If you ask a business leader they will tell you that no, it is not a waste of time. Others will say that philosophy is only a waste of time if it hangs you up. In other words if it prevents you from doing something or makes you hesitate when you shouldn’t then that can be an issue. Do you do something or do you just sit there and think about it.

Actually, you should be doing some of both. So is there really a contradiction between thinking and doing? Again, many people say that there is not a contradiction in philosophy between doing something or thinking about it. If you think about what you are doing and consider all the options and why you are making these decisions and choosing these options then the chances of you coming to a better decision are much greater.

Those people who do not think or think in a linear fashion are apt to come up with bad decisions more often. I certainly hope this article is of interest and that is has propelled thought. The goal is simple; to help you in your quest to be the best in 2007. I thank you for reading my many articles on diverse subjects, which interest you.

Philosophy is the contemplation of the fundamental nature of knowledge, morality, existence, and the universe as a whole. You may wonder why you would want to get involved with philosophy. Simply put, it’s not as hard as you may think, and you are probably interested in it even if you have not realized.

Firstly, you may be intimidated by philosophy because of the complex ideas it addresses. Additionally, philosophy texts can be deep and hard to understand at first. However, philosophy does not require credentials or expertise. Anyone can philosophize. Life experience is enough to qualify you to philosophize. You do not need to go to school or get a degree. Unlike technical fields such as being a doctor or electrician, philosophy addresses human issues using general human reason. You can pick up a philosophy book from the bookstore and start reading it today.

Though you may wonder if philosophy will interest you, if you think about it you probably already are interested in it. This is because philosophy addresses those questions about which we all wonder. For example, most of us have asked, “what is the meaning of life?” Most of us have asked, “what happens when we die?” Most of us have asked, “can we really know anything?” Philosophy simply consists of asking and attempting to answer questions such as those.

In a way, you could be a philosopher by simply sitting in your home by yourself and asking and attempting to answer philosophical questions. Of course, you would be better off by reading philosophical texts and by discussing philosophy with others. The best way to do that is to go to the bookstore or library and find some nice philosophical books.

The trick is to find books that are written for general readers and not for people with specific knowledge. For example, you probably wouldn’t want to get a college textbook for an advanced class, as such a book would assume that you have already read and studied certain works. Instead you will want to look for an “introduction to philosophy” book or just look for a book with pure philosophy, such as those written by philosophers such as Nietzsche, Hume, Kant, Plato, and Descartes.

Another great option is to use the internet. Using the internet, you can find many free online texts, including many about philosophy. Even better, you can find many free message boards and discussion forums. You can join these forums and talk to other interested people about philosophy.

In the book “Happiness”, by Richard Layard, he states that the increasing wealth of western countries does not lead to a corresponding increase of happiness among its citizen and neither around the world. And hence it is important that nations should be governed on the basis of what will make people happy, instead of what will make them rich.

And it sounds convincingly true in the context in todays’ world. Why people wants to be rich ? That seems to be like a very simple question, with an obvious answer of ” to fulfil the requirements”. But will those fulfillments really make you Happy at the end of the day?

We make choices, and thats a very humane thing to do. But, more important is about taking decisions that would do good and make us happy. Now if we try to define the term ” Happiness “, we can never come out with a conclusive definition or relate a physical description for that.

Things that would make you happy would not necessarily make others feel the same, in the same situation like yours.

Did we ponder on what makes this difference?

Frederick Keonig points out that ” We tend to forget that happiness doesn’t come as a result of something we don’t have but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have”.
Simple and crispy answer for the whole ambiguity on defining the Happiness or to ponder upon the difference.

This just tells us that, we needn’t be a definition hunter for everything that we find intriguing, and Happiness as a matter of fact is the most intriguing of all. But, we do sometimes forget to acknowledge that. We fail to see, that we could be happy with what we have, and with the choices that we have to pave in ways for further more such avenues. But, as soon as we start defining the term ‘Happiness’, we try to limit our happiness. We forget to recognize the things we have at this moment. Instead of valuing it with what could be done next, we try to monetize the whole issue.

We fail to see the things we have, and instead start fantasizing on the things we don’t. Fantasizing could be an debatable word here, but the important point is we start comparing our failures with the success of others.

We tend to forget success doesn’t necessitate about monetizing every aspects of life. This makes other beautiful things of life look like an irrelevant entity. The moment we monetize our success or failures alike, it is simple like that of opening a pandora box. A box, full of surprises and further choices to be made.

In his book “Paradox of Choice”, Barry Schwartz tells us that, we need to understand why more choices lead to less happiness and our continuous actions of figuring out what to do about it. Well, the reason is simple. Each new choices adds up more to the probability of choosing a bad choice. And this gives us more risks of missing out an even better choice.