Good morning everybody. Welcome back. to food
for thought thoughts if it were you my name is
neogentrics now i know i've been gone for about
a week and i had a lot of stuff i had to take
care of like i said i had tests quizzes things
i had to get caught up uh but you know that's
life i am a college student after all and well
gotta make ends meet so picking up where we left
off uh i originally was having episode uh sorry
channels channels, chapters of my book that I
already have pre -published. Like I said, it's
not the best thing in the world. It was something
I did a couple years back and I was posting a
couple chapters here and there for you guys and
I as a result of everything that I was doing.
So I will in fact post the rest of the book if
there's more people who want to hear it. The
last episode that I released with the chapter
of the book, it wasn't that long, but I didn't
get as much listeners on that one as I would
have hoped. So on the next one, I'll probably
release a little bit more. But for now, we're
going to go back to the previous thing I was
talking about before. We talked about being healthy.
We talked about things you can eat, things you
can drink, stuff of that nature, stuff that is
actually good for you to make your life a lot
better. And one of the things that I had to mention,
and I briefly went over it, was how living well
and living ethnically plays a key role in being
healthy and keeping your body intact, okay? from
their deathbeds and said that they wish they
had spent more time in the office. Nobody says
that, okay? Most people would probably sympathize
with that point of view, however, but there are
many other things that you might have already
looked back on. If not, you know, regret exactly.
At least with a vague feeling that you would
prefer to be able to say that you had not done
that or if you had a chance to do it over, you
would do it better. Okay? So let me ask you this
question. How can you avoid looking back at the
end of your life with too many regrets? This
is an issue which humans have been addressing
for hundreds, if not thousands or so years, at
least since the days of Aristotle. For those
who don't know, he was a Greek philosopher and
a scientist who wrote a number of treaties on
ethics. He's considered to be one of the greatest
intellectuals of the Western history. What I'm
trying to say is there are six ways of living.
Keep these in mind. Aristotle suggested that
there were six basic pursuits or ambitions that
might shape individual lives. He explains these.
These are what they are. The first one is pleasure,
always looking for the feel -good factor. Wealth
and material things. Status, respect, and fame,
or what's the other word for it? Influence. Next
would be power and being able to persuade others
of your point of view, or get your own way. Next
would be knowledge and a moral, virtuous, and
ethic approach. Okay, now no life is going to
be entirely shaped by any one of these things,
but it is likely that most of us will see one
of these approach as our dominant tendency thing
to do. Okay, and as Aristotle suggested that
each approach had some drawbacks which might
stop those following them from reaching. In their
full potential, for example, he suggested that
seeking out only pleasure left no room for thinking
or reasoning. Or common sense, for that matter.
And those who chose to pursue status might find
that they were left high and dry when their followers
deserted them, for whatever God -given reason.
Instead, he suggested that we should try to live
and act thoughtfully. We should, as he proposed,
how do I word this? Live in a way that enables
us to explore and reflect on the ordinary happenings
of life as well as the extraordinary. We should
basically try to act out ordinary things in an
extraordinary way. Okay? Okay. So with... That
being said, if you could look back and say you
lived a good life, that means that you've shown
courage. You weren't cowardice or impulsive or
risk -taking, or extreme risk -taking for that
matter. You had self -control. You weren't self
-indulgent or selfish, like majorly. You had
a generous... personality you were very generous
you didn't waste resources for no reason or opportunities
you had friendliness and politeness you weren't
rude flattering or any other unpleasant unpleasantness
towards others you were tactful with discretion
truthfulness and integrity you had a good temper
even in the face of provocation which often means
a sense of humor Because if you can't laugh it
off and you're constantly getting upset, what
can you do? And fairness. You are a pretty fair
and decent person. Now, these same virtues, same
things that I told you about right here, Aristotle
described also in his Ideal Life paper. While
other people have suggested that compassion and
gratitude should also be included, It's pretty
much debatable and it's up to people of that
current age, okay? The next would be considered
signs of flourishing. Aristotle also suggested
that there were signs that we could look for
in our own and other lives to see whether we
or they were flourishing as people. He thought
that these signs and indeed the flourishing would
mean that the person was growing as an individual
and living a good life. Typically, of course.
And the signs were the following. They are determined
to lead the best life possible and to find the
right way to do that, or whatever it was. You
will see, for example, that they put their resources
and capital, whether personal, social, monetary,
towards helping them to live an ethical and virtuous
life. Any rewards that come their way are also
directed towards that good life as well. Next
would be their choices, actions are fully human.
This may be rather a philosophical point, but
it is the idea that we as humans are above animals,
and we have the capacity to reason and to choose
to live within a moral and ethical framework.
Maslow suggested that we had basic needs, such
as a need for food and shelter, which must be
met before we can think about anything else.
Once we've satisfied these, then we can look
for safety, security, and then love and belonging,
so on and so forth. At the very top of the hierarchy
is self -actualization, the need for personal
growth and development. The general view accepted
by most academics is that the animals are not
capable of this, so this is what makes us human.
Being able to make moral choices is also a human
characteristic. Nobody expects a fox to understand
that it's wrong to kill every chicken in a hen
house. Okay? And if you do, God help you. Okay?
