Image by cliff1066™ via Flickr
As part of my morning I search for a new quote to place on the Guided Insight Life Coach fan page on Facebook and sometime to place on my Linked In page. And sometimes I have an idea of what I am looking for, say like a quote from a certain person or on a particular topic and other times I just poke around looking for something that speaks to me… Well that’s what I did today, and boy does it speak to me:
Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.~Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955)
All to often in today’s world we look at our fellow-man (using the term to describe all of humanity) and judge them based on status, money, power and prestige. Yet often times this shallow approach misses the deeper meaning. As always, Einstein looks at life a little differently than most, he had the ability to see things not as they appear but rather as the ought to appear. Mans success’ are worthless without values, or to put it another way, The success of a man is based on his virtues. What we do, and how we do it and why we do it is more important than all the money, power and prestige in the world. Don’t believe me, lets look at a few people from the past that we honor today:
- Marten Luther King Jr.
- George Washington
- Mother Theresa
- Abraham Lincoln
- Mahatma Gondi
- George Washington Carver
- Albert Einstein
- Jesus Christ
Each and every one of them were persons of Character, morals and virtue. None were perfect, and each made mistakes, but the underling current of good character was present. Some had to work harder at it than others, but each achieved greatness not through power and money, but rather through good moral character. Something we all need to learn more of and something we all need to impress upon the youth.
One way to achieve this is to read about the lives of people whom you feel represent this attribute, such as the list above. I , over the years have read about a few of them, George Washington is my newest read and Lincoln will follow. Einstein will have to be revisited and Christ is always on my list, Mother Theresa will be added along with a few others. There are no shortages of examples out there, the lives of the Saints is always a good place to look, but by no means the only place. Dr. Wayne Dyer always offers sound and good advice on how to live a life of value and of course my blog, An American Point of View and my coaching service, Guided Insight Life Coach is also a good place to look (Shameless plug, I know). But the point is, there are hundreds if not thousands of places to find inspiration on how to live a live of value.
We, as a nation, need to redefine what is of value, what is success. We have teens killing each other over Air Jordan shoes. We see people placing more value on a logo brand than on human life! Is this what we have come to? Is this what we want to teach our youth, is this how we want out children to grow up? It has nothing to do with economic conditions, Mother Theresa came from the poor to work with the poor, Jesus was poor his entire life. Money does not dictate nor is it a precursor to values. If, as the current thought process goes, money is the driving force behind values, than we would not have any corporate fraud or crime, but as we all know, this is not the case. Money, contrary to popular belief, is not the way to happiness, nor is it a path to values.
Character is learned, nurtured and grown. Sure, some had the seeds at birth, from all I have read, George Washington was such a person But he still had to learn, to grow into it, he was known as somewhat of a hot head in his youth. Quick to temper and lash out. He understood the downfalls and ramifications of this, and worked diligently at keeping his temper in check. I am sure each and every person on my list had to work at being a person of value. And we need to do the same, we have to make a commitment to do so, that is the first step.
A Man of Value is a lost are, or at least it seems to be. Lets try to rediscover this art form and learn to incorporate it into our daily lives, one place to start is Being George Washington, a website dedicated to restoring values into our lives. check it out, read the book Being George Washington and start your process of becoming a Man of Values, or a Woman of Values or what ever you want to label it, just start it!
God Bless
Paul W Sposite
An American Point of View 