The Philosophy of Life! (Part 1) with Ross Jackson

Well, we are going rogue this week. We interviewed a gentleman named Ross Jackson this week and our interview was so good, we ended up spitting the interview up into three different episodes. Ross talks about all the content that we had created for the week, so why not do something different? 

On today's episode, you'll hear Ross talk about:

• The basics of what philosophy is?
• Should you have a life philosophy?

Ross goes into great detail about the ideas of both of these. If you are someone who's interested in learning more about philosophy and what it means in your life, please tune into our series this week!

Thanks and enjoy!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Are you looking to get an editing link but haven't been able to figure it out? Welcome to 10 to win. Give us 10 minutes of your time and we'll show you how to create a winning mindset in mindset.

SPEAKER_03 0:23

Welcome back to 10 to win the podcast, a podcast focusing on how to create a winning mindset in 10 minutes. This week, well, Kevin, we're doing something different, man. We're going rogue. What do we got?

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Yeah, we got a great guest on this week, everyone, Ross Jackson. We invited Ross on to talk about philosophy, the philosophy of life, the philosophy of winning. And it went so well, we ended up talking about all of the material that Jason and I had created on philosophy. So what we decided to do was combine the interview into our regular part one, part two, and part three. So today, here is part one of the interview with Ross, where we cover the basics of what philosophy is, should you have a life philosophy, and philosophy basics. Thanks, Jason. Ross Jackson is joining us today. Ross is the author of Management in Quandary, a critique of organizational power, which is available on Amazon. He is also the co-host of the Don't Overthink This podcast, where his work explores philosophical dimensions of society and organizations. Welcome to the 10 to win podcast. Ross, how are you, buddy?

SPEAKER_02 1:50

I'm doing great, Kevin. Jason, Kevin, thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Yes, thanks for coming on.

SPEAKER_03 1:55

Appreciate it very much.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

So, Ross, philosophical dimensions of society and organizations. Jason and I uh talking about philosophy this week, we broached the philosophy topic with a few of our other guests, and it was something that really piqued my interest. And I know you to be a very philosophical guy, so let's jump in here, man. I mean, philosophy of life, and then we'll go into the dimensions of society and organizations next. So, what what's what's the philosophy of life here, Ross?

SPEAKER_02 2:31

So so I think it might be helpful to take one step back and and focus a little bit on philosophy before getting to the philosophy of life. So lots of organizations, lots of institutions have some sort of credo, something they believe in, something that they espouse that is beneficial. Um religions mostly deal with uh sort of revealed truth, that something from outside of the human experience gives the revelation uh of that insight. And and philosophy, at least my understanding of philosophy, is is that it's different in that um philosophy is is an attempt to produce human answers to fundamental questions regarding existence, knowledge, ethics, and reality. So so for me, anyway, that there's a distinction between a life philosophy that is a philosophy and a life credo that that might be a religious belief. And it's it's not that one is necessarily inherently better than the other, but they do tend to function critically differently.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

Do you so this is like like you mentioned credo? I mean, this is like a company mission statement.

SPEAKER_02 3:53

It could be, right? So I mean, as as philosophy relates to business, I think that the central component that organizations do is uh establish meaning for the workforce. And that's often uh presented in their mission and vision statement, that this is what the institution is about. And if you want to sort of tether your individual identity with this group, that this is the way that they capture and propagate that and get people who are, you know, quote unquote like-minded.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

Yeah. Do you think that something like that, like coming up with a credo, it ha holds value to an individual? Like companies do it because they want to find like-minded people and they want to have a mission and set their goals. Do you think, you know, we have a lot of listeners and and I think they're listening because it's 10 minutes to create a winning mindset. If they're on this mission to bettering themselves on any level, do you think it's it's a wise step to come up with their own philosophy for themselves?

SPEAKER_02 5:07

I do. I I think that you know, any anytime an institution does it, there's um there's danger, right? Not that it always is bad, but it it certainly is inherently dangerous for institutions to um have that power over individuals. Uh and it's incumbent upon the individual to have a personal life philosophy or some sort of credo so that that that's a safeguard against the types of coercion that can take place through um institutional power.

SPEAKER_00 5:42

So create your own mission, your own philosophy. If it if you find a place in life, in society, a place where you can work and earn on some level fits in with your own life philosophy, good for you. If it doesn't, what should you do? You run for the hills and find a different place, or you or do you change yourself to convert and adhere to the social norms?

SPEAKER_02 6:10

I I think that that it takes a lot of um reflection that that a person should really interrogate what's going on in their life. I mean, there there can be just what I would consider to be um banal dissatisfaction, right? You gotta mow the lawn, you gotta do the organizational equivalent of mowing the lawn, and and most people find it difficult to find joy and fulfillment in weeding the garden and mowing the lawn. So, you know, if it's if it's just run-of-the-mill dissatisfaction and otherwise somebody likes their life, they like their family, they like what the the position affords them, um, you know, that's that's one type of questioning and one type of response. If if people are s are engaged in something that is fundamentally at odds with who they are and what they um what they want their life to be directed towards, right? That that the the notion that they're engaged in something, that they're contributing to something that they think has meaning outside of themselves, um, if they if they really feel like they're trapped in an existence that where they're at precludes them from getting to that deeper inner truth, then I you know I would encourage that they look to either find someplace or create someplace else.

