Against the Herd

Easily the most commonly-cited philosophical question one asks to emphasize their wonderment around a sense of purpose is “why are we here?”  I certainly can’t profess to know the absolute answer to such a profound question; in fact, I can’t profess to know whether such an answer exists.  What I do know, however, is that I believe there is a singular life goal we all share: we are simply seeking happiness; more specifically, we are all seeking to maximize our happiness.

Beyond that overarching goal, we all seem to seek very individual paths to our own notion of happiness: belonging to a family, societal fame, professional and career advancement, financial reward and success, intellectual advancement, and countless other avenues that feed our sense of self.

For me personally, my happiness is driven by striving & achieving: trying to be better with each passing day than the day before.  While that drive is very personal, my personal definition of “better” very much involves how I’m able to help and engage other people: my family, my friends, my community, and anyone I can help in any way.  Far be it for me to define “good” or “better” for others; so I won’t.

My happiness is driven by continually striving to improve in ten areas: five “BEs” and five “DOs”.  It is with genuine humility that I share with you my personal ten:

1. Be kind & reciprocal
2. Be authentic & modest
3. Be empathetic & generous
4. Be original & respectful
5. Be fit & elegant
6. Do leverage your strengths & mitigate your weaknesses
7. Do seek knowledge
8. Do know your priorities
9. Do accept your circumstances
10. Do compete with yourself & not others

For the sake of brevity and to avoid overstepping the bounds of sensitivity, I’m going to leave the interpretation of the above to your sensibilities.