Goals
My world is simple. I make goals for myself and I do everything I can to attain them, well almost everything. I’m stunned by people that I see around me who don’t work in this way. Obviously, one size does not fit all, I know that. Being human I’m only able to see as far as my mind allows me though, so I think my way is best (and it probably is for me).
This is very noticeable to me at my current place of work. The shift schedule, as I’ve mentioned in other posts, is very taxing physically and no one seems to deny it. Everyone agrees the wages are pitiable, they are in fact (as I understand it) below industry average. And the tasks of the job are menial and mind numbingly boring. Despite these things almost everyone there doesn’t have any plans to leave. The complacency that has gripped my coworkers is interesting because it provides an insight into what I believe many people suffer from; a lack of goals.
Again, I know that many people don’t operate as I do but at the same time I’m certain that there must be a percentage that would benefit from the creation of goals, more commonly known as “planning.” The drive and focus that a goal creates is phenomenal. I mean people went to the moon, they crossed oceans, they developed and innovated many things because of focus and determination. These lessons can be scaled down to the level of the personal. Without a goal a person sees no reason to expend effort, no obvious centre to focus upon.
I’m bored by the people who’s plans extend only to the weekend, maybe that is bad of me to say but I can’t really help it. Deep, rigorous, complex, intellectual, conversation holds my interest and inspires me, that’s why I seek it. And so it’s been my general experience that persons with goals are also likely to provide this kind of conversation and persons without goals or plans generally don’t. To be clear I consider mental effort a perfectly valid use of one’s efforts. If a person wants to discuss their attempt to prove or disprove the philosophical need for aid to the poor I would love to hear about it.
I think this idea of goals also impacts how people think about- ergo, behave toward- the future. Given that most people are interested in self preservation, a look into the future coupled with even a mediocre assessment of it by said people would result, I think, in a manyfold better prospect for humanity.
Goals are destinations on a map. I’m always looking for the next horizon in one aspect or another, mental or physical. I cannot imagine just being content with staying in one place. It’s important to remember though that goals are just a destination, not a route, so among the choices of goals, and the various routes to achieve those goals, there are an infinite amount of possibilities to satisfy everyone. Standing still however, just seems to crop all of those away.
May 26th, 2008 at 09:49
I think about this topic a lot. I find that even if you make goals it’s very hard to continue down the path towards them. Reaching a goal takes time, and sometimes you feel as if you are getting nowhere. I have many goals, but they seem so hard to reach sometimes. Also, with a world of 6 billion people, I sometimes feel that there is no point in continuing when there will always be someone better than me. I feel insignificant sometimes and it’s hard to believe that I alone can ever make an important difference. I long to be important, partly because I enjoy status, but also partly because I want to change the world for the better.
Linkin Park’s “In The End” has probably reflected my thinking in this manner the best.
May 27th, 2008 at 10:39
I would have to disagree that one can have many goals, I would call them interests. Goals are those things you choose to do at the exclusions of others with the clear understanding of the limits of time.
As for reaching a goal, that’s part of the difficulty isn’t it. The idea, I suppose, is to believe that the benefit of achieving a goal outweighs the struggle, the ends justify the means.
The idea of “important difference” I think is a goal in itself. I’m always focused inwardly so the outside world is irrelevant to my goals. If making a difference is a goal it doesn’t matter how long it takes because that end will justify the time spent reaching it. If one of your conditions is to also make a difference than we simply view goals differently, I do not have that condition on my goals.