I’ve been wanting to write this one out for a while, and sitting at LaGuardia Airport in New York City waiting for my delayed flight, I felt an urge to finally put it into words and share it.
Over the last few years, I have often thought about the idea of a “Complete Man”. No, not the classic Raymond TV ad I grew up watching in India, but the idea of a man being complete, in light of his abilities. Completeness simply for the sake of it.
It’s important to note that I say “man” because I can only speak from the perspective of this gender and I don’t want to make presumptions about perspectives that I can’t credibly vouch for.
A few years ago, a good friend of mine sent me a fascinating essay written by the American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1841 on self-reliance. This line from the essay struck out to me:
Speak your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense; for the inmost in due time becomes the outmost.
That idea was encouraging and I let it simmer in the back of my mind. Fast-forward a few years, I wondered what a sense of completeness might mean, in a self-reliant sort of way. Sometime in 2018, I defined my own set of elements for what being complete meant to me, if interpersonal relationships were taken out of the picture. I kept coming back to that thought, tweaking it, if by way of action or simply realization, a different perspective developed. I came up with 5 axioms that would constitute a “Complete Man”.
Owing to echoes of a distant voice in my head, I realized during the summer of last year that my axioms were overly materialistic. Inspiration can be picked up in a million ways — in a coffee table book in someone’s office, a word written on a poster along the airport escalator, a dream, a conversation with a stranger or a good friend, or a mysterious little thing called intuition. Inspiration came and I set out to rewrite my ideas about this topic.
What transpired from that felt more whole and right. I’ve held on to this new set of elements for the last 6 months and they’ve been unchanged. Today I’m ready to share it.
Hereby, I propose a set of elements that constitute a “Complete Man”, with a focus on being equipped to do things for the greater good of the universe:
1️⃣ The man is aware of the “force” and its dual manifestation: light and dark. He should be in constant pursuit of being one with the light side and fighting the pull of the dark side.
Fear and greed are some of the dark manifestations of the force, whereas courage and kindness are some of the light manifestations of the force. I know, very Star Wars-esque, but the philosophy of Star Wars certainly has some depth to it.
2️⃣ The man should be forever in pursuit of perfecting his craft, once found. If he has not found his craft yet, he should be tenaciously looking for it.
Basically, get good at whatever it is that you do or want to do — management, sales, marketing, entrepreneurship, engineering, coding, medicine, photography, painting, writing or basically anything else that requires work to get good at. In the ideal scenario, this craft is how you earn your living.
3️⃣ The man should train as much as his body permits him to get better at a physical sport.
This one’s pretty self-explanatory and most people who can don’t. Picking up a sport looks harder than it actually is. Once you’ve picked up a sport, getting better at it can be fun and rewarding for your well-being.
4️⃣ The man should be in pursuit of in-depth knowledge of one art.
Whether it is architecture, politics, classical music, economics, spirituality, meditation, self-development, cooking Italian cuisine, kiteboarding (whatever that is), or any art among the vast number of arts in the world.
5️⃣ The man should be part of something that serves the greater good of the universe. Not just humanity, but the universe and all its beings.
The first 4 are pretty self-serving in nature. This last one is altruistic in nature and allows you to help the world progress in some way. The way it is worded also encourages you to think beyond humans, as we’re often guilty of ignoring the well-being of animals and plants. Too extra? I don’t think so.
Once proficiency has been achieved in #2, #3 and #4, which can take a long time, it’s not easy to lose that proficiency. On the other hand, proficiency in #1 and #5 is tricker to obtain and can be lost instantly.
The best way to look at this set of elements is not as a milestone to achieve, but a state to maintain. It requires consistent work throughout your lifetime as long as one is physically and mentally able.