Achieving full life: three essential elements

ONE OF MY FAVORITE AUTHORS, Os Guinness, says in his book Time of truth[1]

“To have a fulfilling life, three essential elements are required: a clear sense of personal identity, a deep sense of faith and meaning, and a strong sense of purpose and mission.”[2]

If there is something we all want, it is a full life. Let’s take a trip and find out what this means.

Guinness uses the story of Primo Levi,[3] an Auschwitz survivor, to illustrate the importance of all three aspects of this hypothesis towards a full life. Levi was driven to preach the lessons of the Nazi regime so that it would never happen again, giving millions a sense of purpose to get out of the tragedy and ensuring that the human cost and legacy were never forgotten. However, the appearance of inner strength was transitory for Levi, who eventually had the same tragic end to his life as countless colleagues: he committed suicide.

Only a few weeks before his death he had written in a journal that he had no answer to the riddles of life. A life that offered so much hope and purpose to so many crippled by the crimes of World War II was suddenly thwarted, utterly. Despite the fact that he committed suicide, his memory and what he stood for should endure.

Despite this, Guinness uses Levi’s story to highlight critical weaknesses in his modus operandi. He simply “lacked sense of faith and meaning with which to interpret and handle his harrowing experience. “[4] (Italics added for emphasis). Without a solid blueprint on which to base his life, his “strength” became unsustainable.

It emphasizes that, while one may have two of the three qualities together, if it is a real weakness that is missing, it will inevitably be opposed to achieving a fulfilling life. And so it is for people without a strong sense of spirituality and good faith (because there are so many “bad” religions out there). Bad faith could be described as a theorem that lacks the fundamental plausibility of truth. So it was for Levi. A “dark combination of Auschwitz and atheism” finally confused him.[5] He had no way of understanding life’s most incredible and horrible experiences that he had witnessed in terms that he could understand, and therefore live with. A sense of faith could have given him that.

Many recognize the need to live by the truth, but some of the smartest, ironically, fall for a lie; feeling that they have to create the truth and not simply to find out that. Guinness calls us to consider Nietzsche, Camus, Sinatra, and ultimately Levi.[6]-all of whom, being brilliant men, could not to accept basic spiritual truth. Without truth there is no force.

However, there are two others to consider: personal identity and purpose and meaning. Imagine having a deep sense of faith and meaning, and still having only a vague sense of yourself or insufficient sense of purpose in life. We need to focus on all three if we really want happiness, satisfaction, and fulfillment.

Establishing and becoming comfortable with our personal identity is a process that requires courage and honesty. There is no other way. Similarly, finding a sense of purpose and meaning requires a lot of introspection. In this day and age, it can be more of a necessity to focus on one thing and one thing only, as we may be stuck in a multitude of spotlights. We must keep searching until we feel positively and sustainably trapped in the mission that captures our imaginations. There is at least one for each person.

I suggest the importance of self-reflection and a commitment to do the following activity.

Activity:

Clear sense of personal identity

What are your values?

What defines you “?

Do you know their personality type? What are your preferences and skills?

How much you know about yourself? Which are your fears?

Deep sense of faith and meaning.

In what / who do you believe?

It’s true? Can you stand the academic test?

What gives you “hope”?

Strong sense of purpose and mission

What drives and motivates you?

What is your purpose in life?

Why would you give your life?

© Steve J. Wickham, 2008. All rights reserved worldwide.

[1] Guinness, Os. (2000) Crunch Time: Live Free in a World of Lies, Exaggerations, and Twists (Baker Book House Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan) 128 pages. This book is full of truth and touches of postmodernism. Another brilliant offering from Guinness is “The Call”, find and fulfill the central purpose of your life (2003) from Word Publishing Group, Nashville, Tennessee.

[2] Guinness, ibid., P. 71.

[3] More general information is freely available, for example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primo_Levi

[4] Guinness, ibid., P. 72.

[5] Guinness, ibid., P. 72.

[6] Guinness, ibid., P. 74.