They were particularly good at doing good things.
That's the next point. In this context, good
means particularly human, or the virtues outlined
by Aristotle, as I mentioned earlier. He believed
that people flourish when they live well, and
this is ethical and moral. Makes sense. They
are consistent. These people that you can rely
upon to do what is right. They act consistently
in the way that they should. They take pleasure
in doing the right thing and seek to behave the
way just because. They enjoy living morally and
ethically and value being able to be brave, self
-controlled, generous, and so on. Like I mentioned
before, they don't do... So far, the external
rewards are recognition, but because living in
this way is the right thing to do, it brings
its own rewards. But you have to be able to see
it this way in order to actually accept it. They
act well and they think well. They explore how
to behave well and also reflect on their own
behaviors and learning so that they can grow
and learn even more. This is how you know that
you're living well and you're doing what you're
supposed to, despite what the world throws at
you. It certainly is true that the virtues discussed
by Aristotle are very deep -rooted in the human
psyche, and particularly characteristics like
fairness. Aristotle suggested that if we can
live in this way, or at least strive to do these
things and occasionally succeed, then we are
likely to be happier. He suggested that even
if things go wrong, it's still better to act
ethically, and many people use this as a basis
for resilience. But overall, I mean, we will
be happier if we at least try, you know. His
view was that if all else was equal, he would
be happier having lived an ethical life than
an unethical one. And he felt that applied to
most people. I mean, it is a very human characteristic.
And that is the basis of his philosophy. So,
I mean, it doesn't really matter. In all honesty,
how you live, it matters what you do when you
live. And, you know, a lot of people don't ever
stop to consider this. They think that because
they're doing what they're doing, that it's right
and that's all there is. It's not as simple as
that, you know. There's different kinds of ethics,
different kinds of ethical and living morals
and behaviors that people have to consider and
do. And I think Aristotle, and this is just my
opinion, this is one of the few times you'll
hear it, you know, has a good point on what he's
saying as far as, like, how people should act
and the way they should do things. Don't get
me wrong, okay? Some of his stuff that he says,
some of the stuff that he's written, I kind of
question myself. And I'm just kind of like, you
know, why would you do that? Or why would you
say such a thing? But then there's times like
where people do something that's actually smart
for once in their life and it makes sense. We
all have stupid moments in our life. We all do
dumb stuff at some point. If it wasn't for the
sake of those dumb mistakes, we wouldn't have
the rules and regulations, things that we have
now in place to help keep us in check. Now, granted,
there are still some people out there that are
just straight up stupid and they will do the
most outright, most outlandish. ignorant dumb
thing that they can find which then sets a rule
or a restriction for other people because someone
else did it you know i mean why do you think
we have signs that say don't dive into the into
the shallow end of the pool obviously some idiot
has done it before you know there's things like
this simple things things we don't even think
about you know that happen as a result of people
just not you know living right not doing what
they're supposed to do and they disregard other
people around them and you know put them in a
bad position and then when that person screws
up they're quick to say this is all your fault
when in reality it actually relates back to you
because what that person's doing wouldn't have
never affected you had you not been where you
were doing god knows whatever it was you were
doing in that area In some people's cases, traveling
to another country simply because they wanted
to, it's fine. But if you're traveling because
there's someone over there you wanted to meet
because of whatever, whatever, whatever reason,
but you have a wife back home, but then something
happens and you end up in trouble, and you want
to quickly blame the person that caused it, well,
think about this for a minute. Why the heck are
you in that country when you're not supposed
to be there? You know? These are just some thoughts
to consider, like I said. This is food for thought.
Thoughts if it were you. This is stuff that you
have to think about for yourself. Consider what
it would be like to be in the other person's
shoes. Had what happened to them happened to
you, what would you do? What would you do? Well,
that's it for my 100th episode. I'm not going
to keep it going any longer. Again, like I said,
if you have any suggestions, things you would
like to hear, see, or I'm sorry, not see, things
you would like to hear me talk about, things
you would like to hear me bring up and or discuss,
or have someone else come on with me and discuss,
please feel free to hit me up on my Facebook
channel. It is facebook .com forward slash striker
fusion on my Instagram at neogentrix or on my
Patreon page or here on Anchor. under neogentrics
food for thought and uh have a great rest of
your day and don't forget to check out my buddies
uh my buddies gloria tp5 and a few others i can't
remember their names at the moment wow that's
kind of sad uh check out their channels they
got some really good interesting information
on them and i guarantee you'll enjoy listening
to them use them as a good example of how you
should probably live your life and ways that
even if life brings you down You know, you still
manage to get back up on your own two feet and
keep on going. You know, I know everyone's heard
the phrase, try, try again. But to actually put
it into effect and believe that it's actually
going to happen. That someday, eventually it'll
work within reason and common sense, of course.
You know, you'll do just fine. And both me and
Gloria TP5 are prime examples of this. We never
gave up and here we are now. More successful
than we were in the past. We're not millionaires,
but here we are. We're making progress. We're
moving forward and God has blessed us thoroughly.
So enjoy the rest of your day and be blessed.