Characteristics Fulfillment in Life the Aim of Essay

Characteristics

Fulfillment in Life

The aim of this discussion to ascertain three of the qualities a person needs so that they can lead a life of fulfillment. The three qualities discussed will be love, integrity and knowledge. These three traits are part of the essence of being human and, combined with other humanistic traits such as sympathy and passion, these traits separate humans from the other, soulless animals in the world.

The first of these qualities to discuss is love. Love is a quality that no life can be without. The ability to build nurturing and loving relationships with another person is integral to our emotional fulfillment. It brings us the greatest joy we can possibly experience. Love can do many things including alleviating loneliness, such as the kind of "terrible loneliness in which one's shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold, unfathomable abyss" (Russell, 1967). Without love, there would be no passion, no joyous relationships with other human beings and no appreciation for what these relationships do to enrich a person's daily life. Without love, a life would be unfulfilling with no concrete relationships to enjoy, no family to willingly indulge in affection.Love can also bring meaning into life, giving one someone to live for and grow old with.

The second quality necessary to leading a rich and fulfilling life, is integrity. Integrity can be interpreted in many different ways. For some people, integrity is about "discerning what is right and what is wrong; acting on it, even at personal cost." (Carter, 1996) Someone with integrity is often regarded as someone who can be trusted, who sticks to a commitment unfailingly. Integrity is all of these things. A life led with integrity is a richer life. Integrity is a quality that many wish to possess in abundance and, although it is often associated with honesty, honesty cannot always be associated with integrity. This means that though someone may be honest in what they say, there may be very little integrity in the words they speak. Honesty can be used for one's own gain. For example, a confession may release the confessor from the burden of hiding the truth, but it may cause harm to the other person hearing the confession. The….....