What Matters

Introduction
Life is not a dress rehearsal! Socrates declared: "The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being." Helen Keller recognized that: "Life is either a daring adventure or nothing!" So how should you spend your time to attain fulfillment and live a meaningful life? What is most significant to you, your family, your community, nation and the world? How does what matters most change as your needs are met, as you gain experience, and as you grow and mature?

The objectives of this course are to:
 * Help you identify what really is most important to you,
 * Explore how this is likely to change throughout your life,
 * Encourage you to flourish rather than languish, be constructive rather than destructive,
 * Inspire you to spend your time on what matters most.

Topics are arranged beginning with the most personally urgent and progressing approximately to the most globally significant. If you find you are unable to progress because your time is being taken up by distractions and dead ends, jump ahead to that section, clear away those obstacles, and then resume your progress.

Some students may wish to begin with the section Spend Your Time on What Matters, then complete the course, and repeat that section at the end.

If you would like to contact the instructor, please click here to send me an email or leave a comment or question on the discussion page.

The course contains many hyperlinks to further information. Use your judgment and these /link following guidelines/ to decide when to follow a link, and when to skip over it.

This course is part of the Applied Wisdom Curriculum.

Surviving
We need to survive before we can thrive, succeed, and flourish. The needs described in this section are essential prerequisites to pursuing greater fulfillment. Click on each heading below for the lesson related to that need.

Most needs are satiable and recurring. For example it is best to eat until you are full, and then stop. There is no benefit, indeed it is often harmful, to continue eating past the point you are full. However, even though you satisfied today’s hunger, you will be hungry again tomorrow. Plan accordingly. Find the balance between deprivation and excess. Choose temperance and reject gluttony.

Begin by meeting these minimum conditions for our bodies to endure.
 * /Physiological Needs/

Preserve and protect these inalienable rights of every human, including yourself.
 * /Human Rights/

Attain these minimum requirements for a healthy mind.
 * /Psychological Needs/

Study this influential theory of human needs.
 * /Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs/

Thriving
While the needs described above primarily address overcoming deficiencies, abundance allows us to celebrate our lives and express ourselves in a variety of pursuits described here.

You are worthy simply because you exist.
 * /Dignity/

Achieving a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being.
 * /Health, Fitness, and Wellness/

Increasing our well-being.
 * /Flourishing/

Attaining the essential set of social skills required to recognize, interpret, and respond constructively to emotions in yourself and others.
 * /Emotional Competency/

Harmonizing the center of your life.
 * /Family/

Children can bring great joy along with great responsibility.
 * /Progeny and Legacy/

Understanding what you can change and what you cannot change is the simple but often difficult path to inner peace.
 * /Peace of mind, Inner Peace/

We find beauty in something done well.
 * /Beauty, awe/

There is much more out there than in here so venture out, discover new things, and continue to learn.
 * /Exploration, discovery, learning/

Create and maintain your vision for a better tomorrow
 * /Dreaming/

We become authentic when the path we choose through life is congruent with who we are.
 * /Authenticity/

Become excellent at being human.
 * /Virtues Development/

Act according to your well-chosen values, especially when it is most difficult.
 * /Courage/

Enjoy your unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of others.
 * /Love/

Connect with a larger reality.
 * /Spiritual Development/

Recreation
With survival taken care of we can take time to enjoy ourselves while maintaining a temperate balance.

Go ahead and have some fun.
 * /Play/

Go ahead and pamper yourself.
 * /Pleasure/

Seek out this optimal mental state during work and play.
 * /Flow/

Success
Demonstrate your competency by attaining a series of increasingly difficult goals.

Perfect the skills required to become excellent at your chosen vocation.
 * /Skills Mastery/

Earn authentic recognition and respect from the people who know you best.
 * /Esteem and Recognition/

Generate new and useful ideas.
 * /Creativity/

Protect the ability of future generations to enjoy our earth.
 * /Stewardship and Sustainability/

Significance
Strive to have a positive influence or impact on others.

