Life as a project
When a new person comes into the world, it is called birth. In the beginning he is guided by outer will, for example, by his parents or the people close to him; and they lead him the way they follow. Gradually he grows up, has to receive secondary education and choose his own path, i.e. get a profession, find work and succeed as a professional. Then he is to create a family, have children, create something and bring it in the world. Destiny is nothing but a project called LIFE. And this project, just as any other, has to be guided.
Life as a project has a start and an end, i.e. timeline, resources, goals, programs, partially laid in the DNA, but mainly defined by our own choice. One should start forming the success of the new project in a family long before the birth of the new life. Yes, the quality of life is formed before birth. It is absolutely necessary for everyone in conscious age to learn to manage the quality of life, and then the project called “LIFE” will be implemented successfully. The sooner we understand this the more time we will have to do good for ourselves and the environment. However, the paradox is we learn a lot and learn anything but the art of living. And usually it costs us dearly later.
Lack of knowledge about life and its management often leads to confusion: we either create families having no work or have children without a family. Some people go further in their mistakes. They lose values, understand everything perversely, even commandments of their religions, their gender, good and evil, the animate and the inanimate, the white and the black. Then the moment when life starts to fail comes: either one’s career does not develop, or people cannot create a family, or the salary is low, or health issues appear. Millions of explanations and excuses may be found for that: the stars have not settled down, the wrong inherited genes or the fate. As for the genes and life program at the level of the DNA, of course;, their impact should be taken into account; however, we tend to look for the reasons beyond us, whiles primarily we are creators of our own destiny, and therefore, we should be responsible for everything that happens to it.
When problems and troubles file up, a man becomes confused in his mistakes even more, and then depression and stress come. Satisfaction with life fades away, various crises start to attack: the transition period, midlife crisis etc. The most difficult case is loss of interest in life: moral and physical self-destruction, withdrawal into virtual reality, into oneself, addiction to drugs, alcohol, gambling and internet, and suicide, loss of freedom as a result of illegal actions and imprisonment, or severe health problems including disability. This can happen to people of any age, sex and social class.
Why does this happen? Is it a program failure? However, the program does not fail in the lives of those who are passionate for their life, who wish to create, who have constructive attitude and work on achievement of goals, who see individual path, general line of life understanding their own life and historical goals.
No one denies that implementation of any plan is affected not only by internal, but also external factors and risks that sometimes are beyond our control. Yet there is a concept of risk management. It is us who made decisions in key, turning points of life, for example, when choosing a career path, university, place of living and work, a spouse, friends; when choosing either to be lazy or work hard, break the laws, drink, smoke, take drugs or, do just the opposite, do sports, eat properly and lead an active lifestyle. Fortunately, not everything is predetermined by the fate; a human being still has the freedom of choice.
The feeling of physical and spiritual freedom is one of the basic human needs. Although, people may understand this feeling differently, freedom means responsibility and the ability to love, do what you want and realize your will without coercion from the outside. We should remember that our freedom should not obstruct or harm others. Respect for the interests and personal space of others is a necessary condition for peaceful coexistence of people and full development of the society. Confucius, the Chinese thinker and philosopher, formulated the golden rule of ethics: “One should not treat others in ways that one would not like to be treated”. For example, everyone can choose whether to smoke or not to smoke. Nobody deprives you of the right to smoke, but do not smoke where you harm other people, children and pregnant women. And if you wish to contribute to the improvement of the world, start with yourself right now, quit smoking, save your body, and you will maintain the health of the people around you. As for female smoking, dear ladies, men love you not for holding cigarettes elegantly. In general, one loves not for but in spite of something. The ability to smoke is not the ability to be proud of, while homo “sapiens” beats its own record smoking more and more cigarettes at the same time just to be included in the Guinness Book of World Records.
The answer to the question whether social or personal interests are more important lies within the area of social partnership and responsibility. This question constantly arises in front of us throughout life practically at any point of choice of personal and professional pathway and forms a still small voice. The freedom of choice means responsibility for yourself and your loved ones. And in this respect it is good not to give freedom of choice to those who cannot take it for objective reasons due to age or health issues. The Freudian “Superego” is a social conscience that makes us give up pleasures and even shares of possible happiness in favor of social interests.
Enjoyment and satisfaction with life are not equal in relation to life quality. Momentary enjoyment may cost huge dissatisfaction in the future, which is why we ought to commit well thought rash actions. It is a great misconception to believe that spontaneity is something totally unconditional. In fact, the subconscious and intuition have calculated the consequences of our “spontaneous” actions and have assumed the responsibility for the chosen behavior, as opposed to consciousness, which remained uninvolved. The heroism and self-sacrifice have deeper nature and are related to the core of personality and have nothing to do with spontaneous decision. Conscience defines our behavior and awareness of compliance or non-compliance of our own behavior with moral values of the society we live in. When we talk about compliance, we mean the quality that is true for the life of a human being.
Success lies in the development of our individuality, uniqueness and the sense of community. Not only is it true for personal success, but also for families, organizations, society, states and the civilization. Even when one cannot see the future due to certain reasons, for example, fatal disease, he can always see the future of mankind or his ancestors or his family and work for this sake, feel satisfied and find the meaning of life. Taking care of other people and their attention towards us give us strength in situations when our own life is threatened or we become people with disabilities. We can notice that following the post life values demonstrates interaction between private life of an individual and the society. However, it is very difficult to set such targets when one cannot see his own future.
