or even attend their seminars. Personally I made mentors out of three people I have not met before and believe me, these people have impacted my life in a big way and they are Dr. Stephen R. Covey (I have Read most of his books), Dr. John F.Demartini (I am inspired by his book - you can have an amazing life just in 60 days) and Dr. Jack Canfield of the chicken soup fame, I was mostly inspired by his book called The success principles. These people are my mentors and role models.
v) Leave within your means - Avoid spending the money you dont have, buying tihngs you dont actually need, trying to impress the people you don't know or people who don't even notice because if you do that chances are you are going the end up in heavy debts and not able to service your debts, Once you are not able to service your debt your credit profile will be affected negetively and you will end up being blacklisted by the credit bereau.Worst of all, debt collectors will start calling you and they will even call you at work and you will be embarrassed before your collegues. You end up contracting callphobia, a dysfunction of avoiding telephone calls, Once all that happens then definitley your life is moving on the backwards motion, and that simply means you are not growing but are dying a slow death. For more insight of personal finance read Suze Orman.
The law of motion is in operation in your life wheather you are aware or not. It's an unavoidable reallity into your life just like the law of gravity is an unavoidable reality to the univers. However we are fortunate because of the teleological nature we possess. Let us take cognizance of the reality of the law of motion and exploit the advantages of the teleological nature embedded in all human species. If we consciously and consistently do that, we are going to incline on the forward motion of our life line and reap the benefits of growth.
No comments:
Post a Comment