Tag: better world

Noble Causes

Published on by Kieran Johnson - The Generosity GuyLeave a comment

“What is the use of living, if it be not to strive for noble causes and to make this muddled world a better place for those who will live in it after we are gone?” – Winston Churchill

I agree with Winston. What else is there to do?

That leaves just two questions:

What are noble causes?

What is worth spending time, money and effort to achieve? What are the things that you are willing to sacrifice for? To be able to put other things on hold for. What is it in our world that is worth prioritising and saying ‘no’ to other things because of it. Once you have an idea of that, then I think you have a noble cause on your hands.

What is the striving?

What is required of us to achieve the goal of fulfilling these noble causes? If the cause is truly noble, then any amount of effort is justified. How we do the striving is more complex. The way that we behave is just as important as the outcomes we achieve.

How are we doing the work?

I believe the noble causes begin with other people. Anything that helps people, without damaging other people in the process, is a noble cause.

How we strive is just as important as the noble causes we strive for.

Purpose

Published on by Kieran Johnson - The Generosity GuyLeave a comment

I am sure it doesn’t just happen to me. Other people must think the same questions that seem to come out of the blue, in idle moments, and shock you.

Mostly it’s:

‘what is the point of all this?’

‘What does it all mean anyway?’

‘Isn’t it just a waste of time, we are all going to die anyway?’

Maybe that last one is just my own darkness, but it drives me to find the purpose in my actions. It drives me to take the things that I do daily and connect with them with a greater purpose outside of myself, otherwise I would just stop doing the little things that I consider important. (Although these questions can help you re-define what is considered ‘important’).

As I have refined my thinking over the last few years, each time these questions come, I add a little more to my philosophical outlook on life and create more of my purpose.

Historically, my purpose is to “speak words that bring life”. It has been for 15 years. But what else, what does that actually mean?

Lately my thinking has been along the lines of “creating a better world through creating better people”.

This isn’t the final edit though. There is more refining to come, but the theme is clear. I find my purpose in bringing life and growth. I find my purpose in giving. I find my purpose in generosity.

I don’t have the language nailed yet, but aren’t we all just a work in progress?