Introduction: A Multitude of Laws
Most educated people have heard of God’s laws (contentious, confusing, conflicting and confounding), the law of Gravity, the law of Thermodynamics, the law of the Land, Parkinson’s law, Murphy’s law and so on. Most are named after the author of a succinct observation described by the law. Laws range from A (i.e., Aitken’s law – describes how vowel length is conditioned by environment) to Z (Zipf’s law – a linguistic observation that a few words are used often but most are used rarely).
As the wellness field grows and evolves, perhaps it’s time for a REAL wellness law-or many such laws. If so, why not associate as many as possible with one’s own name?
Grandiose, perhaps, but if I don’t do it, someone else surely will and that person just might make a mess of it. Wellness in corporate America and elsewhere in the world is described and presented in wildly inappropriate and dysfunctional ways; why not eradicate the babble with a few transformative REAL wellness laws? Such laws, if they make sense and lead humanity to sounder thinking, might well contribute modestly to improved health and life outcomes.
By the way, one does not have to formulate a law that is named in his/her honor or even be aware of a law to be affected by and to live in accordance with it. We have all complied with Galileo and Newton’s laws about gravity, well before we became aware of them.
Anyone who wants a law to bear his or her name should present some credentials. Mine are modest, simple but adequate for the honor. As of this writing, I have written 15 books, posted well over a thousand essays at Seekwellness.com/wellness, 74 eight to twelve-page hard copy wellness reports commencing in 1984, 657 weekly electronic REAL wellness newsletters, at least a thousand lecture presentations in a dozen countries while spending 43 years (since 1970) dreaming about the ways to and chances of vastly improved environments and cultures for greater health and happiness.
All of which has led to this moment-the time when I offer the universe Ardell’s two laws of REAL wellness.
Ardell’s 1st Law of REAL Wellness: Random Chance, Natural Selection and Contingencies Trump All Else
Life’s largest events often follow random, seemingly inconsequential small actions of which we remain unaware.
Secular rational freethinkers place stock in knowledge, commitment, reason and persistence in shaping and fine-tuning lifestyle habits. We embrace perspectives and behaviors on matters existential and otherwise designed to render positive states of enjoyment and well-being. We consciously seek happiness, freedom, physical fitness, love, mutually satisfying relationships and multiple skills. What matters most, what affects our successes and outcomes, appears more or less to be under our field of control. Alas, this functional and preferred way of thinking is largely illusory. There are three far more consequential realities not under your influence in any way. Furthermore, these three factors render the quality and duration of your existence unpredictable and unknowable. They are: 1) random chance or fortune; 2) natural selection; and 3) contingencies.