Definition of Philosophy

Existentialism Makes a Comeback

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These days, we all share a little more in common with Albert Camus and Franz Kafka than we may realize.

World events of the past decade have wrought considerable pain and discomfort on people the world over. There have been terrorist attacks, wars, financial turmoil, shootings, robberies, one natural disaster after another and outbreaks of disease.

No wonder we’re all a bit wracked. Philosophers call it an existential crisis.

From this calamity develops a sense of doubt; where the logic of our very existence is challenged. The pain we feel makes us wonder, “Why am I even here?” The existential crisis is a deep introspection of self-worth that is driven by a traumatic event or some other similar causal factor.Continue Reading

Healthy Habits: Forming Habits

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It would be great if we could just have any habit we want in a snap. However, we know that habits are formed overtime. It is during the “formative” time that we usually end up giving up because it is of course the time when we have to rely on motivation and self-discipline. As I have said before though, when the motivation wanes we end up having to work twice as hard to fight inertia. So what do we do while we don’t have our habits to fall back to yet? How do we prepare for the waning of motivation?

One of the best things we can do to make habit forming time easier and so increase our changes of success is to control what we can in our immediate environment while we still have the motivation to do it. Setting up your environment to help you succeed at your goal is definitely not only sensible but also the path to least resistance. For example, if losing weight is your goal and the habits you need to develop include exercise and a healthy diet the first things you need to do is get rid of all the junk food in the house and shop for healthier alternatives. If you have junk food all around you how can you expect to resist the temptation? As for exercise you can buy yourself a good pair of rubber shoes and dust off your exercise equipment. Make what you need accessible and what you don’t inaccessible.

Another thing that is pretty effective is to get some help. Join a group with the same goals as you or have an accountability partner. Make sure your partner is not an enabler or you’ll just end up making excuses for each other. Instead get someone you trust and respect who can help spur and motivate you when you cannot do it yourself. In the end though, it will still be up to you but setting yourself up to succeed instead of setting yourself up to fail sure will help a lot.

Healthy Habits: Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits

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On my last post I discussed how having healthy habits will see us through to success during times when our motivation is at a low point. This time I will be discussing some healthy habits that we can form to help up succeed in the different aspects of our life.

Perhaps one of the most popular books ever written about habits is Stephen Covey’s “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”. There he elaborates on the 7 habits that he says effective people. According to Covey the 7 habits are:

1. Be proactive
2. Begin with the end in mind
3. Put first things first
4. Think Win/Win – teamwork
5. Seek first to understand – communication
6. Synergize – cooperation
7. Sharpening the saw – renewal or continued development of the 7 habits

As you see the first three deals with self-mastery (he calls it dependence to independence), which is something we all should strive for first. Without the first three it would be hard to follow through on all our tasks, which will of course affect our relations with other people as well as our jobs. Another thing you would notice is that Covey approaches the habits not with a list of tasks but with our mindset. I believe that we should develop specific tasks as our habit but he is very correct in putting emphasis on making sure that we have specific mindsets as a habit, after all our actions are determined by our thoughts. So to be able to develop habits like going to work on time or speaking more positively we need to develop the habit of choosing to be proactive, thinking of our end goals, knowing hoe to prioritize, and all the other things that Covey says we should develop.

Path to Success: Relying on Habits

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healthy habitsOn my last post I explained how motivation is needed in order for us to succeed but also the reason why we can not rely on motivation to see us through our journey. Motivation is unreliable because it is an emotion, and like all emotions, it comes and goes. When motivation subsides though what we are left with are our habits.

What we do when we don’t feel motivated is determined by our habits. Habits stay because they do not depend on emotion. We can do things without even really thinking about them if it is part of our habit. For example, if you’re just used to washing your face before going to sleep you probably don’t even realize that you’ll go straight to the bathroom to freshen even after a really tiring day before hitting the bed. If washing your face is not part of your routine though you will need to really exert more effort just to wash your face and maybe just decide not do it and prioritize your rest instead.

Now when it comes to achieving success we need to develop habits that will help set us up for success. We need to have our habits so deeply ingrained that when obstacles come we won’t have to split up our energy between overcoming those obstacles and just going about the daily activities that we need to do in order to function properly. Having good habits doesn’t mean having no troubles but it means that most of your reactions will be automatic and you won’t have added stress in your life.

In my next post I will elaborate more on habits that we need to form in order to have a better chance at success.