Dearest readers, summer is over and most of us- students and working folks alike - have a renewed sense of focus and determination yet again. Summer breaks, romances, vacations and so on are welcome distractions, as are all the long weekends and events associated with this wonderful season. However, it always ends (same time every year haha) and we are back to focusing on our goals. Oh and goals, my my, look how many each of us has! Having goals and setting a timetable, objectives and steps to achieve them is the privilege -and burden- of being alive. Nowhere is it more prevalent than in First World countries. When you have an abundance of security, potential and opportunities, it is almost a crime not to have one or more serious goals in life. In fact, lack of said goals can break relationships, keep you from performing admirably at job interviews, and oh so much more. This is why many of us feel it safe and prudent to say that we are, among other things, goal oriented. I've thought about it a lot lately, and have come to a conclusion that most of us, in fact, are not goal oriented in the truest sense of the expression. I'd like to explain myself by going into what goal oriented means, what most of us end up doing, and whether that's just fine or not.
According to the Cambridge English Dictionary online, the definition is that a goal oriented person works hard to achieve good results in the tasks he or she has been given. This definition has a very business-like tone and mindset embedded in it. However, it is a more universal concept clearly unrestricted to the workplace. This is where, unfortunately, humanity fails. Sure, we may give ourselves tasks like losing weight and staying fit, or we may be given tasks at work like completing an analysis project by a certain deadline. However, not a single one of us is truly goal oriented at our primal task- living a life well. Thus, at the core of who we are, we fail at being goal oriented.
We have been given a task by nature, a higher power or whatever you may choose to live, and each and everyone one of us is not goal oriented in at least one department. In fact, the lack of our commitment to the goal of living a life well has given rise to huge industries; drugs, candy, tobacco, alcohol, porn and many more. Most of us in the developed world dominated by the service industry actually work at a company that exists because we are failing at being goal oriented. If it is conceivable that goal oriented people look for the most effective, efficient and expedient way to achieve their goals, if we truly did that we'd be out of a job because most of our workplaces would be unnecessary, as what our companies are pushing feeds off of us delaying the end results and muddling through one life event after another. Based on this perspective, it also stands to reason that the private sector prefers us muddling through life and not being fundamentally goal oriented, because then we need more and more of their products and services. When you think about it, businesses don't profit off of strong, determined, ambitious and nearly self-sufficient people. The reality, therefore, is that most of us pick a few things in which we prefer to be (or are forced to be) goal oriented, and we let everything else fall by the wayside to varying degrees.
Now, is this a good or a bad thing? Should we all just shame ourselves into a collective coma? Or, should we blame businesses for exploiting our collective inability to be truly goal oriented? I don't think so. What I do believe, however, is that we should take responsibility for our own individual self-image and act accordingly. For example, no one should ever presume they are goal oriented just because they are fully working on becoming a senior manager five years from now at a company where they started an entry level job not long ago. If this is their only goal oriented facet of who they are and what they do, and they are not looking at anything else like being healthy, fit, happy, socializing with people and so on, they better get off their high horse and set a goal in everything that makes them who they are as an individual and a human being. Can you imagine such a person? Someone who has a clear, distinct purpose behind every single action they perform, every thought they conceive - all going towards actively set goals in life? That would be a sight to behold.
So, while I may have started this post criticizing humanity, I hope I did enough to end it on a positive note for most, if not all of you. My message is that while nobody's perfect, we should focus on the idea that to be truly goal oriented in life is to believe that everything about you matters, and all of it is worthy of plans, goals and steps to achieve them. Thinking this way may feel overwhelming or even paralyzing to people who are used to ignoring everything except one or two things in their lives, but I don't think that remaining this way will get us anywhere as a society or as a species. Give it a try some time. Imagine what life would be like if everything about you mattered so much it's worthy of a plan and a goal. What would life be like then? Start asking yourself so that perhaps some day you may answer it :)
According to the Cambridge English Dictionary online, the definition is that a goal oriented person works hard to achieve good results in the tasks he or she has been given. This definition has a very business-like tone and mindset embedded in it. However, it is a more universal concept clearly unrestricted to the workplace. This is where, unfortunately, humanity fails. Sure, we may give ourselves tasks like losing weight and staying fit, or we may be given tasks at work like completing an analysis project by a certain deadline. However, not a single one of us is truly goal oriented at our primal task- living a life well. Thus, at the core of who we are, we fail at being goal oriented.
We have been given a task by nature, a higher power or whatever you may choose to live, and each and everyone one of us is not goal oriented in at least one department. In fact, the lack of our commitment to the goal of living a life well has given rise to huge industries; drugs, candy, tobacco, alcohol, porn and many more. Most of us in the developed world dominated by the service industry actually work at a company that exists because we are failing at being goal oriented. If it is conceivable that goal oriented people look for the most effective, efficient and expedient way to achieve their goals, if we truly did that we'd be out of a job because most of our workplaces would be unnecessary, as what our companies are pushing feeds off of us delaying the end results and muddling through one life event after another. Based on this perspective, it also stands to reason that the private sector prefers us muddling through life and not being fundamentally goal oriented, because then we need more and more of their products and services. When you think about it, businesses don't profit off of strong, determined, ambitious and nearly self-sufficient people. The reality, therefore, is that most of us pick a few things in which we prefer to be (or are forced to be) goal oriented, and we let everything else fall by the wayside to varying degrees.
Now, is this a good or a bad thing? Should we all just shame ourselves into a collective coma? Or, should we blame businesses for exploiting our collective inability to be truly goal oriented? I don't think so. What I do believe, however, is that we should take responsibility for our own individual self-image and act accordingly. For example, no one should ever presume they are goal oriented just because they are fully working on becoming a senior manager five years from now at a company where they started an entry level job not long ago. If this is their only goal oriented facet of who they are and what they do, and they are not looking at anything else like being healthy, fit, happy, socializing with people and so on, they better get off their high horse and set a goal in everything that makes them who they are as an individual and a human being. Can you imagine such a person? Someone who has a clear, distinct purpose behind every single action they perform, every thought they conceive - all going towards actively set goals in life? That would be a sight to behold.
So, while I may have started this post criticizing humanity, I hope I did enough to end it on a positive note for most, if not all of you. My message is that while nobody's perfect, we should focus on the idea that to be truly goal oriented in life is to believe that everything about you matters, and all of it is worthy of plans, goals and steps to achieve them. Thinking this way may feel overwhelming or even paralyzing to people who are used to ignoring everything except one or two things in their lives, but I don't think that remaining this way will get us anywhere as a society or as a species. Give it a try some time. Imagine what life would be like if everything about you mattered so much it's worthy of a plan and a goal. What would life be like then? Start asking yourself so that perhaps some day you may answer it :)