Anyone who has read my article ‘Mediocrity is the highest form of selfishness” (myrise.co.uk/members/mediocrity-is-the-highest-form-of-selfishness) will know that on one of the walls in my bedroom is a series of 18 small canvas prints with quotes / sayings on that fit in with the way I am choosing to live my life.
One of these quotes is “We need to set our affections on some good man and keep him constantly before our eyes, so that we may live as if he were watching us and do everything as if he saw what we were doing”.
Note: Having just uploaded this (the image used to create the canvas, I have just notice the typo 🙁
This is a quote from Letter XI by Lucius Annaeus Seneca, a Roman philosopher whose works I have greatly enjoyed (see here for more on him – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_the_Younger, or even buy a book of his teachings such as the one I have which can be found at www.amazon.co.uk/Letters-Stoic-Epistulae-Lucilium-Classics/dp/0140442103/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1364290165&sr=1-1-spell).
The man I usually think of when reading this is my late paternal Grandfather, or Grandpa as we called him.
Along with my own father (about whose influence on me I will write an article at some point soon), my Grandpa was one of the two main, strong male influences on me growing up.
I spent countless enjoyable hours with him in his tractor and Land-rover and at his local cattle market.
As I get older, and now I am a father myself, I realise more and more how their example, advice, direction and support shaped the man I have become.
My Grandpa was born in 1919 and died nearly 10 years ago now.
He was a farmer throughout his life, based around the area between Chesterfield and Mansfield.
He was hard worker (12+ hours a day, 7 days a week for 60 years straight). I like to think I’m a hard worker too.
He was steady and reliable but also great fun.
He was a stoical man, which probably explains why I enjoy reading Seneca.
He definitely helped shape my (and RISE’) principles of Make a Difference, Have Fun and Improve Every Day (see myrise.co.uk/members/the-principles-of-guaranteed-fitness)
When he died my mother wrote in her annual Christmas letter that year that he had died “satisfied with a life well lived”.
I often think of that quote and hope that, when my time comes, I can think the same of my life.
Many times, when faced with important decisions in my life, I ask myself “What would Grandpa think?”
Whilst we are not necessarily exactly the same, I feel that if I make a decision that he would be proud of, it can’t be too far wrong.
Conversely, when I do something that, in retrospect, I feel he would have looked down on, it helps shape my resolve not to repeat this mistake.
The point of this article is that I think the whole concept of having a ‘good man’ (or woman, of course) in your mind when living your life is a great way to help you make the ‘right’ decision.
Take a bit of time now to have think who this person might be.
Hell, it might even be me. It’s always nice to hear that some of my clients ‘use’ me in the way – check out my article ‘What Would Jon Do?” at myrise.co.uk/members/what-would-jon-do.
Having that ‘good man’ is your mind is a great way to achieve your goals – give it a go.
Jon ‘Wants To Be Satisifed With A Life Well Lived’ Hall
