Abstract
Fulfillment is not a place we go to; it is a place we all come from. The image of the path or the journey could be misleading for all paths are paths away from home. The self-discovery of fulfillment is from here to here. Real fulfillment is about transforming our search for success into a discovery of profound meaning and significance for life and leadership. This transition to “significance”, which is nurtured from within, is not about “acquiring” anything new; it is a matter of “re-discovering” what we already have. It is about belonging, not belongings. Significance is defined in terms of finding one’s real place and purpose in life and in terms of one’s contribution to the common good.
A fulfilled life is marked by some key attributes which distinguish a person who is truly awake and the one who is merely sleep-walking. Love, joy and compassion are marks of being awake. Hatred, greed and anger are marks of being asleep. In order to live a fulfilled life—one brimming with Joy, Peace, Harmony and Love—we must resonate with precisely these qualities. This chapter explores the art and science of finding fulfillment in life and leadership. It presents seven habits of highly fulfilled leaders to mark the transition from success to significance. These habits of head and heart are: Pure motivation; Gratitude; Generosity; Harmlessness; Selfless-service; Acceptance; and Mindfulness.
An erratum to this chapter can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55571-7_12
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- 1.
This is at best a paraphrase of Andre Malraux’s ‘le vingt-et-unieme siecle sera religieux ou ne sera pas.’ The closest translation of which would be something like: ‘Religion will be the measure of humanity in the 21st century.’ Retrieved March 25, 2016: https://www.quora.com/unanswered/The-21st-century-will-be-spiritual-or-will-not-be-What-do-you-think-about-this-enigmatic-prophesy-Andre-Malraux-1901-1976.
- 2.
Maurice Frydman, tr., I am That: Conversations with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (Durham, NC: The Acorn Press, 2nd American revised edition, 2012), 50.
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Manuel Schoch, Bitten by Black Snake: The Ancient Wisdom of Ashtavakra (Boulder, CO: Sentient Publications, 2007), 3.
- 4.
Bṛhadāraṇyaka UpaniṢad 4.4.5. A popular rendition capturing a similar theme is: “Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; for it becomes your destiny.”—Author Unknown, widely attributable to Lao Tzu.
- 5.
Bhagavad Gītā: 2.47.
- 6.
Bhagavad Gītā: 3.20.
- 7.
Bhagavad Gītā: 5.25, 12.4.
- 8.
Cited in Stephen Mitchell, The Enlightened Mind (New York: Harper), 207.
- 9.
Robert A. Emmons, “The Psychology of Gratitude: An Introduction”. In Robert A Emmons and Michael E. McCullough, (ed.) The Psychology of Gratitude (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 3–18.
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Robert A Emmons and Michael E. McCullough, “Counting blessings versus burdens: An experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(2), (2003): 377–389.
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Robert A. Emmons, “The Psychology of Gratitude: An Introduction”, p. 5 (emphasis in the original).
- 12.
Claudia Wallis, “The New Science of Happiness”, Time Magazine, January 9, 2005. Retrieved March 31, 2016: http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1015832,00.html.
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Ibid.
- 14.
Adapted from Emmons and McCullough, “Counting blessings versus burdens”, Jason Marsh, “Tips for Keeping a Gratitude Journal”. Retrieved March 20, 2016: http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/tips_for_keeping_a_gratitude_journal.
- 15.
Robert A Emmons and Michael E. McCullough, “Counting blessings versus burdens”, 386.
- 16.
Ibid.
- 17.
Robert A. Emmons, Thanks!: How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier (New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2007), 35.
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Mei Yee Ng and Wing S Wong, “The Differential Effects of Gratitude and Sleep on Psychological Distress in Patients with Chronic Pain”, Journal of Health Psychology, 18(2), March 2012: 263–271. Also see Alex Korb, The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time (New York: New Harbinger Publications, 2015), 156.
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Korb, The Upward Spiral, 159.
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Actually, this is not an exact quote but a paraphrase of Aristotle’s thoughts by the great American Pulitzer prize winner writer, Will Durant. See Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World’s Greatest Philosophers (1926) (New York: Simon & Schuster/Pocket Books, 1991), 76.
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- 24.
Patricia Snell Herzog and Heather E. Price, American Generosity Who Gives and Why (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016), 11 (emphasis in the original).
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Compilations from personal interviews with Buddhist teachers: Bhikkhu Bodhi, Thanissaro Bhikkhu, and Ajahn Amaro. Unpublished Interviews Transcripts, 2009–2011.
