The morning is crisp and cool. The first day of the new semester in the Philosophy Department at The University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas is about to begin.
Welcome to classroom where seven students, each working toward a doctorate in philosophy, are seated around a big table, chatting, fidgeting, and anticipating the arrival of Dr. John Miller.
Dr. Miller is no average professor and taking postgraduate ethics at one of the most prestigious colleges of philosophy in the United States is no average classroom experience.
Dr. Miller is recognized nationwide as an intellectual giant in the field of ethics.
Having an ethics class with Dr. Miller is like having golf lessons with Tiger Woods, filmmaking classes with Stephen Spielberg or learning investment strategies face to face with Warren Buffet.
The room is small. The subject is large. After all, ethics is the study of right and wrong and your decisions about right and wrong guide your choices every day of your life.
- If you’re president your ethics determine the course of your nation.
- If you’re CEO your ethics determine the course of your company.
Regardless of who you are, your ethics determine the course of your life.
I did not attend that class but my wife Elizabeth was there, one of the seven students.
What you’re about to hear are the first words that Dr. Miller spoke as the advanced ethics class officially began on that first day.
Dr. Miller walked in, made direct eye contact with each student one by one and stood in silence at the head of the table. A hush fell over the room. Dr. Miller began…
“The entire subject of ethics, all of it, including everything you will learn in this class, boils down to this; Do good. Avoid evil.”
He went on.
“Everything we do in class from this moment on has one purpose, to clarify and define what it means to do good and avoid evil. But at it’s core, if you grasp the concept ‘do good and avoid evil’, you grasp the heart and soul of ethics. The rest is sorting details and figuring out how to apply them in your life.”
Amazing! The ethical prescription for living a good life and the practical prescription for achieving excellent health are identical; Do good and avoid evil. The rest is just sorting details.
The concept do good and avoid evil is easy to understand but complex when you start sorting the details.
At the heart of both ethics and health you have a fundamental question to answer and a fundamental decision to make before either subject can hold any particular interest for you.
The question; why do you care?
The decision; are you willing to act?
Why do you care?
Knowing why you care is important because strong reasons produce strong motivation and often it takes strong motivation and firm resolve to…
- LEARN WHAT YOU NEED TO LEARN so you can
- DO WHAT YOU NEED TO DO so you can
- HAVE WHAT YOU WANT TO HAVE.
When my grandmother passed away with heart disease at a youthful age sixty-eight I cared. I cared she would never meet her first grandchild, my daughter. I cared that all the fun and laughter we shared as a family would be forever changed without her. I cared because I loved her.
Still today when I write a blog post or release a new weight loss of health-related information product thoughts of my grandmother motivate me to do my best and put out information that can make a real difference for anyone who takes it seriously.
Strong reasons produce strong desire. Strong desire empowers you to act. Strong actions lead to real results. Simple stuff really.
What motivates you?
Why do you care about your health?
What’s so important about losing weight, getting fit, looking fantastic and feeling great?
Why do you care about being healthy and energetic?
Once you understand what drives you it’s decision time.
Your Decision
The philosopher said you can want in one hand and pour dirt in the other and see which one fills up first. Wanting is not getting. Desire is not action. And while hope may spring eternal, if there’s magic in the universe it happens at the point of action!
To get something you have to do something and you can’t do just anything, you have to do what it takes to get the job done, everything else is just wasted effort.
What are you doing for your health? What are you doing to lose weight? What are you doing to get fit and become as healthy as you possibly can? How far are you willing to go?
- Are you willing to learn what you need to know so you can do what you need to do so you can have what you want to have?
- Are you willing to get out of your comfort zone?
- Are you willing to do something different so you can have something different?
Your Choice
If you want something different you have to do something different and that brings us full circle.
All of ethics and all of health boils down to do good and avoid evil. The key to success is to know which actions bring you closer to your goal, the good, and which bring you farther away, the evil.
Everything article and post here on Dr. Russells Health And Weight Loss Blog is dedicated to giving you the information you need to empower yourself to reach your weight loss, health and fitness goals so you can always look and feel your very best and enjoy life to the fullest.
I hope you enjoyed peeking in on Dr. Miller’s advanced ethics class and I’d love to hear about what motivates you take care of yourself and be as healthy as you can be. If you’d like to leave a comment please do so.
Until Next Time… All The Best To You And Yours!
This is a small sample of the ideas and practical, usable information in 5 Steps To Optimal Health, a program thousands have benefited from and I have updated continuously every year since 1999. To learn more about 5 Steps and the release of the fully-updated 2008 version visit: www.5StepsToOptimalHealth.com
Written by Dr. Russell J. Martino, Ph.DThe Voice Of Health
Stay Updated - Subscribe to my RSS Feed
{ 0 comments… add one now }