The Pursuit of Pursuit

I started off this blog as a way of recording my unstopping stream of thoughts.  As part of my work, I travel a lot and travel gives me many hours of solitude, on long drives and long flights and in hotel rooms alone.  Solitude gives me many hours of thought and reflection and I completely and totally enjoy it. Focusing on a specific question helps me keep focused thought – since my mind would rather wander off somewhere else.  As I write, it has turned out that most of my blogs so far have been about pursuit of one thing or the other.  My observation is that human existence is driven by pursuit. At this rate, I may have to rename this blog to PursuitPursuit.

So, what are we all busy pursuing?  In an earlier post, we started with the discussion of the pursuit of starch, which if we do not achieve, we will be counting down hours do our death. Within this pursuit is hidden the fact that the pursuit of starch does not cease, because as soon as you quench the current fix, you start counting down do the next fix.  And so it is with all other pursuits.  Unless you have achieved a certain level of enlightenment, you may end up stuck in an unending cycle of pursuits.

I visited my vavorite (sic) brother recently and he put in my hand the most amazing book – The One Thing.  This book starts with a story about how the secret of life boils down to just one thing – and if you don’t know what that one thing is, then your (first) one thing is to find it!  The bible says that we should seek first the Kingdom of God, and everything else (all other pursuits) will be added unto us.  Solomon, the most successful man in Biblical history achieved his by knowing and asking (when he was given the opportunity) for his one thing.  Abraham asked for wisdom and it is recorded that on top of becoming the wisest man of all ages, he also became the richest in gold, livestock, wives, concubines, and all that was defined wealth and success in his time – Never mind the fact that after all his success (and wisdom), he declared that all is vanity, and the vanity of vanity is vanity. Maybe this blog should be named WisdomPursuit! Incidentally, wisdom is the power to perceive the best ends to aim at and the best means for reaching those ends.

If you ask a young person what his desire is, he may name a prestigious career, several year later, he may name desirable items like money, cars, houses, technological tools and so on, and he may desire bigger and better and faster ones five or ten years on.  He may desire to be enjoined with a spouse, have children, and bring them up around bigger and better items.  Yet, fifty years later, when he has gone full cycle, and if he has picked some wisdom along the way, he will figure out – as Solomon did thousands of years earlier that vanity of vanity is vanity.  It is Steve Covey who noted in his book, first things first, that no one on his death bed wished they had worked longer.  Most wish they had invested more in relationships, loved more, and ‘stopped and smelt the roses’.

So, as we review and look out for pursuits, what is your pursuit?  Will it stand the test of time that Solomon and Steve Covey discovered?  If not, what is your one thing?  Until you figure what your one thing is, your one thing is to find it.  Good luck!