Of Man’s Purpose And His Pursuits: Reflection On Force Field Of Human Life
By Abdulwarees Solanke
Between a man’s foundation and his future lies a vast field of factors that propels and motivates his performance and attainment in life. Those factors that drive him can also be the source of his despair, desperation, and depression, even failure and ultimately death. How he appreciates these factors or manages and deploys them inevitably define how smooth his journey in life will be, how healthy and wholesome he will live and how honored, respected and appreciated he will be in the society.
For more than three decades, in fact ss far back as 1988 while being a final year student of mass communication at the university of Lagos, I have come to appreciate that the beauty of a man lies in the purity of his heart, the nobility of his intellect and the excellence of his character. In my search for fulfilment too, I came to discover that the height of a Man’s ambition defines the extent of his desperation and, if unattainable, it also determines the depth of his depression.
In this frame, too, I came to a realization that ambition is a mirage when death is not minded. Similarly, I reached a conclusion that if a man must reach a pleasant destination or attainment in life, he must understand the goal or purpose of life and align it with the pursuits of man. The irony is that both purpose of life and pursuits of man pull man in different and disparate directions. The other irony is that both are confusing and often misunderstood, leading many to concentrate on one at the expense of the other.
Therefore, the neglect or the lack of understanding of either of the two values often causes man frustration, even exploitation by other forces of life who latch on this ignorance to swindle the desperados under the guise of helping them to reach their potentials and dreams or assist them to discover their purpose and possess their possessions.
So, what are these shapers of our existence, the drivers of our life, the determinants of our pursuits, the contents of our motivation and the forces of our restraints, all which constitutes the force field of human life?
According to www.getlucidity.com, Forcefield analysis is a framework used to aid business decisions often in the context of strategic planning, implementation, or change management. This framework, as Getucidity also puts it, assumes there are forces in favour of the decision and forces against the decision.
If we take Man as a project that must be managed, this presupposes that Man must have a plan to reach actualization or achieve fulfilment in life. it also presupposes that certain forces or elements will influence his journey or path to success. It is in this context that I isolated some common elements to which we must pay attention to if we must succeed in life, the first of which I identify as the foundational fundamentals and the end or the zenith, the Futures. Between the foundational fundamentals and the esoteric futures, therefore , those other factors that define our pursuits that paint our purpose. The constituents of our foundational fundamentals include our family backgrounds and parentage, the faith we were born and subscribed to, and the cultural values to which we adhere.
These fundamentals also include the quality of our incubation and education from childhood, the richness of our orientation, training and internships as we mature into adulthood, the seriousness of our assignments and appointments as we take up responsibilities to earn our living as well as the diversity of our management and leadership exposure as we advance in career. All the above will be reflected or manifest in the skill sets we acquire over time, the experience we garner and the competence and expertise we demonstrate in the course of work and the relationships we build, the network and the contacts we make.
In addition , these are the choice and health of our social relationships in terms of the quality and depth of our friendship and relationships, the vastness of our networks, and the interconnectedness or interdependence of our contacts. The extent to which we invest our time and resources in these relationships will cause determine the size of our social capital.
Our social health and sustainability in challenging and critical moments derive mainly from the quality of our social capital, which in any case is not measured in quantitative terms. Social capital translates to more than money. It covers such intangibles and qualitative and emotional values as the empathy and support we get from friends, relatives, office colleagues, fellow club members, and religious networks.
For our total health and wellbeing in the society therefore, we cannot afford to behave as if those values do not matter to our existence otherwise life will be miserable, lonely and depressing, even if our vault is filled with gold and rubies, even if our income is in multiple digits and even if we lay claim to some esoteric spirituality.
So, if our pursuit for well-being must be meaningful, it must not be anchored purely on the tangible, quantitative, physical elements translated to material wealth alone. Other constituents that define our spirituality and humanity become essential values that must be aligned with our pursuit of the material essence. Indeed, the enjoyment of the fruits of our material pursuits is in the discovery of the purpose of our being. In the Criterion, The Source of Life explained that the essence of Our Being and that of the Jinns is service to Him.
Anything that detracts from this imperative is sheer waste of life no matter how rosy it seems.
Abdulwarees, the 2007 Commonwealth Broadcasting Association scholar in Public policy at the Universiti Brunei Darussalam is Head/Deputy Director, Strategic Planning and Corporate Development Department, Voice of Nigeria, Wuse Abuja.
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