One of the enduring traits of the human condition, particularly in Western society, is our tendency to privilege material wealth, career and status as the holy grail of happiness and fulfilment. Whilst there can’t bea singledoubt as to the salience, and indeed absolute necessity of significant wealth creation, enterprise, and endeavour, it is, nevertheless, at best only partially true to suggest meaning, purpose and happiness are grounded in material attainment alone. Such a position represents an incomplete and truncated notion of success. None of this is new. Far from it. Over the great arc of history, humanity has wrestled with one of the most existential questions: How should one live in order to find the true meaning of life and achieve happiness? Over the eons of modern human existence, a plethora of ideas have been put forward – and lived out – in the universal search for a satisfactory response to this profound desire. The most salutary, widespread, and durable of these ideologies - alighted upon at different times, places and via different formulations – all share a rudimentary core insight. A successful life – or one of true wealth, happiness, meaning and self-fulfilment – derives not solely from our possessions, although they play an important role. Rather, a successful life derives from the harmonious, balanced and finely cultivated relationship between all our varied sub-domains of wellness. Aristotle and Plato formulated this understanding as the concept “Arete”. Meanwhile, 20th-century scholars like Dr Abraham Maslow signalled this same principle as the concept of “self-actualisation” – the apogee of his eponymous hierarchy of needs. Whether ancient or more contemporary, these concepts all indicate the goal and zenith of human achievement as the act, and quality, of living up to one’s full potential via the pursuit of balanced excellence in mind, body, and soul. 83 TRAVEL & LIFESTYLE
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy Mjk3Mzkz