The link between our childhood experiences, life experiences, and our personality has been established, but there is a lack of discussion on how it affects career success and growth as a human being.
“Understanding the origins of our personal view of the world in these changing times is key to igniting personal development,”says Bill Merck, US Army Veteran, Leadership Expert, and author.
Merck has used the term “Philosophy of Life” to describe how each of us views the world. He examines the nexus between early feelings and subsequent notions and beliefs. He shares just how each of our unique experiences shapes our perspectives, impacting our life, career, and overall success.
Merck’s newly released book, “Breadcrumbs: Finding a Philosophy of Life” serves as an introspective dive into understanding each person’s unique value and existence. Bill explains how our personal views of life are formed - whether through childhood influences, experiences with others, belief systems, or early environments - and how this impacts our quality of life.
Touching on lessons from serving in the US military and 40+ years of being a corporate leader, Merck hopes to help and inspire others to understand themselves and as a result become the best versions of themselves.
I had a chance to learn more in this interview.
How do childhood experiences shape our prejudices and development?
In my recent book, Breadcrumbs: Finding a Philosophy of Life, I address this question using my own life experiences as examples.
The world of a child is relatively small. It is populated by adults who raise them in a physical environment that is rather limited. Early on, children instinctively react to that world with their five senses. They don’t yet have any life experiences to compare or contrast what they are sensing. This world is their reality and they absorb it as it is. As they grow a little older they become curious, ask questions and try to reason things out. If the circle of adults in their life is limited, they only know what they hear and are told by those adults, or, if they have older siblings, by them. A child still has very limited experience in life to make judgements about what is true and not true in what they are told. They just accept it. It is confusing when some things are explained to them in words they don’t yet understand, causing the information to be transmitted with gaps in the intended meaning.
What they see and hear from this limited exposure in early childhood forms their view of the world. They see the actions of the adults in their life, and not only do they learn how the world works from what they are told, but also by observing the actions of the people around them.
Later, when a child grows a little older and their world expands to include many other people and a much broader physical environment, their experiences in life begin to give them a basis for comparing and contrasting what they experienced earlier in a more limited world. This is when choices in what to believe begin to surface. It can be difficult for a child when they are exposed to new ideas, cultures, and ways of interacting with others that differ from what they were taught or learned by observation early on. This is the beginning of a person developing their personal sense of what they believe in how the world works. If their parents, or whomever the adults were that raised them, had strong prejudicial beliefs, the child probably would have adopted those beliefs. If later experience causes them to reevaluate those beliefs, it could come with a sense of guilt, thinking in some way they are betraying their parents. But, a choice will be made—to continue with prejudices that are now becoming uncomfortable, or to begin the process of shedding those prejudices.
It is important for parents to instill in a child a sense of strong moral values, integrity, and some version of the Golden Rule—treat others as you wish to be treated. Let a child question the status quo, give the best guidance you can, but don’t stifle their creativity or their natural instinct to try to figure out how things work.
Why is it important to have a life philosophy?
We all have a view of the world, or a life philosophy. What may be missing is the ability to articulate exactly what that view is, and then to understand specifically what role life experiences played in developing that view. If a person has spent time understanding why they are who they are, that knowledge will help them make better choices in life. Humans are emotional creatures. Finding the right balance between reason and emotion in our decision making is important in making the wisest decisions. Understanding our personal motivations when making decisions will guide us in finding that right balance between emotion and reason in our choices.
How can people go about discovering and developing their life philosophy?
The first step is to want to do it. Then, start by reviewing events in life that stand out in your memory. Perhaps make a simple list of key memories going back as early as you can. Reflect on how the events in those memories influenced how you see the world today. For me, I was not able to clearly define and articulate my philosophy until I began writing about my life experiences and how they shaped my view of the world. Sometimes, when I wrote my first draft of how I believed some event affected me, and later saw my thoughts in cold print, I realized that was not really what I believed. With more objective reflection, I was able to pin down exactly how a particular life event influenced my views.
A similar approach is to work backwards and spend quiet time contemplating how you see the world, and then ask yourself what experiences in your past led to these views. I’m not suggesting this type of introspective process will make you want to change anything, but it will help to become conscious of why you believe and act as you do, instead of being a person who is running on auto-pilot, with programming done by others.
William (Bill) Merck has a lifetime of experiences that have shaped his view of the world. This book tells how those shaped his philosophy of life. He tells his stories to stimulate the reader to think about their own experiences through life and how they impact one’s choices and decisions such as "why are you conservative or liberal" or "why do you think the way you do about controversial issues in society like war, capital punishment or abortion?" Too often opinions are spouted out like words from a bumper sticker. But, when critically thinking about these complicated issues, light is shed on your philosophy of life.
Bill’s working career began in summer employment at the age of fourteen in a lumber yard, progressing through high school working in a tobacco warehouse, youth camp counselor and lifeguard at a city recreation center. In college, he had varied experiences, initially working in a college dining hall, later working for a wholesale men’s clothing company, in an accounting clerk role in a commercial bank and finally for the Georgia State Highway Department as a supervisor of the pre-audit department in the main headquarters in Atlanta. Following receipt of an MBA he joined the U.S. Army where among other training assignments, he graduated from the Army Officer Candidate School at Fort Belvoir Virginia. His active duty assignment was as a platoon leader in Germany. After that, he was selected to be a Director of Student Housing at Madison College (during his time there it became James Madison University). He worked his way up through the ranks and ultimately was selected as the Vice President for Business Affairs. After 14 years there, he was chosen to be the Vice President for Administration and Finance at the College of William and Mary where he served for ten years. He then moved to the University of Central Florida and served there as Vice President for Administration and Finance for 22 years.
All of those experiences, plus numerous positions on boards of directors for professional organizations, many community boards and two hospital boards, led to a plethora of leadership roles and interactions with people from all walks of life. He invites you to contemplate your own early experiences as an investigative exercise in understanding what you believe and why you think the way you do.
For more information, check out Bill’s website or follow Bill on LinkedIn.
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