ETHOS – Word For The Week

by IJOSWIL 30-Oct-201804-Mar-2020

Ethos is defined as the character, or fundamental values of a person, people, culture or movement.
Basically, ethos is the summation of who a person is. It is the determining factor of every action you will take. Your ethos is the root cause of everything you do knowingly or unknowingly.
There is a saying that he that doesn’t stand for something, will fall for anything. Your ethos is basically the peak of the “something” you are standing for.
Some people hearing a word for the first time automatically assume that they might be deficient in that area. That is wrong. Truth is we all have something we stand for.
By instinct, survival is what we stand for. Knowledge, exposure and experience now make us pick up other things we decide to value above everything else. That is why some people value wealth generation above everything else. Some people do the same for success, wealth, family, sexual fulfillment, happiness, or any other thing.
Truth be told, there is no “right” ethos that is supposed to be uniform for everyone. Neither is there a law that says you cannot review or change your ethos. But then, we are supposed to get better as we get older.
That doesn’t mean we are supposed to start out bad. Rather, whatsoever our starting point in life is, just as we work on improving our physical, economic and social condition, we are also to work on improving our morals, psychological state and other non-tangible areas of our lives.
Ethos is not limited to just one thing, it is a collection of concepts and ideals. It is how you choose to rank and prioritize them.
Action speaks louder than words. What you work on, what you strive for, what you aspire to, is a manifestation of what you hold dear to you. If your actions are in conflict with what you purport to be important to you, sit down and have a rethink.
Occasionally, it is necessary to take stock of yourself. Judge your own actions in recent times and in the long term, look at your schedule and the people you have allowed in and out of your life, what is their correlation with your ethos?
Are they bringing you closer to what you want or taking you away from it? If you keep going at this rate, would you be better off in terms of your ideals or is it all for momentary and monetary gains? Are there better activities and better people you need to start engaging with?
All is well that ends well, but only if that was the intended destination. Or better.