The Dark Tower and the Perils of Goal-Focused Living
By February 17th 2017, I will have achieved my life goal. By then I will have seen the first film adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower books, which is currently in production after a development process as epic as the stories. I read the books as a teenager, falling in love with the idea of a journey to a magical tower that would answer all of life’s great questions. But looking back on the series 20 years later, I think King instead intended to write an allegory on the dangers of being so focused on our goals that we lose sight of what really matters. Here are my key takeaways.
Setting goals is essential, but achieving them isn’t the point of life
The Dark Tower series follows Roland Deschain (to be played by Idris Elba in the screen adaptation), an Arthurian knight in every sense except he carries a set of ancient revolvers rather than a sword. The last gunslinger of legend, Roland is making his way across a post-apocalyptic parallel universe known as Mid-World in search of the Dark Tower. The eponymous structure serves as the linchpin of all reality and holds the key to Roland healing his dying world. As he travels, Roland draws three companions from our world, battles the maleficent remnants of his, and finds there may be more to life than the way of the gun.
We often believe we’re destined for certain things, such as careers as lawyers, or to marry a Hungarian swimsuit model. Roland’s destiny to reach the Dark Tower is even more fixed, being foretold in legend as well as shown to him in a crystal ball as a teenager. And it’s a destiny he will stop at nothing to fulfill. As he draws closer to the Tower, Roland’s companions diminish one by one, some by accident, some by his own hand. He justifies these losses to himself by believing that they are all in the service of a greater good. He pursues his goal blindly without ever stopping to question whether he can choose his own fate.
I admit to drifting well into my 30’s before I began to actively put what I wanted to accomplish in my life onto paper. I’ve since found that setting goals is vital for us to find direction in life and discover our own values. These goals can range from what we want to accomplish professionally to what kinds of spouses and parents we want to be. The pitfalls of goal-setting lie in attaching all the value of our lives to achieving those goals exactly as we wrote them. Some people who want to become doctors might not see their own value until they’ve graduated from med school and set up in practice. Others base the whole purpose of their life on buying a house and wish they could fast forward past all the years of saving until they achieve it.
By leading a fully goal-oriented life, you neglect to see the life happening right in front of you. Goals help to give us a direction to push toward, but we need to be able to remain open to changes in the road as they appear. Otherwise, we may miss opportunities for something different, and possibly better, than what we imagined.
There’s meaning in every step
One of the most intriguing revelations in The Dark Tower series for me was that the distance Roland needed to cross the reach the Tower wasn’t just physical, but also metaphysical. It eventually becomes clear that he needs to build certain relationships and accomplish certain things before he can make it there. Even when offered a speedier route at one point in his journey, Roland declines, admitting he’s not completely ready to see the Tower.
Sometimes, achieving our goals isn’t about making the exact amount of money we need or getting married by the exact age we want. We usually get where we are in life when we’re ready to be there. And I’ve learned we can still receive enormous satisfaction in the small things we do every day to get us closer to where we want to go. You might not have the resources to start your own company right now, but you can go out and begin networking at any time. Perhaps you haven’t yet met that special someone, but it’s never too early to develop qualities in yourself that will make you a better partner.
Life is not a story, but a series of moments
[Warning, massive spoilers ahead for those who haven’t read the books]. The end of The Dark Tower series came as quite a shock to me as it did to most of King’s readers. Originally, I imagined Roland would reach the Tower and find something to save his world, thereby justifying all of the horrible sacrifices he made for his quest. Insanely long story short, Roland indeed makes it to the Tower, climbs to the top, then finds what lies behind the final door: the punishment of going through the whole journey again. He was not set on his journey to save Mid-World, but to save himself. And it’s a journey he will have to relive over and over until he gets it right.
We all tend to frame our lives as stories, or epic quests with a predetermined end. This a Freudian view of life, a view which Austrian psychotherapist Alfred Adler challenged. Adler instead insisted of life as a “series of moments” and claimed that life existed right now, not in the past or the future. He taught that the key to happiness and fulfillment wasn’t in imagining a great future which doesn’t exist yet, but rather partaking fully in the moment we’re living in.
Living in the now has been an incredible struggle for me and still is. I try to focus on what’s in front of me, but in an instant, I’m lost in a vision of some future where I’ve made it as a blogger, have a big house in the mountains, and have sent my kids to Ivy League Schools. It often takes a conscious effort to pull myself out of those fantasies and enjoy the sounds of my small children laughing over a spilled box of blocks. But I find myself much happier when I do.
The Dark Tower film is being directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Nikolaj Arcel, produced by Ron Howard, and stars Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey.
Are you a fan of the series? What did it teach you?
