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Goals

One of the most important things to have in life, the thing that will help us stay on track are goals. Creating goals for ourselves helps give ourselves guidance and keep us on track towards the type of life we want. Those without goals in life who give themselves nothing to strive for, do nothing. Life is difficult and (unless we luck out with a great family) we are given no framework for our own individual lives as to what we should do. We must figure out what we would like to do in order to move forward towards something worthwhile. No matter what we have to do something but we do get some choice as to what we do. We can choose to work loser jobs for our entire life or make a stretch and go for something that will provide us with more abundance. To become something greater we must deliberately choose, this is why sometimes good families can help those who otherwise would not make a choice. For some chasing a dream may be the right choice for others chasing the guaranteed money at the end of the degree is. As long as one is working towards something worthwhile both of those paths hold merit. Sometimes we may need to change course and go the other way. You know when your not doing what you should be because you feel in in every part of your being that this is not what you want to do.

I’ve worked lots of dead end loser jobs, not only are they not fun but the people who stay there are generally those who accomplish very little outside of just working. Grown men refusing to grow up and continuing to do drugs and play video games. Our grandparents often had several kids and worked full time in their mid-twenties and yet there are more people than ever still at the starting gate of life who haven’t gotten their acts together and possibly never will. What is the issue? There is no doubt the economy was sold out from under us in that it was previously possible to get a livable wage out of high school. However we have already been aware of this. From what I have learned from talking is that most of the people I have worked with are unwilling to put in the effort required to do or be something greater. It is a similar situation to going to the gym, most people would rather do nothing then put in the work.

One of the keys to keeping yourself on track is to be honest with yourself and not trying to do it all at once. Often trying to take a giant herculean effort toward fixing your problems will burn you out and depress you. It is better to set goals that are achievable in a given time and work on their completion. If you take courses towards a degree then the goals for that degree are preset for you. They don’t give you the final until you are ready to undertake it. You can use that framework in other areas of life. You may need to avoid people who are not going anywhere in life. Those who work the loser jobs and complain nonstop while doing nothing to fix the very things they enjoy complaining about. They are anchors that will drag anyone who has this misfortune of engaging with them down and bring them to a halt. I met an astronaut who said that for him to succeed he needed to get away from his home life and that meant joining the Navy. He got into the aviation side of the Navy and worked his way up all the way to NASA to become an astronaut. He said even at a young age he knew he needed to take dramatic changes to achieve what he wanted in life. Sometimes it takes getting away from a toxic environment to change for the better, although that may not be the path for everyone.

We all know we need to do something and it need to be something that aligns with our natural skillset and desires if we want to do well. Here is how Nietzsche put it, “The way to discover what your were put on Earth for is to go back into your past list the times you felt most fulfilled and then see if you can draw a line through them. What have you truly loved thus far? What has ever uplifted your soul? What has dominated and delighted at the same time? Assemble these revered objects in a row before you and perhaps they will reveal a law by their nature and their order. The fundamental law of your very self.” I can’t put it any better than that. This requires some contemplation with oneself to figure out these things. Ultimately though we know, we know what we like to do and what we definitely hate to do. We need to pick something we like and strive for the completion of it. The upward transcendence of what we are to what we become is what gives life meaning and fulfils us. Make goals, write them down so you see them. Progressively work towards their completion. It will not always be easy or fun, but overall it sure beats doing nothing.

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