Beginning at the young age of eighteen years old, for some even earlier, we begin to question what we must do for the rest of our lives. This subject may seem frightening to many, including myself. We often question ourselves “What steps must be taken in order to live a successful, meaningful life?” In Wes Moore’s book, The Work, we are provided with knowledge as well as a sense of reassurance about how we must find and fulfill “a life that matters”. Just at the very start of the book, Moore includes a quote from the very influential Doctor Martin Luther King stating “Everybody can be great.…
Do we ever stop to think exactly why it is that we, human beings, are always pushing ourselves forward, thrusting ourselves into as many tasks as possible? I’m sure many of us believe we are doing so in order to bring ourselves success. This is a thought, however, in the eyes of Barbara Ehrenreich to be somewhat naive. She elaborates on the relationship of success and busyness, revealing to readers that one does not have to be busy to achieve success.…
Often jobs such as plumber, mechanic, construction worker is portrayed as a menial jobs, a job for a season, or unimportant. Except with out these jobs life would flow as simply. Steve Olson explains the importance of hard working men and women in his essay “My Turn”. Olson shows his perceiving by the use of contradicting thoughts, relating experiences, and metabasis. Mr Olson tries persuade that blue-collar guys(BCG) are important and need to be recognized for the important work that they do.…
People have times in their life when they are overworked, distressed, and they want to surrender to their goals and dreams. When people arrive at this soul-searching moment they may ask themselves if it is really worth pushing forward, or if they are investing more than they will gain. Ultimately, this is when they realize their worth, it’s where they will do their most growing and learning about themselves, others, and life in general. Life has a tendency to fling obstacles toward people. In the Song “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks compares life to the mountains.…
In Susan Wolf’s paper “The Meanings of Lives,” she discusses the qualifications of and the innate human yearning for a meaningful and fulfilling life. The foundation for her argument lies in her three criterion for meaning which include involvement, purpose, and success. She then continues her argument by explaining the opposite of each of these criterion as a stereotypical person. However, Wolf’s assertion suffers from being overly general in that it makes the assumption that all humans have access to the same resources and opportunities to perform the tasks required to be considered meaningful by her standards.…
The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore is a memoir of two men’s lives who held many similarities with each other; not only did they have the same name, but they were both born in the same area of Baltimore in the 1970s, were raised most of their lives without fathers, and were faced with similar situations and experiences while growing up. The author, after facing numerous challenges along his path, ends up with a highly successful future, while the other Wes Moore, ends up with a lifetime sentence in jail. This book grips the reader’s attention to show how some survive and some perish in the battle of life. It has the power to give insight to the reality of the struggles that people face in their day-to-day lives and demonstrates that each and every…
Susan Wolf’s argument that a meaningful life is one that is actively and at least somewhat successfully engaged in a project (or projects) of positive value is developed through a philosophical distinction between the perception of what is meaning of life and what constitutes as a meaningful life (797). Wolf classifies a meaningful life as one of positive value and active engagement, not to be confused with subjective criteria like personal happiness or contentment. The author distinguishes a meaningful life by elaborating on what she qualifies as a meaningless life. Wolf first characterizes a meaningless life as a life of “hazy passivity” (796). Individuals who are categorized into this bracket often indulged themselves in deeds that contribute…
Stereotyping Are Asians really better at math?An exceptionally basic generalization for Asians. Generalizations are present in each ethnicity. Whether this is valid or not, how might this happen can be clarified through social history, particularly horticulture. Asians are known for their abilities in mathematics. These abilities originate from diligent work and in addition natural abilities because of their dialect.…
Daniel Pink, author of the book, Drive, claims that the outdated motivational method of carrots and sticks is no longer applicable to most of the world. Pink assures that the old motivational method makes a person’s job dull and ultimately boring, causing a person to not place much interest in his or her work and possibly affecting them mentally. He introduces us to a revolutionary idea of how a person could have their dwindling fire reignited so that a person could better their work environment and ultimately, their life and even their health. Pink calls his new method, Motivation 3.0, which encompasses three pillars for support which are; Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose. The trio is intended to fuel anybody who has a long or short term goal and it allows a person to not only better themselves, but continue to better themselves over the course of time.…
Daniel Pink is a best-selling non-fiction author who has written a quick read book on motivation in the workforce titled Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. Non-fiction books can be uninteresting and difficult to get read and, Drive is neither, as evidenced by the fact that it was on the top of the New York Times best seller list for 159 weeks. Daniel Pink has authored a number of books, hosted a series on PBS on behavior science, and frequently is a guest on National Public Radio. His articles have appeared in numerous publications including the New York Times, and Harvard Business Review and the Thinkers50, located in London, named him one of the top 10 business thinkers in the world. Pink’s talks on motivation are some of…
Dr. Henry Cloud, the author of “The One –Life Solution Reclaim Your Personal Life While Achieving Grater Professional Success,” provides a practical foundation for creating and rebuilding boundaries. Having boundaries are essential to be able to function at work and home and sometimes individuals forget his or her boundaries and become overwhelmed. This occurs a lot when individual are building his or her career. Cloud breaks his book down into several parts Foundations of Boundaries, Rebuilding Boundaries, and Boundaries on the job. Cloud is a major supporter when it comes to creating boundaries and limits to become successful and to help individuals gain control of his or her life by using strategies and increasing self.…
Ralph Waldo Emerson will forever remain an important American poet during the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th Century; however, his persuasiveness to recognize the good in lives is the reason why his quote about the meaning of success remains relevant in society today. Throughout my various jobs in high school, I have found meaning not in the work itself, but in the people I interact with. In particular, I found meaning in my job at the Salem YMCA. Since the beginning of my job at the YMCA, my friends, family and even coworkers asked why I did not work at my other jobs such as the karate school or Whole Foods, since I made more money at these jobs. My response has remained the same throughout my two years at the Salem YMCA, even…
In reality, many people work up until their last breath to have more and more money. However, when they look back, they realized they never lived their lives with fulfillment. Money may buy them materialistic needs but love and affection are able to bring purpose and meaning. According to Morrie, “The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning” (43). By devoting himself to love the others around him, Morrie was able to create “a cocoon of human activities – conversations, interaction, affection – and it filled his life like an overflowing soup bowl” (43).…
Reminding me every time of the taste of vanilla bean ice cream. As the car is running my radio turns on as the sound of K-Love, a Christian radio station, begins to play. At night the radio glows a beaming dark blue color lighting up and matching the dashboard lights. During a sunny day, I open the moonroof above me, unleashing the howling winds as I drive cautiously. Driving is a very responsible and important thing to learn to get somewhere faster.…
To develop a statement about that incorporates all the aspects of my personal moral and ethical code I had to reflect back on my life, my decisions, actions and the manner in which I was raised. I have always know what I should do but now I can look back and label my choices and understand why I made the decisions I did. My statement is this I subscribe the rule of Hard Universalism, the theory of psychological egoism and because we are always selfish I believe utilitarianism represents the base desires of personhood. Everyone believes their desire is for the greater good and the right choice because they are selfish, these theories go hand in hand and dictate many of the actions of people in this world as well as the cravings we strive to rise above.…