When the situation is uneasy and beyond control, one needs to adapt to it and not worry that everything is so bad. One should learn to live with this “bad”, even feeling physical and spiritual pain, concentrate his power and will, act and move on. This way one can take control of a difficult situation and gradually get out of it. Using this approach the people with disabilities cease to be such. Of course, the support of the loved ones and friends play a great role. It literally works wonders. For example, look at the successful personal and professional life of Nicholas J. Vujicic, an Australian Christian evangelist and motivational speaker born with tetra-amelia syndrome, or the life of many Paralympians. People with disabilities show courage, create the quality of their life putting great efforts. Looking at their success stories, you will understand that the majority of problems of healthy people are not problems as such and do not preclude from living high quality life.
We can borrow many useful ideas from the quality management systems of organizations, from the bundle of professional knowledge as well as from observation of the world around us and the nature.
Imagine a company that has no strategic management and the analysis of long-term perspectives. Such business is doomed to failure in a competitive struggle. A prosperous business will be the one where managers persistently work for success and its maintenance in long term perspective, try to forecast and foresee its development and create the future. And this approach is justified as the world is constantly changing; certain professions, organizations and businesses may disappear due to changing technological structures of the economy.
In life, just as in business, sometimes it is necessary to tighten your belt for the sake of your future, while you may wish to have everything now. It is necessary to learn to foresee the future and form it today. In the future all hardships, deprivations may pay back with interest or former luxury may be over. Nevertheless, you need to see and form your future and for this purpose you need The Diary of High Quality Life, turn it into you personal guidance to the quality of life considering your own needs. You ought to visualize your future and refer to your past experience for inspiration and support. Use photos or pictures that give you strength in difficult situations as well as the photos of what you aim at and dream about. This will help you to concentrate on your goals in different situations (see “The Diary of High Quality Life” pp. 6 and 8).
One way or another we have to anticipate unwanted situations or, ideally, even prevent their occurrence, recognize problems, i.e. make a sober estimate of the present situation and be constructive. It is more than being optimistic; it means to be adequate and take corrective actions to improve the situation. To live high quality life is more than being happy, wealthy and successful, it means to enjoy life, conform to your requirements and the requirements of the surrounding physical and social space.
Let’s go back to the reasons for success in life. For example, if we do not set a goal to reach financial independence, then it is most likely we reach less in this matter than those who make an effort for its achievement. Many famous people who achieved unprecedented financial well-being wrote books about how and what to think to become rich. At the same time there are those who would give anything to… There are many good books about life management. Many qualified psychologists and so called advisors, i.e. coaches, magazines, TV programs, web-sites, chats, blogs, astrologists, not to speak of religious organizations, politicians and economists teach how to find happiness, wealth and harmony. Sometimes, they offer a variety of solutions that do not require special care and work. The only thing is that we and the world around us do not get better due to these unsophisticated recipes because it is only us who can change ourselves for the better, and only then the world would improve.
Unfortunately in the modern technocratic world a human being is very lonely. A human being seeks for salvation from his aloofness from the society and loneliness joining different groups based on national, religious, political, economic, ideological and other principles. Finding support in these groups, often he loses his freedom to a certain extent. In extreme cases he joins the groups of fanatics that have their own rules and laws which do not tolerate freedom of an individual. There is no love without freedom, and its absence is bad for the quality of life. We ought to remember about it to preserve uniqueness in a society, in a crowd, in a band or in a flock. The important thing is not to become someone’s tool for achieving goals. We should learn to see a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
People, do not let the sellers of happiness, services and goods, politicians, false prophets, sectarians, extremists and swindlers mislead you! Always ask questions and assess situations independently.
Why do many of us have no sufficient time to fulfill themselves and unleash their potential in full?
The most important and critical resource in life is time, which is so necessary for a human being or a business to achieve any goals. So, if goals were not set or were set inaccurately for successful trajectory of personal and professional life initially, then they could not have been achieved.
A goal is a conscious image of anticipated result you work on. Dale Carnegie believed that ‘definition of a purpose’ is a starting point for any success. The one who knows exactly what he wants believes in himself and reaches success easily. Later The Napoleon Hill Foundation officially used this concept to improve personal efficiency of many people. The cost of your desired future depends on your resources, motivation and efficiency. In any case, smart goals, consistency and persistence are necessary conditions for successful achievement of your future.
How do you define your predestination, your mission and the meaning of your life? How do you
know your dream, work out the idea of your desired future and formulate your own ‘smart’ goals? How and by what means do you achieve them and reach the results? First, you need to ask these questions to yourself and start to think, plan, do and control what you manage to reach and act better. If you can answer these questions and write them down, then you chances to achieve the desired future increase significantly. Do not worry, if you do not manage to answer the questions straight away or it appears to be very difficult to give truthful answers. Everyone understands their purpose in life with time, when a person gains maturity to understand who he is and where he is going. He just has to live, create himself and the world around him.
