Action Point: The Paradox of Our Time
I enjoy reading articles by Carol Mandi, this is one of the classic collections I have. From Carol Mandi… enjoy…
From the time when we learn that babies don’t come from the supermarket, a baby factory or off the streets to now, most of use have sort of figured life out pretty much.
This isn’t to say that we know all there is to know about life or that we understand everything. It is to say though, that we know that we don’t always know, and we kow that we don’t always understand. However, it is also to say that we are using the knowledge we have accrued over the years through experience, observation and learning to guide us in this risky business of living.
One just has to speak to several people who have attained some measure of success in business, civil service and even in the eyes of peers and the public, to realise that for most of us, success is a one-dimension activity. It is the norm that one is recognised and feted for success in the in their profession. Unfortunately, much of this success is a one time event, a point in time, a certificate on a wall or a trophy on display.
Some successful people today are unable to translate their achievement into future success. And even worse, we are unable to translate professional success into other dimensions of our lives or personal success. We are inadequate at becoming successful human beings.
As Georgwe Carlin so eloquently put it, “The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways, but narrower view points. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgement, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness”.
We spend too recklessly
We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom. We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We’ve added years to life not life to years. We’ve been all the way to mthe moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbour.
We conquered outer space but not inner space. We’ve sone larger things, but not better things. We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We’ve conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We’ve learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.
These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, over-weight bodies, and pills that do everything form cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom.
A very sad indictment of our generation but nonetheless, a very true picture. We are perhaps the most successful human beings (in terms of technological advancement) to have ever walked the earth but perhaps the least fulfilled. So what to do? How do we go about finding the soul of success? And once we have found it, how do we maintain it? Allow me to submit that while there is some reward in pursuing success for its own sake – yes even that trophy and certificate – gains are greater when one makes an effort to become a successful human being.
It goes beyond the trophy to our relationships, where we must expend some energy in making sure that the people we claim are closest to us, know they are treasured. It requires that we pass on some of the fruits of that success to others in society either through mentoring or charitable works. It entails that we learn the art of making a life a and not just a living.
Becoming successful human beings is in the little things that are really the big things – in how we treat others, in how meaningfully we spend our limited time and in the enduring legacy that we eventually leave behind.
By Carol Mandi
Quote:
It does not matter how slowly you go up, so long as you don’t stopConfucius, Philosopher.
Have a fabulous week
