Newspaper Article - "Discover 'Nine Paths to Wisdom' with help from Campbellville author"
The book’s introduction poses a simple yet profound question: “Is it possible to experience a life that’s utterly satisfying?”
With that opening line, Campbellville author David E.C. Huggins takes people on a journey to discover “Nine Paths to Wisdom,” the title of his latest tome.
According to Huggins, the biggest influence in his life was his great aunt, or as he calls her in his book his “Sainted Scottish aunt,” who was a wise elder in their Scottish community.
“If people had a problem, they went to her,” he said.
It was her life views that helped shape and guide Huggins during his adolescence. After coming to North America, he eventually ended up in human resources, where he found his niche in leadership training.
“I’d been trained as an officer in the (Royal Air Force), that helped tremendously because it’s a very practical education,” said Huggins, who has an educational background in psychology and sociology from King’s College London, according to his LinkedIn profile.
As a leadership coach, Huggins spent years helping businesspeople understand that in order to lead, they must first understand who they were as people.
As he refined his approach, he found it came down to three fundamental questions: Who am I, what am I here for and what is reality?
His book, published by Friesen Press, is divided in four parts, focusing on opportunity, taking action, building wisdom and resources that map out nine paths: openness, contribution, empathy, connectedness, constructiveness, contemporariness, spirituality, eternality and unity.
“The majority of people have a great deal of difficulty dealing with those questions because of factors in our society,” Huggins said referring to what he views as the three impediments of polarization, rectitude and linear time.
Thinking you must have all the right answers and always looking back rather than living in the present can come in the way of people living a full life, explained the author.
“The past is subjective at best; the future is subjective at best. There is no objective past so one would question why do we spend so much time and energy going there, trying to rectify it, re-construe it, reinterpret it and get other people to agree with us. It’s our impression, that’s all there ever can be.”
Going through the pages, readers will learn that wisdom is innate and part of the natural order. Huggins said while it is desired, people rarely pursue it. As such, the book is his offering to help people make a conscience effort to gain wisdom by developing skills through the use of various analogies, personal stories, models and more.
“There’s a natural way that things happen and if I’m in tune with it, I’m in flow,” he said.
