Consider this Proven Path to Satisfaction

Consider this proven path to satisfaction:

* seek truth earnestly

* love others compassionately

* contribute to community generously.

CAUTION

Please do not dismiss this exhortation due to simplicity or brevity. I am a 66-year-old man that has lived a difficult and complicated life.

I wish a senior citizen had offered me such guidance when I was a teen. Then I was sorting out how to orient my life.

During these past 5 decades, I experimented with all kinds of paths. Yet none brought much lasting satisfaction.

I did not find much lasting satisfaction because that is not what I was seeking. I got caught up in other pursuits that my peers had modeled and the media had advocated.

BEWARE

Our shared society has an obsession with the pursuit of happiness. So beware that just because the pursuit of happiness is super popular that does make it wise. There are implied promises of gaining this elusive happiness when a person gains an abundance of the following: possessions, status, entertainment, clothes, electronics, pleasure, friends, knowledge, sex appeal, beauty, power, experiences, etc. These and other desirable objectives are advocated as the right ways to spend our time, energy, and money.

Those bright and shiny goals that point to happiness are heavily promoted by the ultra-clever advertising industry. They are used like magnets and goads to keep the wheels of commerce going so that profits flow to the endlessly greedy corporations.

The monstrously gigantic companies behind the brands that everyone recognizes are ultimately excessively complex systems that are programmed to maximize shareholder value. These enterprises have no soul and the leaders have been proven to have less than excellent ethics. The end-user is like those in the movie the Matrix that is there to be milked to feed the beast.

Dangling the hope of happiness is their big fat juicy motivational carrot of dreamy promises used to keep the massive layers and levels of treadmills going. If you need to buy lots of stuff to be happy then you need lots of money to buy the stuff. To get lots of money then the herd is programmed to wear themselves out at jobs they dislike. Along this toxic path of treadmills are plenty of options for junk food. There are new movies and TV shows to fuel the appetite of the couch potato. Then when a poor diet and lack of exercise lead to overweight and ailments there are over the counter as well as prescription medications.

Notice in world history and in developing countries it is possible to have a society that is not drowning in consumerism. There are ways to measure personal and family life besides by materialistic standards.

But the journey to experience or acquire these brief moments of happiness is costly. And even when some of the milestones are finally reached then there can be a big let down and depression.

ALTERNATIVE

Instead of making happiness the ultimate goal let us consider satisfaction. Happiness is long-term and fleeting while satisfaction is more short-term and enduring. The path to happiness does not offer many rewards along the way. Yet as I have suggested this proven path of satisfaction is open-ended and it is fulfilling along the way.

I have made a video for each of the parts of this proven path.

And here are the links

Consider this Proven Path

Here is a proven path to satisfaction.

* seek truth earnestly

link to the video to be made

* love others compassionately

link to the video to be made

* contribute to community generously

link to the video to be made

ORIGIN

The origin of this message was an invitation at my local church to write a short note for a member of our church that was graduating from high school. On that note, I put the few words at the start of this message. Then later that day and the following days I wrote the rest of this.

So you might view this as the core of an exhortation for high school or college graduates. If I was invited to speak at a commencement or banquet for them then I would start with these words. I would include some personal stories to illustrate my points. I would weave in some Bible verses and quotes from famous people.

Now in the light of that; I pass the torch to you. What if you could write a brief message to graduates or be invited to speak to a group of them. What core concepts could you communicate clearly that might last the test of time? How can you draw upon the decades of your life to pass along the wisdom and insights that would cross over to other generations and be used for decades to come? Even if you are a teen, what could you say to your peers?

The reality in this always-connected digital world is that such an exhortation from you can be posted on Facebook as text and said into your webcam to be put on Youtube or other shared social media avenues.

ACTION

There is a 99 percent chance that you will forget this message a week from today. The abundance of activities, distractions, responsibilities, worries, news reports, and more will push out of your thinking any concepts that do not conform to the standard programming of our shared society.

It takes zero effort to drift along with the currents that propel the masses. So it takes wise choices and brave action steps to go against the flow.

All of my comments here are like a picture frame to provide a context for the relatively few words that are at the start and end of this message.

Therefore I exhort you to make the time to literally ponder what might it mean to you if you were to reset your internal navigation according to these simple guidelines.

How could your life be much better by this time next year and far beyond that?

What adjustments would need to be made in your internal priorities, time commitments, and relationships?

And you would be well advised to write in your journal about these. You could write them on an index card to post on your refrigerator, in your bathroom, or by your computer.

Consider this proven path to satisfaction:

* seek truth earnestly

* love others compassionately

* contribute to community generously.

© John S. Oliver 2020