SPEAKER_03 7:29

It's very, very interesting. I I love this stuff as well. And let me kind of tag on to some of the things that Kevin has asked and some of the responses that you've given. And you know, we we think of philosophy of like an overall vision or or an attitude toward life or a purpose of life, and everyone's trying to find that purpose, right? Like, why am I in existence here? You know, if I look back at my life, can I say that I accomplished X or I did that or I made a difference in my life or somebody else's life? Where do you feel like where do you draw the line from looking at that statement of saying, how do I get the most out of myself and then tying it to goals and what do I want to accomplish in life? Are those two things related when it comes to like looking at the philosophy of life at all? I mean, what's your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_02 8:16

Yeah, Jason, I think that's I mean, I think that's a fundamental question of how people respond, especially in in their work life. And and I think that there's you know, there's a multitude of motivators, but I I think that at the core, there's a group of people who are motivated by fear. They're afraid of losing a job, they're afraid of losing status, they're afraid of you know fill in the blank. And that that fear, whether it's you know coercion from the institution or whether it's just innate into themselves, um, that that fear can be a propellant to do things. I I need to do my job well enough, or I need to not stand out enough that that I'm not gonna get fired or whatever. Um the the other is is a much more um dynamic thing where somebody is is truly impassioned to do something. And and to me, those manifest very differently within a person's life and within uh an organization. I I think um while while America is a very generous country um in some regards, it is actually a fairly precarious society as far as people's well-being. And I think that people's work life um is is influenced by the degree of precariousness that they sense in our society.

SPEAKER_03 9:45

Yeah, I I think it's interesting, and I I do want to touch back on the idea of this motto credo kind of thing, and we talked about mission statements, Kevin brought it up, and you kind of acknowledged that. And you know, I'm sitting here in front of Apple's mission statement to bring the best user experience to customers through innovative hardware, software, and services. And, you know, you touched on the on the idea of these companies doing it, but like, do you believe that the average person should write down a personal mission statement that is posted, you know, in reality it probably won't be, but it's posted, you know, on the wall of their house when they wake up and they're like, do more, work harder. Yeah, do more, work harder. This is my life, you know, this is what I'm obtaining right now, this is what I'm going after. You know, what how do how do you tie those two things together? Because we want to follow a company's mission statement, but then you're right, when we look back and we're not at work and we're trying to live our own life, and that's the most important thing we can do, is look back and say, did we do something? Did we accomplish something? We make a difference in in our lives or other people's lives. Well, can we do that by making a credo or a motto or following some philosophy that we've written down and post it on the bathroom mirror, like Kevin said, you know, when we wake up every day to see this thing?

SPEAKER_02 11:01

Yeah, so I I will answer yes. I I do think people should write it down, but I think that people should write it down for perhaps a different reason than than what might seem like the obvious reason. So the the idea of writing it and and putting it up so that it's a daily reminder is is useful. But there's an organizational theorist named Carl Weich. And in Weich's work, he asks this question how do I know what I think until I see what I say? And the the components of that statement actually include all of the senses. And the the act of writing it, ideally, unless somebody's rushing through it, forces them to interrogate things, and and at each point, at each word, they should ask themselves, what does this even mean to me, right? If I say, well, I want to do good work, well, what is good? What is work, right? And and to truly interrogate what each of these sort of pivotal terms mean for the individual, and then have them craft something. I mean, eventually, if if they if they craft it, they write it, they reflect, they interrogate, they would never have to have it written down. It would be written on their heart and they would live it every single day.

SPEAKER_03 12:21

No, that makes sense. I mean, it's being more specific with what you're trying to maybe accomplish or you know, your your your drives and and your motives in life. I mean, work harder. What does that mean? I I get your point there. Okay, it's it's let's let's dive into this a little bit more. Okay, everyone, that's it for part one of the series titled Philosophy of Life. Please make sure you subscribe to the podcast, rate and review our podcast as it helps get the podcast out to more listeners. We'll be back in better than ever on Wednesday for a brand new episode. And as always, if you're impacting or influencing one person a day, it's worth it. Everyone has 10 minutes to learn a winning mindset. Thanks.

SPEAKER_01 13:05

Thanks for taking the time to create a winning mindset. Remember, we'll release a new episode every Monday. So be sure to start your week off right by listening to 10 to win. Please subscribe, like, comment, and share our podcast. And remember, if you're impacting or influencing one person a day, it's worth it. Everyone has 10 minutes to create a winning mindset.