Feature: Ray of Sunshine – What is Your Philosophy?

By Timothy A. Edward

The last few weeks have been very eventful all over the world. A ceasefire was announced in Lebanon, opening the much-needed door for thousands of children and families to rebuild their lives in that part of the world.  Then followed the overthrowing of the declared martial law by the South Korean lawmakers and their narrow failure to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol. This followed Michel Barnier and his government being defeated by a historic vote of no confidence in France, resulting in a fractured French parliament. All of the above and other things that are happening in the world show that we are living in a world that is changing pages at a rather terrifying pace and to make sense of all that is happening, we need to have a solid philosophy over our lives.

What is philosophy?

Recently a friend of mine posed this question – what is the subject matter of philosophy? Although I shared with him some big names in philosophy – Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Confucius and on so on, it really got me thinking. Because it is time that we have a strong philosophy to govern our lives, if we are to make sense of our lives during these changing and challenging times.

Beautiful Destiny

All of us are here on earth, because we are born to fulfill a beautiful destiny. None of us are here by chance.  Life is a journey. It has many stopovers, milestones before we finally arrive at our life’s destiny and the interesting aspect of this is that we spend most of our time on travelling towards that grand finale rather than arriving at those milestones and destiny. So, we have to learn to enjoy our journey while arriving at our milestones and beautiful destinies.  

Extremities of Life

In this life journey, many things happen over which we have very little say or control. Unfortunate and unfathomable events happen to everyone: like the death of loved ones, accidents, terminal diseases, unexpected sicknesses, business failures, divorce, bankruptcies, loss of estates, wars, inflations etc., just to mention a few and the list is endless. We should not be trying to dissect and keep on pondering on those tragedies of life, rather leave them behind in the Hands of the Eternal and move forward with life. Because, until our last breath on earth, we are here for a purpose, and we need to follow that purpose with all that we have got within us.  

The Right Perspective

If we train our minds to have the right perspective, then many of the things over which we bicker and strive will fall by the wayside.  In eternity, many of the things about which we strive and worry now will not have much significance. However, the little acts of kindness that we have shown or done to make another human being’s suffering and struggles to lessen, will leave a lasting impact. It all boils down to when fellow human beings were hungry and in need, whether we were there with something for them to eat, drink, and did we give them clothes and visit with them in hospitals and prisons?

Contextualizing the above, for example, if you are a development worker, how many fellow development workers have you trained and developed, if you are a musician - how many talented musicians have you raised, if you are a leader – how many potential leaders have you identified and mentored? If you are a doctor or surgeon, how many other doctors and surgeons have you raised? If you are a gifted trainer and effective public speaker, how many other trainers and public speakers have you trained and raised?

One of the biggest secrets to life’s success and happiness can be found in talent development and succession planning. If you are CEO today, how about planning to raise another 1000 CEOs before your time is up?  In fact, it will require as little as raising around 12 top CEOs and then sharing with them the vision to raise another 12 CEOs and if we can keep that thread of vision working along the line, we will very soon end up having exponential growth in CEO talent within a short span of time.  Time is short, so let us keep track of our destiny, looking at it through an eternal lens perspective, getting things done that need to be done now for a better tomorrow for all of us and our posterity.