A Philosophy For Life pt 1

Attitude is everything and other useful cliché’s

Why do you need a philosophy for life? It’s similar to the question; why do I need a map when I’ve traveling in unfamiliar territory? Whether you realize it or not, your life is unfamiliar territory. You haven’t lived it yet, so wouldn’t it make sense to have some sort of guide as you travel your path?

A philosophy can help you negotiate the territory.

People can find this from their parents, in fact many times that’s where your personal philosophy will start, others find it in their religion, and everyone has the building blocks in their DNA.

Usually children have a sense of right and wrong, fair and unfair. In truth, some kids will think every toy is theirs and many kids can be pampered or sheltered from the real world of “sharing” and develop a very warped philosophy – but that’s for another blog.

So my personal philosophy started pretty basically in fairness, and in simplicity mostly because I had a very positive childhood with very supportive parents who really didn’t espouse a heavy dosage of their personal philosophy. They were democrats in a largely republican state, but they weren’t really political. My mother regrets voting for Nixon in his re-election after Watergate was uncovered and he ended up being just as bad as she thought he was, but she thought at the time he would really end the war, which of course he did.

In any case, as I have looked back through my life, I always loved music and the music I was drawn to in the 70’s was “Chicago”, which was quite political in a great musician/not hitting you over the head way. In between the love songs and rock in roll there would occasional be a message against the war or Nixon, but unless you were a fan it would be hard to suss that out. The song “Dialoge” stands as one of my all time favorites of theirs and there are a few Terry Kath songs that really contained wisdom.

James Taylor and “Shower the People”, “Your Smiling Face”, “The Secret ‘O Life” and many others have great lessons weaved into the music. Billy Joel is another who could always find the right words to describe what you were thinking or feeling.

I grew up with Broadway musicals and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musicals to be specific. This formed my base of what music is, what singing is and still remains some of my favorite music in my life. In any case, I have come to feel that the music I listened to and later in high school performed really had a profound effect on my personal philosophy.

Philosophy isn’t as simple as that I realize, but if you can’t explain what you believe in, in a simple sentence or a few words, then it won’t be there to help you make decisions throughout your life.

My friend Dave Hansford, who I met in Up With People, got involved after college with personal development programs, audio cassettes that many might label “positive thinking”, but it turns out they were more than that. At 24 or 25 I made fun of it and the whole idea. While I believe I have always been a positive thinker – maybe that’s why I thought the idea of trying to become one was so silly – I didn’t understand the need. Fast forward to 27.

My wife and I are returning from a trip with her parents to see her long estranged brother, who had returned into the family circle when we had married a year earlier. On the way back, our music selection long since exhausted, I asked her father who was traveling in another car if he had any of his “tapes”. Rulon was a distinguished toastmaster and usually had these kind of positive programs with him when he traveled.

[Toastmasters is an international speaking organization created to help people develop their public speaking skills. Rulon started two chapters in Salt Lake City]

He gave us “The Strangest Secret” by Earl Nightengale. I will assume most of the readers won’t know that name, but he had started in a radio station in Arizona and became one of the lead announcers for the CBS radio network back when that was a top job in the media field. He read news, and commercials and other voice over work and was at the top of his occupation.

He had a burning question that he searched for years to answer. He was interested in success, and while he enjoyed success, he wondered why in the richest, most blessed country in the world, did some find it and others not. In his mid-30’s he read a book that gave him the answer he had sought after for years.

The book is called “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill. It is a classic and its philosophies have probably influenced more people’s lives than anyone can count. The book was commissioned by Andrew Carnegie, a very successful and wealthy man who built the steel industry in this country back in the beginning of the industrial revolution.

He was the Steve Jobs and Bill Gates of his time. In any case, Napoleon Hill wrote this book, and in a revelation to Earl as he read, he found the answer:

“You become what you think about”.

Simple… an “of course you do” type of epiphany. Earl, a gifted writer and speaker gave a speech to a sales convention in 1956 after he had discovered this and was asked for so many copies, he actually made a recording of it. “The Strangest Secret” went on to sell millions of copies… in record form, the first “spoken” record ever to be certified a million seller.

In discovering of your philosophy, you will mix many inputs. Anyone who doesn’t, who gets all of their philosophy from one source, runs the risk of one dimensional life.

All inspired religious texts, great business books, novels, songs, poets, and philosophers can add to your truth, your philosophy.

As I have done that, I have found that they all interconnect and support the same ideas and beliefs… or what I have come to believe. So what follows in this series of posts is a bit of my philosophy developed from not only Earl, but business writers, biographers, scripture, and other personal development icons. As you wait, ponder if you feel you have a personal philosophy, and if you think is has impacted your life.

#philosophy #life