PURSUING
INTRINSIC VALUES:
AM I SPENDING THIS HOUR WELL?
SYNOPSIS:
During most of the history of the human race (and
pre-history),
the struggle to survive
was so
time consuming
that people spent the best years of their lives and the best part of
each day
in activities necessary in
order to survive.
But in recent times, leisure has become a new
reality
—at
least for some segments of the human race.
We can now spend meaningful parts of our lives and parts of each day
pursuing projects that are not
required for our survival.
In cultures that enable retirement some years
before death,
it is now even possible to spend several years of one's life
in meaningful activities that have no immediate cash value.
In other words, we can pursue intrinsic
values with our time
rather than giving ourselves to practical purposes.
If you are a person of leisure, you can ask yourself:
"What do I want to do
today?"
rather than
"What do I have to do
today?"
OUTLINE:
1.
WHEN INCOME IS SEPARATED FROM BEHAVIOR
2.
EXAMPLES OF INTRINSIC VALUES
3.
WE CAN EVALUATE EACH HOUR OF OUR LIVES
TO SEE WHAT INTRINSIC VALUES WE PURSUE
4. LISTING OUR COMPREHENSIVE PURPOSES IN LIFE
PURSUING
INTRINSIC VALUES:
AM I SPENDING THIS HOUR WELL?
by
James Leonard Park
When I woke up this morning, I did ask myself:
"What do I want to do
today?"
I have no responsibilities staring me in the face.
I can spend this day pursuing whatever purposes seem best to me.
I have no family responsibilities that take up time.
There are always a few survival projects that I must continue,
such as making meals, but these can be done at my own leisure.
This has been the pattern for most of my life:
I was employed by others for only two years.
The rest of my life, I have been the master of my own time.
And I have pursued intrinsic values in a number of different ways.
And now that I have passed the magic age of 65,
for the rest of my life I will continue to receive
regular
income from the Social Security Administration.
I no longer worry about 'earning a living'.
This way of
organizing each day is not new.
I had a professional career of only two years,
during which other people paid me for activities they had defined
before they hired me to do them.
But since I retired at age 27, I have basically organized my life
according to my own goals and purposes,
independent of any expectations of other human beings.
When we have enough money to live on,
independent of any behavior on our part,
then we can give our time to meaningful
projects
rather than pursuing activities that are intended to earn money
or to make us happy.
1. WHEN INCOME IS
SEPARATED
FROM BEHAVIOR
If we live long enough, we will probably have
a period of our lives
when we are free to pursue values without worrying about cash
flow.
If we have spent most of our lives in money-making activities,
it might be hard to think of new activities that are not
occupational.
And our society is not organized to support
activities intended to fulfill
intrinsic values.
Nevertheless, we can choose purposes
that are not
directly related to our own well-being.
We can center our lives around intrinsic values
in contrast to the practical
purposes,
which usually take up the best
hours of most lives.
As I sit composing this essay, I have no economic
benefits in mind.
Neither you (the reader) nor I (the writer) will have more money
as a result of writing or reading these words.
Rather, we will ask about non-monetary meanings for
our lives.
In our daily behavior, do we pursue ultimate values?
2. EXAMPLES OF
INTRINSIC
VALUES
Have a quick look around in your life:
Perhaps there are signs of intrinsic values in your immediate
environment.
Do you have some projects waiting for your attention
that will produce no
cash-flow?
When other people examine your whole life,
will they notice intrinsic values that you pursued?
If you have any talent for writing,
have you produced something that will be preserved after your death
because it has some meaning for the lives of other people?
If you have a talent for organizing,
have you created a new organization that will continue after your
death,
fulfilling purposes that transcend your own existence?
If you focus on interpersonal
relationships,
what values are now being achieved between you and others?
And what extensions of these values will exist beyond your own life?
Another way to ask about intrinsic values
is to consider what others
have contributed to us.
Perhaps people who are now long dead
created ideas and organizations that we value.
If we appreciate elements of culture
we find intrinsically meaningful,
we can ask ourselves what we might contribute to the same purposes.
For example, if we appreciate educational organizations,
what can we contribute to make them even better
for the next generations of people who will benefit from them?
We all can value the health-care systems and
organizations
that have helped us to survive and stay relatively
healthy.
Other people created and improved these systems before we were
born.
Can we think of additional ways to improve health-care?
Will we make permanent contributions so that medical care will be better
for the people who will be born years from now?
If we live in countries with good systems of
government,
we appreciate the services that government provides.