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Terri Yablonsky Stat, “Be generous”.
- 28.
A traditional teaching tale. Author unknown.
- 29.
This is at best a paraphrase of the Buddha’s famous teachings about cultivating wisdom within and compassion without. Like many sayings attributable to the Buddha, these may not after all be his exact words.
- 30.
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project: “Nonviolence and Racial Justice”. Retrieved March 25, 2016: https://swap.stanford.edu/20141218225500/http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/primarydocuments/Vol4/6-Feb-1957_NonviolenceAndRacialJustice.pdf.
- 31.
Dalai Lama, address given in San Jose, Costa Rica, Buddhist Peace Fellowship Newsletter (Fall 1989).
- 32.
As quoted in Louis Fry and Mark Kriger, “Towards a theory of being-centered leadership: Multiple levels of being as context for effective leadership,” Human Relations, 62(11), (2009): 1667–1696.
India’s poet Laureate is drawing upon the wisdom of the Bhagavad Gītā, 6.29:
sarvabhītastham ātmānaṃ sarvabhītāni cātmani /
īkṢate yogayuktātmā sarvatra samadarśanaḤ //
Established in the oneness with Totality,
the Illumined sage sees with equanimity
the Self in all beings, and all beings in the Self..
- 33.
As quoted in Michael J. Gelb, Sarah Miller Caldicott, Innovate Like Edison: The Five-Step System for Breakthrough Business Success (New York: Dutton/Penguin Group Inc., 2007), 67.
- 34.
Young India (August 11, 1920), as quoted in Joan V. Bondurant, Conquest of Violence: The Gandhian Philosophy of Conflict (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1958/1988), 28.
- 35.
See: Krishna Maheshwari, Mahabharata, Hindupedia, retrieved March 31, 2016, http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Mahabharata#cite_note-0.
- 36.
J. A. B. van Buitenen, trans., The Mahabharata, Volume 1: Book 1: The Book of the Beginning (Chicago, IL: University Of Chicago Press, 1980), 130.
- 37.
“Shloka-ardhena pravakshyaami yad-uktam grantha-kotibhih;
Paropakaraya punyaya, papaya para peedanam.”
(The gist of a million treatise expressed in half a verse: Highest merit is helping others; highest wrongdoing is hurting others.)
- 38.
From a compilation of Einstein quotes published from multiple online sources and credited to Kevin Harris, 1995.
- 39.
See David Bohm, Wholeness and the Implicate Order (London: Routledge Classics, 2002). For general background, see also Ken Wilber, Ed., Quantum Questions: Mystical Writings of World’s Great Physicists (Boston: Shambhala, 1984).
- 40.
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- 42.
Eugen Herrigel, Zen in the Art of Archery (New York: Vintage, 1999), 31.
- 43.
Stephanie Rosenbloom, “But Will It Make You Happy?”, New York Times, August 7, 2010.
- 44.
Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life (New York: Bantam, 1992), 28.
- 45.
Walpola Rahula, What the Buddha Taught. Rev. and exp. ed. (New York: Grove Press, 1974), 68.
- 46.
Harvard Unveils MRI Study Proving Meditation Literally Rebuilds the Brain’s Gray Matter in 8 Weeks, Feelguide, November 19, 2014, Health, Spirituality, the Human Brain. Retrieved March 31, 2016: http://www.feelguide.com/2014/11/19/harvard-unveils-mri-study-proving-meditation-literally-rebuilds-the-brains-gray-matter-in-8-weeks/. Also see Sue McGreevey, “Eight weeks to a better brain; Meditation study shows changes associated with awareness, stress”, Harvard Gazette, January 21, 2011. Retrieved March 31, 2016: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/01/eight-weeks-to-a-better-brain/.
- 47.
As cited in Bhikkhu Khantipalo, Practical Advice for Meditators (Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 2006), 8.
- 48.
Swami Sharnānandajī, Humanity’s Own Sharnānandajī: A Short Introduction and Precious Sayings (Karnal, Haryana, India: Karnal Manav Seva Sangh Publication, 2016), 50.
- 49.
Khalil Gibran, The Prophet (New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1977), 28.
- 50.
J.O. Urmson, Aristotle’s Ethics (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2001), 11.
- 51.
As quoted in Donald McCullough, Say Please, Say Thank You (New York: G. P. Putnam’s & Sons, 1998), 140.
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Dhiman, S. (2017). Find Your Fulfillment: Winning Habits of Highly Fulfilled Leaders. In: Holistic Leadership. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55571-7_9
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