From our earliest days, we want to feel useful. We want to be part of something where people value us. Even as children, we want to be picked on the sports team, or be part of the band, or the chess club, or whatever it may be. I believe there is a notion in each of us to leave our legacy with the world – to feel we did something useful while we are here.
I didn’t always feel the need to leave my legacy in the world. In fact, I spent most of my life in high school to my late 20′s not really knowing what I was supposed to be doing. Life was something I did when I woke up and was a reaction to whatever the day threw at me. It wasn’t until my early 30′s that I had the “Ah-Ha” moment that turned me around. This website is a portion of my fulfillment in life :)
Fulfillment
Fulfillment – this is the measure of how happy you are in life. It really is that simple. You either feel happy with what you are doing in life or you don’t. Happiness is personal to each person. But true happiness to me is knowing you are leaving the world a better place than what it was before you arrived.
Knowledge
To feel fulfilled, you must have something of value to give. Read it again a few times. Having something valuable to share. This is knowledge – what is stored inside of your head that allows you to create information and opportunity for others. Gaining knowledge is done through books, audio, video, conversation, events that happen in life, and any other way that you increase what you know.
Knowledge is simply your entire brain and your ability to ‘pull’ from it.. It is also What you think you know, what you know you don’t know, and what you don’t know you don’t know.
Contribution
Once you begin to acquire knowledge through study and learning, the next step is contribution. It doesn’t do any good to keep all the knowledge to yourself. Life is all about people – there are billion’s of them here on earth! Begin to share your unique knowledge and value with others in order to better their lives. Now this is a whole different subject as sharing your specific knowledge with those who are more likely to accept it is important.
How can you contribute? Talk to people, make your own blog – which so many awesome people have been doing. Just look at the I.P.W. What an awesome group of inspiring individuals. Use your knowledge at your place of employment. Use it to serve your family. Use it to write a book. The possibilities are endless.
Experience
I’ve been by the stove several times making eggs and touched the hot pan on accident. OUCH! That really hurts. And I’ve done it several times. This is what you call experience. Experience will confirm or denounce the knowledge in your mind. But there are better ways to get experience!
When you begin creating knowledge and offering it to others, an amazing thing begins to happen. You begin to gain experience and confirmation of the knowledge and contribution you make. You see how people react, you see if what you shared was useful. You see if you put enough time into your contribution.
Storing experience and using it to continue the circle of fulfillment is essential. Otherwise the circle is not improved. What happens to pipes in the home if they are allowed to rust? They eventually crack and break. The circle which is not improved will crack and break. The great thing about experience is it allows you to adjust and tweak your current approach. It allows you to improve. But you must pay attention to it. Be ever watchful of what happens when you contribute. You either will have helped others, or your contribution will have been lost and will need refining.
The Fulfillment Circle
The fulfillment circle is continuous. True happiness and fulfillment requires constant growth. Gaining knowledge will increase your mastery of material. This will in turn allow you to better contribute to society. This in turn will give you experience as you actually spend time in action and learning through experience. At this point, go right back to gaining knowledge. The fulfillment circle is the way masters live their lives.
Friends: What do you do to gain knowledge? What do you do to contribute to others? What are some experiences you have had as you’ve contributed?
8 Responses to The Fulfillment Circle
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It’s A Pleasure To Meet You
I'm Jeremy N. Johnson. I'm one man looking to make a difference. What can you expect here? A look at my research, results, and journaling as I strive to advance at a public Internet company and work on side businesses in writing, game development, and niche websites. If you have a philosophy of success, let's connect. GFree Updates
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This is food for thought Jeremy!!
Deep down inside we all have a need for fulfillment in some area of our lives. Thanks for reminding me of continuing to educate myself and become knowledgeable so that I can continue to provide value.
Great post! Very well worth the Re-tweet!
.-= Jarrod@ Optimistic Journey´s last blog ..You Know You’re Favored by God When… =-.
Glad it was helpful Jarrod. I realized I was spending more time working than I was increasing my knowledge and skill and thought this would be a good one to share. Thanks for stopping by as always :)
hi jeremy
this post has a voice.
it’s the kind you want to hear over and over again. i believe leaving our legacy doesnt always have to be hollywood style and you’ve shared a few ways to do so when explaining contribution.
i couldnt agree more that True happiness and fulfillment requires constant growth. If there isn’t any growth, there’s a tendency to become stagnant.
once again thanks for sharing
have a lovely weekend
.-= ayo´s last blog ..The Journey So Far……….. =-.
Hi Ayo, thanks for stopping by – constant growth is the challenge and blessing. You have a great weekend as well!
Hi Jeremy,
This post is as if you were eaves dropping on a conversation that I recently had with a mentor! I have years of experience under my belt and there is no end to gaining knowledge — I love learning in all its forms. Our focus was in how I could take this and ‘contribute’ in a bigger way — to more people who would be receptive to overcoming inner blocks and engaging in the ‘work’ of personal development.
My intuition says people like you will continue to contribute to the flow, ensuring ‘clear pipes’ with your gifts and talents. This is a wonderful post! Must retweet now :)
Have an awesome weekend.
.-= Kim´s last blog ..Clarity — Take Action and the Next Step Will Reveal Itself =-.
Hi Kim, I must have picked up the vibes from your conversation somehow. In a way, I probably have those vibes to thank for the thought of it. It was strange, the idea crept up in my mind and I knew I had to get it down.
I love that you have the experience you do. The people I’m finding online here, of which you are a big part, I consider to be mentors. People who have experience and offer guidance through their websites and communication to me – even in just writing articles and sharing knowledge. I appreciate it very much.
Thanks for stopping by :)
Great post Jeremy! There is truly no end to gaining knowledge. I also believe in Inner Wisdom we all have. Our inner source of knowledge that knows pretty much everything. Gaining knowledge and experince from the outside world helps us to activate that Inner Source.
P.S. I feel so “magical” after visiting your blog.
That’s a very good way to put it Lana, gaining knowledge helps us activate our ‘Inner Source’. The knowledge is already there, we just have to tap into it. I like how you put that!
Feeling magical is quite fun, I think I’m hooked :)