The Value of Goals
Why have goals? Why not drift aimlessly?
We are a biological mass reacting to the environment with our biological desires guiding us. Yeah, just like animals.
Humans Work. Our work makes our life meaningful. What else makes our lives more meaningful? Without it, we lose our humanity; What’s left is nihilism and trivial pleasures (Netflix).
It was from this that I drew my fundamental moral conclusions. Aim up. Pay attention. Fix what you can fix. Don’t be arrogant in your knowledge. Strive for humility. Become aware of your own insufficiency — your cowardice, malevolence, resentment and hatred. Consider the murderousness of your own spirit before you dare accuse others, and before you attempt to repair the fabric of the world. Maybe it’s not the world that’s at fault. Maybe it’s you. You’ve failed to make the mark. You’ve missed the target. You’ve fallen short of the glory of God. You’ve sinned. And all of that is your contribution to the insufficiency and evil of the world.
— From 12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson.
After we realize our individuality, it’s important that we set our sight to something worthy of sacrifice. If not, you’re on someone else’s path. It’s okay if their values match yours.
If you can’t see what you want, then how are you going to get it?
Most people don’t set goals because they don’t want to set criteria for failure. “A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.” — Bruce Lee
Human beings are a work in progress. We’ve done very, very good in the Technology aspect. But psychologically; we haven’t changed for thousands of years. We still get attached, suffer, live in fear. It’s all quite deep and complicated; perhaps for some other post.
The world manifests itself on what you value.
To go somewhere with the map, you have to specify the place. You can’t go everywhere or you’ll be all over the place. There are a lot of things you could be doing. The world is a very complicated place; There are just way too many choices to handle. When you have a goal, the world loses its complexity. Because you delimit the infinite possibilities of what you could be doing.
A goal gives you movement. And for movement is life. Static is death.
When you have a goal, your brain becomes alert for tools in the world to achieve it.
We have a part of our brain called the Reticular Activating System or RAS. The main job of the RAS is to keep us safe, and so it filters out what it thinks is important or not. If the RAS thinks something is important enough, it will knock on the door of the conscious and say, “Hey, pay attention to this. It’s important!”
So the way the world manifests itself depends on what you value. And this is truly fucking amazing.
