Philosophy of Life

Do you have a philosophy of life? I imagine many of my readers on this blog will have a philosophy that they try to live by; probably many will be be couched in Christian terms. That’s certainly been the case for me. But, in this post from Lou Tice at the Winners Circle, he talks about a much more closely defined philosophy of life — 25 words or less — than many of us will follow.

Philosophy of Life

Do you have a philosophy of life, for yourself? Could you describe your philosophy to someone else, in 25 words or less?

I spent time this past week with my good friend, Pete Carroll. He happens to be an NFL football coach, but that’s not why I mention this. We were talking with a group of business and community leaders, and Pete asked the group to raise their hands, if they had a philosophy of life. Everybody raised their hands. Then he asked them if they could write it down in 25 words or less. Only two hands went up. Surprised? I wasn’t, and neither was Pete.

You see, while each of us probably does have a core philosophy to live by, very few of us could describe it to another person. We don’t take the time to write it down. Words, whether on paper or in an electronic file, put substance to our beliefs. The words provide a touchstone that we can go back to, when life presents us with difficulties.

Our behaviour, every day, is a reflection of our beliefs. It is the way human beings are built. No matter what we might say, it is our actions that reflect our core beliefs, our philosophy of living. Everything that we do flows from this philosophy. If it doesn’t, that is where stress and anxiety can be found.

Now you may ask, “Lou, if I write down my philosophy, what happens if things change, if I change? Do I doggedly follow my ‘philosophy’?” That’s the beauty of writing things down – the words can be crossed out, erased, and re-written! We are all going to change over time, as we learn the lessons that living teaches us.

So, I will ask this again: Do you have a philosophy of life? Can you describe it in 25 words or less? This weekend, I challenge you to find some quiet time for yourself, and to create your own philosophy – and write it down.

Lou Tice
The Pacific Institute

I found this particularly interesting, and, as with so many of the emails from the Winners Circle, very thought provoking. I don’t have a philosophy of life that could be expressed in 25 words or less — it would take far more. And I wonder if it would have helped me in the last week or so if I had, and think it may well have done. I’ve been feeling quite sorry for myself, to put it mildly, since my recent hospital stay. Not sure what I was expecting, some sort of miracle I think, but I didn’t get it. The therapy I’ve started on is going to take some time to adjust to before I really start to feel the benefits, and the tests I underwent didn’t really show anything. So I’m in much the same place as I was before I went in, and I’d built my hopes up too much that I wouldn’t be — so I’ve been feeling sorry for myself.

If I’d had a more tightly defined philosophy of life, one that could be expressed in 25 words or less, and if I really lived that philosophy, perhaps I could have skipped this horrible low spell. Perhaps it’s even time to go right back to a much more basic, and biblical, philosophy to live life by; one that contains just three words. Jesus is Lord! Jesus is Lord, and everything else can flow from that one simple statement. If I could really live that, then I wouldn’t need to feel sorry for myself — because Jesus is Lord of the bad things as well as the good things; and maybe the bad things aren’t really bad at all.

I have a lot of thinking and praying to do about the way my thoughts have gone as I’ve written this post. Thanks Lou, for another great thought provoking post from the Winners Circle. Do consider signing up to receive the daily emails yourself — they’re well worth reading.