Last up on the list of important questions from philosophy:

What is death?

“Death opens a door out of a little, dark room (that’s all the life we have known before it) into a great, real place where the true sun shines and we shall meet.” – CS Lewis

Recently a friend’s father passed away and I remembered this quote and today it seems appropriate again as a response to this question.

I don’t know if this definition of death is philosophically correct or not, but it sure seems good to me.

Anytime I am reminded of the finality of death, I am reminded that we aren’t guaranteed tomorrow.

Regardless of your view on death, one thing is for sure. We only get today. Tomorrow isn’t promised to us.

Yesterday was a great spring day reminder of making the most of the days we do have.

Looking at each day as a gift is such an uplifting way to spend your day.

As you look at your day today, think about how thankful you are for another day.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Next up in the list of the 12 most important questions from philosophy:

What is education?

Here is the best answer I have come across:

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. – William Butler Yeats

Education is not merely the school system or going to college. It is a lifelong process of continual growth sparked by curiosity and built by stacking up all of life’s learning experiences.

Jim Rohn describes all of the valuable things in life as being on the top shelf and that we must stack all of the books we have read up in order to stand on them and reach those valuables.

Think about yourself and your education.

Did you stop learning when you graduated?

When was the last time you read something educational or skill-building?

How can you cultivate in yourself a strong sense of curiosity?

If there is something valuable that you want from the top shelf, start stacking books up.

Make it a great day.

Jake

JD – I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities. – Dr. Seuss

JM* – I don’t try to intimidate anybody before a fight. That’s nonsense. I intimidate people by hitting them. – Mike Tyson

JW – Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all. – George Washington

EB – South side ruler, don’t drink coolers, big money maker, not a dumb drug user. – Sir Mix-A-Lot

As you already probably have noticed, I really like Dr. Seuss.

His explanation above about looking at things through the wrong end of the telescope is such a great description of his books and writing.

I read once that merely taking a different path to work can change the way your brain functions and help it grow and be more effective.

What little bit of nonsense can you add to your life to wake up your brain cells?

Make it a great weekend.

Jake

http://youtu.be/zLGWyfGk_LU

Again, maybe not necessarily a toe tapper, but hopefully will start you out with a positive frame of mind.

This reminded me of one of my favorite thoughts from CS Lewis.

“There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket – safe, dark, motionless, airless – it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.”

― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

CS Lewis puts it so well.

To love is to invite tragedy.

To not love is damnation.

What a great reminder to find love in our lives.

In our friendships, in our spouses, with our children. Even for strangers.

When events like what happened in Boston this week occur, we need to remind ourselves to love more. Only the power of love can conquer evil like that.

Make it a great day. One filled with love for your fellow human beings.

Jake

Next up in the list of the 12 most important philosophical questions to answer for yourself:

What is the ideal relationship between the individual and the state?

Finally, my opportunity to give you an earful of my political views…..

One of the follow up questions to this one is “Is the individual there to serve the state or the state there to serve the individual?”

I believe that regardless of the relationship between the state and the individual, in the end, it is about service.

The state serves its citizens.

The citizens serve the state.

When it comes to thinking about how we should interact with others, whether collectively in the form of the state or individually, we should start from a desire to serve.

When we humble ourselves enough to think of others first and how we might serve them, that’s when the magic happens. That’s when happiness and success begin to bloom.

Look for and take the opportunity to serve when it presents itself. You won’t be disappointed.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Next up in the list of important questions from philosophy for us to answer:

What is the “good life”?

Too bad it isn’t an election year, otherwise we would get the answer to this one every night on TV. (My attempt at a joke.)

As we look at what our goals should be, this one is probably the mostly directly applicable.

Defining the good life for ourselves gives us something to aim for. Something to visualize and create for ourselves.

Some things to think about as we define this for ourselves:

Where do you want to live?

What kind of home do you want?

What kind of family life do you want?

What kinds of leisure activities do you want to be doing?

Where do you want to be spending your time?

I am of the belief that each of us get to answer these questions for our self. As we answer these questions for our self, we don’t get to judge the answers others have chosen.

Our answers will determine our goals. We must set our sights on our version of the good life.

Now would be a good time to review your goals for this year and compare them against your answers to the questions about your good life. Need to make any adjustments?

Make it a great day.

Jake

Next up in the list of important questions to answer to determine our own philosophy:

What is happiness?

This one is easy. I just looked up the definition and found this:

State of well-being characterized by emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy.

Actually, I think this question is best answered by thinking about a follow up question. Why is that the same things can happen to two different people and one is happy and the other is not?

Which one are you?

We all have the choice as we walk along life’s path every day. We can choose happiness or we can choose not to be happy.

If you aren’t happy, ask yourself why.

Do you not believe that happiness is out there for you?

Do you believe life to be one of struggle and pain?

Do you let future worries weigh you down today?

Do you let the past drag you down today?

I like how the definition of happiness starts at contentment.

We can start to add happiness to our lives simply by content with what we have. Then we pursue greater levels of happiness.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Next up in the list of 12 questions from philosophy:

What is good and what is bad?

How we define good, bad, right and wrong definitely has an influence on how our lives will turn out.

I won’t attempt to help you draw the line between right and wrong, that is for each of us to do by ourselves.

Instead, I wanted to share Jake’s 51% rule.

At any given time the world is at least 51% good.

Regardless of how you define good and bad, good always wins because the world is always (at a minimum) a little bit more good than bad.

My favorite part of this rule is that good has already won. That takes all the pressure off. All we have to do now is to run up the score. Try and get up as close to 100% as possible.

What can you do today to add another percent to the good column?

Make it a great day.

Jake

JD – Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment. – Jim Rohn

EB – The most important quality I look for in a teammate is accountability. You have to be accountable for who you are. It’s easy to blame things on someone else. – Lenny Wilkens

JM – Alcohol and calculus don’t mix. Never drink and derive.

JW – Our nature consists of motion, complete rest is death. – Blaire Pascal

Accountability…..maybe a bad word in some circles.

When someone else holds us accountable, most of us (or is it just me) tend to get a bit defensive.

As I get older, I am realizing more and more a profound truth: the world does not revolve around me. (I know, you should probably have to pay to receive this kind of genius)

Since the world doesn’t revolve around me, it becomes important that I understand and appreciate what other people have to offer.

And part of what others offer is a different view on myself. Being accountable to someone else isn’t about submitting your will to theirs or about them being “better” than you.

It is about taking a more objective look at yourself in order to become the best you possible.

If you want to do your best, embrace accountability.

Think of the most important goal in your life right now. Find someone to hold you accountable to make forward progress.

Make it a great weekend.

Jake

http://youtu.be/aRLOCNKKZDY

Don’t worry about a thing, cause every little thing is gonna be alright.

What a great way to look at all the little worries in our lives.

When it comes to worry, we have a choice.

We can let it in and let it drive our actions and thoughts or we can choose to just not worry.

Most of the worries in our lives aren’t worth the mental energy we expend on them.

Next time a worry pops up, just let the lyrics and melody of this song remind you that everything is going to be alright.

Make it a great day.

Jake