Relieve their suffering.
 * /Compassion/

Act congruently with your well-chosen values.
 * /Integrity/

Carefully choose, assess, and reassess your values.
 * /Values Development/

Engage with communities where you belong and can thrive and contribute.
 * /Community/

Work to understand our world from a global perspective.
 * /Adopt a Global Perspective/

Do the work you are meant to do.
 * /Find your good work/

Transcendence
Have a constructive and lasting impact on the world at large.

Act on your concern for the welfare of others
 * /Altruism/

Treat others as they wish to be treated.
 * /Peace on earth, good will toward all/

Experience full comprehension of a situation
 * /Enlightenment/

Realize what is most valuable in life.
 * /Wisdom/

Distractions and Dead Ends
Several popular pursuits are unable to provide lasting and meaningful fulfillment. Avoid languishing in the distractions described here.


 * Ego, status
 * Eschew ego rants. Embrace the virtue of humility.
 * Choose stature over status.
 * Complete the course on Coping with Ego.

Tyranny is an abuse of power. Do not confuse tyranny with leadership.
 * Tyranny


 * Greed
 * Eschew more, savor enough.
 * Choose flourishing over opulence.


 * Addictions
 * Exercise the virtue of temperance and overcome your addictions.


 * Destructive Emotions
 * Overcome your anger, hatred, vengeance, envy, jealousy, and unfounded fears.
 * Develop the virtues of courage, tolerance, justice, compassion, and mercy.

Don't languish in boredom. Explore until you find something that interests you and get involved. Turn off the TV and get a life!
 * Boredom

Spend Your Time on What Matters
How do you spend your time? Are you spending most of your time on what matters or are you wasting time?

Busy chaotic lives, many demands on your time, influences of popular culture, bad habits and unhelpful advice, incorrect beliefs, unfounded assumptions, short-term thinking, and ever-present temptations and urgencies make it difficult to spend your time on what matters most. The assignments described below are designed to help you identify what matters, estimate how you spend your time, and encourage you to shift time from what matters less to what matters more.

Assignments
Part 1: Complete this /assessment/ to determine if you are spending your time on what matters most.

Part 2: Examine your answers to identify the lowest scores in the areas that mean most to you. Topics that appear earlier in this course may be prerequisites that prepare you for later topics. Emphasize those areas first.

Part 3: Work to improve in those areas. Review the associated topics in this course. Read more of the materials in the suggested reading list for those topics. Repeat the assignments in those topics with a deeper sense of commitment. Spend more time in these areas and less time on activities that matter less. Choose some specific date in the future when you would like these changes to be in effect. Repeat this assessment at that time to measure your progress.

Part 4: Measure how you spend your time. For one week carry a diary, calendar, or small log book with you. Several times during each day, record how you actually spend your time. Note how much time you are actually spending on what matters most, and how much time you are spending on things that matter less. Shift your time to activities that matter most.

Part 5: Read these /regrets of the dying/. Take steps now to spend your time on what matters most to avoid these regrets.

Part 6: Plan to repeat this course one year from now.

Part 7: Write a description of those things that matter most to you. Please feel free to add it to this list of things that matter, written by other students.

Keep in mind that most needs are satiable and recurring. For example it is best to eat until you are full, and then stop. There is no benefit, indeed it is often harmful, to continue eating past the point you are full. However, even though you satisfied today’s hunger, you will be hungry again tomorrow. Plan accordingly. Find the balance between deprivation and excess. Choose temperance and reject gluttony. If you are unable to find time to address some unmet need, it may be because you are spending excessive time on a need that is adequately satisfied.

Suggestions for further reading:

 * (Evaluate the book: The Top Five Regrets of the Dying - A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing. )
 * (Evaluate the book: The Top Five Regrets of the Dying - A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing. )
 * (Evaluate the book: The Top Five Regrets of the Dying - A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing. )

Going Global
While the topics covered in this course on what matters emphasize the full range of personal growth, the recent adoption of the Global Goals for Sustainable Development provide an opportunity to address what matters on a global scale. This table displays a correspondence between the topics in this course and the 17 specific Global Goals. Many of the global goals are foundational, addressing needs for survival that are a prerequisite for the full range of growth addressed by the more complete list of topics that matter.