Goal
This week, how to pursue people, ideas, and things of high value.
Table of Content
- What Is Value?
- We Are Taught To Seek What Is Low-Value
- Why Are We Taught To Seek What Is Low-Value?
- How To Pursue Things and People Of A High Value
- Leave the modern world behind
- Focus on virtue
- Develop your rational pride
- The World Improves When We Pursue What Is Of A High Value
- Actionables
What Is Value?
People, objects, and ideas of a higher value will improve your life.
“Even if you cannot change all the people around you, you can change the people you choose to be around. Life is too short to waste your time on people who don’t respect, appreciate, and value you. Spend your life with people who make you smile, laugh, and feel loved.” – Roy T. Bennet
Value is “worth in usefulness or importance to the possessor; utility or merit.”
Everything has value. Things such as food have value because they relieve your hunger. Certain people have value because they meet your emotional, spiritual, intellectual, and physical needs. However, specific individuals, moral systems, ideas, and actions have a higher value than others. For example, capitalism is more valuable than socialism, your best friend is more valuable than a stranger, and freedom is more valuable than enslavement.
I believe individuals should pursue things, people, and ideas of high value. You should find loyal friends, embrace meaningful goals, and adhere to virtues.
Conversely, a life of low-value pursuits is full of addictions, enslavement to the ruling classes, emotional instability, and so on. Of course, no one thrives in such an environment, just like you can’t thrive on an empty calory, all-sugar diet.
We Are Taught To Seek What Is Low-Value
The mobs, ruling classes, and elites teach us to seek what is immediate and low-value. Our society appreciates automatic and pathetic things: casual sex, emotivism, quick money, junk food, and so on.
And institutions help facilitate your addiction to vice. Schools teach historical inaccuracies instead of moral truths; governments stifle individual autonomy instead of encouraging it; churches promote pop culture myths instead of moral courage; and so on. Moral truths, personal autonomy, and moral courage are a few high-value concepts that encourage the best within an individual. Of course, such concepts are shunned, mocked, and belittled in a culture that values immediate and weak values.
Why Are We Taught To Seek What Is Low-Value?
If you seek what is subpar and mediocre, you will become weak, spineless, and controllable.
Ultimately, why are we rewarded for pursuing what is of low value? Because that which is immediate and has no roots is easy to break. For example, casual sex is the lowest form of an intimate relationship. And casual sex, unlike marriage, has no loyalties between the two individuals involved and the communities surrounding the individuals. Furthermore, such a “relationship” ends as soon as the fun is over.
And who benefits from such low-value relationships? Why the ruling classes, elites, and the mobs. Casual sex can lead to an unexpected pregnancy making women dependent on the ruling classes for welfare and support. The elites benefit from consumerism. A married couple will care about their finances while people engage in flings will gladly waste money on drinks, over-expensive urban living, and other “thrills” to spice up their dating life. And, of course, the mob benefits. Casual sex can be emotionally damaging and lead to feelings of betrayal, anger, and lust. Such destabilizing emotions make an individual easier to sway when the mob needs more bodies.
Governments, entertainment, “friends,” corporations, and other institutions and people will promote casual sex and other things of low value. They will make the pursuit of low-value objects seem “fun” or “exciting” instead of admitting how damaging and empty such a life is.
How To Pursue Things and People Of A High Value
“Anything that just costs money is cheap.” – John Steinbeck
- Leave the modern world behind – Contemporary culture offers pointless truisms and blatant lies. You should direct yourself away from these messages and seek wisdom elsewhere. Modernity’s messages on love, truth, and justice have no value. Therefore, ignore these poisoned words, read old books, observe the consequences of people’s actions without filters, and work on virtue.
- Focus on virtue – Challenging yourself is where you will find the most value, especially within. The highest value action you can take is to pursue greatness. If you continue to improve, then you increase your value. The more you seek your best self, the more you can accomplish and the better world you can bring about. How do you pursue your best self? Think about the ideal. Control your emotions. Study the 13 virtues and allow them to define your actions. Learn more skills. Save your money and invest in what is meaningful.
- Develop your rational pride – You have to stop seeing the stable life as boring. If you pursue value, you should be proud of your self-control and focus. For example, most people lack the persistence and fortitude to learn new skills. You’re different. Be proud of that. Don’t let FOMO trick you. Remember, weak individuals are missing out on the discipline, virtue, and confidence you have built.
The World Improves When We Pursue What Is Of A High Value
Pursue what is meaningful.
“Pursue what is meaningful, not what is expedient.” – Jordan Peterson
You can’t change the world. People will make their decisions. Our present course is cultural suicide because people will destroy value to fulfill what is fleeting and meaningless.
Your first response should always be to ignore what you’re hearing and focus on improving yourself. The only life you can directly change is yours. Therefore, your obsession should be with cultivating your ideal, virtuous self.
Don’t get distracted. Don’t buy into the lies and nonsense. Pursue what is valuable, and your life will flourish.
Actionables
- What is something of low value that you seek? What is something immediate and fleeting you consume? Why?
- What is something of high value that you seek? Has this person, idea, or object made your life better?
- What is something of high value you’d love to seek but have been too weak or lazy to pursue? For example, have you been too lazy to go to the gym and obtain better health? What do you think is holding you back?
Please remember that it’s important to do the actionables. You’re not on this earth to simply read but to do. To become an individual, you must act more than you consume.
*Image credit to Unsplash.