And probably we can make these
systems even better.
3. WE CAN EVALUATE
EACH
HOUR OF OUR LIVES
TO SEE WHAT INTRINSIC VALUES WE
PURSUE
Human life is an on-going process.
We never possess our whole lives at one specific time.
Rather, we find ourselves engaged in a series of activities and
projects.
Each activity or project might take a few minutes at a time.
Sometimes we devote several
hours to
one of our
projects.
But usually our lives consist of what we do
hour by hour.
I will spend a few more minutes writing and/or
revising this essay.
You will spend a few more minutes reading it and thinking about your
life.
Today consists of the activities and projects we have decided to pursue.
After the day is over, we will sleep.
And tomorrow we will pursue different activities.
If we are pursuing intrinsic values,
we can specify the meanings we hope will emerge from any hour.
Was this a meaningful way to use our time?
Are we glad that we read this essay?
When the television program is over,
do we feel that our lives have been enriched?
Or did we find it a pleasing way to 'pass the time'?
If we have long-term projects,
the activities of any single hour of pursuing those projects
might not show much progress toward the ultimate purpose.
But we can assure ourselves that we took small
steps toward the goal.
At the end of each day of our lives,
we can ask what intrinsic values we have advanced that
day.
And if we have defined for ourselves our Authentic
projects-of-being,
we have even more detailed visions
of the meanings of our lives.
And we can ask ourselves if the hour now passing
advances meanings we want to pursue with
our
lives.
Each hour can realize some part of a larger purpose
for our lives.
Sometimes we lose track of our comprehensive goals.
But in moments of deep reflection
we can ask how each hour adds to the meaning of our lives.
Another essay explores intrinsic values using the concept of
Authenticity:
"Becoming More Authentic:
The Positive Side of Existentialism":
https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-website-jamesleonardpark---freelibrary-3puxk/CY-AU.html
4. LISTING OUR
COMPREHENSIVE
PURPOSES IN LIFE
A written exercise that might help us to focus our
lives
would be making a list of our basic life-goals or fundamental purposes.
When our lives are seen as a whole
(perhaps looking back from some important turning point),
what was it all about?
What values were we pursuing in our daily activities?
For example, I have chosen to focus important parts
of my life
around the project of helping
other people to focus their lives
in whatever ways are meaningful for them.
And the process of writing this essay is one small way
in which I hope to contribute to your life.
A more extensive way of helping other human beings
to become more Authentic will be found in my books,
most especially the one entitled: "Becoming More Authentic:
The Positive Side of Existentialism".
https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-website-jamesleonardpark---freelibrary-3puxk/AU.html
I
have no control over how such books will be used.
But I do hope that readers will use them to consider carefully
what they want to do with their lives.
Can reading an on-line essay or a printed book
really change someone's life?
I think so.
My own life has been enriched by reading the works
of other human beings who have been dead for many years.
Dead authors receive no benefit from their work,
but if their sentences preserve meanings,
then those who discover their words even years later
might find that their own lives are enriched
by the individual process of reading and thinking.
Here is a challenge for you the reader:
Take a few minutes right now.
Create a list of the deepest meanings of your life.
Some of these will be hard to achieve.
But you should be able to think of some specific projects
that you can undertake even today
that will set you in motion
toward your goals.
How can I use the next hour to make my life more
meaningful?
Created
August 6, 2009; Revised 8-13-2009 11-4-2009; 3-12-2010; 3-25-2010;
4-29-2011; 9-21-2011; 2-23-2012; 12-30-2012;
1-1-2013; 7-6-2013; 9-12-2014; 5-28-2015; 2-8-2019; 9-25-2020;
AUTHOR:
James Park is an independent writer,
living and creating in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
He is the author of 30
books,
including
Becoming
More
Authentic:
The Positive Side of Existentialism,
which is most closely related to this essay.
Much more about him will be discovered on his website:
James
Leonard Park—Free
Library
Here are two related essays:
Becoming
More
Authentic:
The Positive Side of Existentialism
Becoming
More
Free
Further Reading:
Authenticity
Bibliography
Here you will
find reviews of over 20 books, subdivided into:
Philosophy,
Psychology, Biography, & Literature
If you would like to
see a course description
for a seminar on Authenticity, go to:
Becoming
More Authentic
.
Go to the EXISTENTIALISM
page.
Go to other
on-line
essays by James Park,
organized into 10 subject-areas.
Go to
the beginning of this website
James
Leonard Park—Free
Library