Man’s Fulfilment

How can man live a fulfilled life? 

Many people live moment to moment, sort of moving as the breeze blows. But with time it becomes apparent that that is not the way to go and start trying to plan their lives with some thought for the future an d for the long term effects of their actions.

As a man tries to provide direction for his life and endeavor to pursue some overarching objectives, which should he aim for? We are blessed with multiple things that are worth doing and a lot of these are due to a person’s preferences, opportunities and circumstances. To aid in the decision, the are some concepts one should take into consideration, Extrinsic and Intrinsic goods.

Extrinsic Goods

These are goods such as money, power, status, security, ease and liberty (freedom from).  They all come to us from outside.

• They solve problems but individually do not give happiness or fulfilment. The hungry man would never say money does not matter, similar with anyone else with needs unmet. Furthermore, the person with little money would say he will be happy if only he had money. Sadly, that is not the case. All problems can’t be solved when money is thrown at them, more than just the absence of money, happiness comes from the sharing of intrinsic goods.
• None of them are valuable in themselves. Although true for all of them, it is especially clear in relation to security and ease, which are the absence of something, danger and effort.  They are for the most part a means to an end, with that end being intrinsic goods.

Intrinsic Goods

These are characteristics speaking to the well-being of the human person. They come as mastery of concepts, knowledge; our lives and standard of living; our ability for us to play; aesthetic experiences, which speak to our enjoyment of beauty; the ability to act intelligently; etc. Intrinsic goods have a noticeable characteristic:

• We can’t them, they are more akin to aspects of our fulfilment
• They are things attained with time and effort.
• The goods do not compete with each other.

The “formula” of fulfilment and happiness

As eye catching the name of this section might be, don’t get it wrong. There is no straightforward, way or path to this. Now, a little hope. As much as there is no direct path to this, there are principles we can follow to aid us in our journey to fulfilment and happiness.

• Going for Fulfilment: focus on the intrinsic goods and use the extrinsic goods only as a means to get to the extrinsic. But this is easier said than done as we tend to get lost in our search for the extrinsic and forget to put in the time and effort required for the intrinsic.
• Not restricting one’s concerns to oneself: This is built on the understanding that we are social animals. Our complete fulfilment cannot be achieved in isolation. Hence, this concept is to find our fulfilment in things that may not directly apply to us. It can be running a project to provide water for some people experiencing drought or fighting for peace in your country. The fulfilment attained here is gathered form the impact on other not oneself.

As a manger, there should be good understanding of what it is you are pursuing, is it intrinsic of extrinsic. A good manager is one who leads, one who leaves others better off due to their actions. To push such things, you have to look beyond the extrinsic and look to the intrinsic goods as your main. Make an impact, create value, in not just your life but that of others.