Loyalty Begins at Self (Perspectives)
Everything we do, do have a purpose. Achieving these purposes keeps us happy and contented.
Let’s contemplate -
The purpose of sleep:
The purpose of sleep is to rest and regain strength.
If we suffer any kind of sleep disorder we are not achieving the purpose of sleep and will feel without any doubt discontented if not deeply unhappy.
The purpose of eating:
The purpose of eating is to stay alive. Any deviation in achieving this basic purpose will affect us negatively.
The purpose of work:
The purpose of work is to survive.
No work, no pay; no pay, no bread; no bread, no life.
Even begging, robbery and accepting charity fall under ‘work’. If we are not able to achieve this basic purpose of work, regardless of all involved frustrations, we will, without any doubt, experience extreme discontentment and unhappiness.
The purpose of relationships:
The purpose of relationships is to satisfy our emotional and spiritual needs. Only in relationships we can love and be loved. Humans do need the following kinds of love -
Agápe – holding others in high regard. If no person or creature can satisfy our need to experience the amazing feeling of respect and admiration, we will feel discontentment in many ways, i.e. cynicism and bitterness.
Éros - passionate and sensual love. Humans’ need for intimacy goes far beyond their lusty urge to multiply.
Philia – maintaining friendships that gives us the opportunity to be loyal, supportive and compassionate. We have a strong need to have a purpose in the lives of others. If we mean nothing to nobody, if we cannot prove our loyalty and empathy to at least one person we will be extremely discontented and unhappy.
Storge – also known as affection. Our need to 'like' what we see/hear/do/smell/sense and to be fond of something or somebody is like an inextinguishable fire in us. Just contemplate that heartwarming feeling we experience while cuddling our pets, toys and beloveds, or riding our favorite hobby-horse. Even the hermit in the middle of a godforsaken desert will instinctively find something, like a succulent or a scorpion, to storge with all of their heart.
Striving to achieve contentment and happiness demands being loyal to one Self -
The quality of being loyal could be expressed with many words and phrases, such as –
- Experiencing the feelings of allegiance;
- Binding oneself intellectually or emotionally to a person or course of action;
- To commit or dedicate oneself to a specific person, entity or course.
Knowing and understanding the purpose of all our actions, ignited by the basic needs in our complex psychological structure, are essential in order to understand true loyalty. If we cannot be loyal to ourselves, by striving and managing to be contented and happy, we can surely not be loyal and devoted to anyone or anything else.
Loyalty is a characteristic of great virtue
Because loyalty is a characteristic of great virtue we tend to take advantage of it. It is one of the most exploitable and exploited human characteristics. Too often loyal people find themselves in the shoes of a victim. At work they are the people doing more than what they are paid for, in families they are the people dancing to the tunes of the selfish egoists, in love they are the people humoring the whims and fancies of others.
Therefore loyal people are obliged to know and understand their instinctive actions.
Being truly loyal to one SELF is the only way to stay out of the sticky webs spun by human exploiters and manipulators. This has nothing to do with selfishness. Selfishness is when we jeopardize the right of our fellow-man to be just as happy and contented.
Being loyal, truly loyal, means binding oneself intellectually and emotionally to a person or course of action - first to Self and thereafter to others.
Conclusion
Realizing that all our actions have a purpose, knowing and understanding the purpose of all our actions and striving to achieve those purposes, make us loyal to ourselves. Then only selfishness and inconsideration can prevent us from being loyal to others.
Whenever we find ourselves in the shoes of a victim, exploited and abused, we cannot call ourselves ‘loyal’, but discontented and unhappy as we are not achieving the purpose of our actions.
If we manage to be contented and happy while not achieving the purpose of our actions, we are not loyal, but martyrs suffering for the sake of some or the other person or principle.
And this is my personal perspective on LOYALTY.
Evaluate yourself:
What and Who are the Perspectives?
The Perspectives is a group of writers in HubPages. On the 15th of each month they share their similar and/or dissimilar perspectives on a specific topic.
This month’s topic is ‘Loyalty’. .
The idea behind this series called Perspectives is explained in a hub published by the founder of the group, MickeySr:
- Perspectives: An Introduction
What we think and how we feel about things is defined, not by the things themselves, but by our perspective of things. Everything that comes before us is filtered through our perception of things...
* MartieCoetser * bravewarrior *Docmo * marcoujor * MickeySr * Vickiw *
Our guest writer on Loyalty, vocalcoach
Perspectives on Loyalty published by my fellow-Perspectives:
Martie Coetser Pozyn's Copyright:
Copyright :: All Rights Reserved
Registered :: 2013-07-10 20:11:00
Title :: Loyalty Begins at Self (Perspectives)
Category :: Article Hub
Fingerprint :: 973290ca6e2efd8bb3deb47367ab25948411c9aa526177e013d77196f7701f1b
MCN :: CWZ7Z-X5PQA-XNTEZ
My perspective on other matters ~
- Perspective on Gratitude: Gratitude is an Attitude
- Perspective on Loneliness: An-Indisputable-Emotional-Pain
- Pespective on What You Dont Know: How-many-angels-can-dance-on-the-head-of-a-pin
- Perspective on What-Matters: Life-Matters-By-All-Odds
- Perspective on Art: The-Art-of-Living
- Perspective on Beauty: The-Beauty-in-Ugliness
