LIMITS TO LONGING
“What is the end goal towards which we should direct all our activities?” and “what is the ultimate purpose of human experience?”, were questions posed by Aristotle (384-322 BCE) in his work ‘Nicomachean Ethics’.
How relevant these questions are today. They remain unanswered.
Concepts such as being more ‘resilient’ and ‘adaptive’ regarding leadership and life itself, suggest that reacting to setbacks and problems by being resilient and adaptive is good. As Charles Darwin is so often quoted, “it is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent; but the one most responsive to change”. What I believe that as good as these abilities are, they are only managing a current situation, usually a current problem, which although it is important and therefore given most of our energy, is based from the past to the present and, because of this, is not enough to create a desirable and preferable future. Essentially, perhaps the greatest responsibility and role a leader has is to make it possible to create a preferred future, the essence of Aristotle’s questions.