Goal
Today, we will discuss the best techniques for helping you set a life goal.
Table of Contents
- What Is A Life Goal and Why Should You Have One?
- Why Were You Never Pushed To Determine A Life Goal?
- The 4 Easy Techniques For Helping You Choose A Life Goal
- 1. What am I passionate about? What do I love?
- 2. What am I good at, or would like to know?
- 3. What virtues do I admire?
- 4. What can I do to improve my life and the lives of others?
- What Should You Avoid When Determining Your Life Goal?
- The Community and Life Goals
- Your Life Goals Determine Your Legacy
- Actionables
What Is A Life Goal and Why Should You Have One?
You have one life. Don’t waste it.
A life goal is a purpose you pursue for the rest of your life. You can have more than one life goal, but for simplicity’s sake, you shouldn’t have more than three.
Life goals are essential because they give you an “end game.” With an end game in mind, you can direct your daily actions to serve a virtuous purpose you decide and desire.
You only have one life. A life goal ensures you use it well.
Why Were You Never Pushed To Determine A Life Goal?
“Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated. Thus, everyone’s task is unique as is his specific opportunity to implement it.” – Viktor E. Frankl
Most people are completely unsure what they want to do with their lives. Why is that?
Firstly, we are taught to view our lives as tedious “checklists” to get through: graduate high school, go to college, get a decent job, have a family, buy a house, retire, and die. We are never encouraged to push outside of this checklist framework.
Secondly, the ruling classes do not benefit from individuals who are passionate about their lives. A man with true meaning that burns in his soul is harder to control. He doesn’t waste his life and resources as easily and is more willing to draw lines and set standards. Such confidence is bad for the ruling classes.
Lastly, most people are dead inside. They are lost and feel empty. Thus, they are spiteful toward any individual with a spark of life and a desire for greatness. Whenever you have something important, like a life goal, others will attack you for it in subtle ways. They will discourage you and hope such discouragement will prevent you from pursuing your most virtuous self.
In short, life goals are discouraged because having an aim for your life does not benefit the weak individuals around you.
The 4 Easy Techniques For Helping You Choose A Life Goal
Determining a life goal involves looking at four main points:
- What am I passionate about? What do I love?
- What am I good at, or would like to know?
- What virtues do I admire?
- What can I do to improve my life and the lives of others?
Answering these questions will give you the insight and wisdom you need to determine what to do with your life. For example, I have three life goals:
- To be the best husband and father
- To create stories that uplift the individual
- To be virtuous and happy
I must be loyal, compassionate, and valuable if I aim to be the best husband and father. I tend to my family’s needs and ensure they are stable and happy. My children will not be traumatized. They will be loved.
Creating stories that uplift the individual inspires people to be their best selves. If people consume works of heroism and triumph, they will develop the desire to fight evil in themselves, their communities, and their society. This creates positive outcomes. I also love writing and drawing and wish to tell stories using these skills.
Lastly, I pursue what I love if I am virtuous and happy. I love virtue. I love fighting to become one’s best self because I can not fathom what else the point of life should be.
My three goals fulfill all four questions and give me the best life I could ever ask for.
What Should You Avoid When Determining Your Life Goal?
Weak individuals want you to focus on them. Don’t. Fulfill your virtuous ends and reject the notion you have to “play brother’s keeper” to addicts and losers.
Firstly, avoid goals that require the action of others. For example, “take every opportunity to help others” is internally focused and dependent on the individual, not on the actions of others. No matter one’s resources, we’re constantly presented with chances to help others. You do not have to wait on anyone to start helping people now.
Secondly, your life goal should force personal growth. “Learn and remember a new language every five years” promotes growth. For one, you’re constantly pushing yourself to learn a new language. Secondly, you have to maintain what you’ve already learned. Lastly, to learn a language, you must grasp the culture in which language dominates. All of these realities encourage development.
Thirdly, you have to avoid the “bucket list” mentality. A life goal challenges you every day until you die. If you have a plan you can accomplish, you have a destination, not a defining feature of your life. “Be virtuous” has to be done every day of your life. “Make a lot of money” can be accomplished, and then what? What do you do after that is checked off your list? Direct your life goals toward virtuous pursuits that fundamentally change your life.
The Community and Life Goals
“The crowning fortune of a man is to be born to some pursuit which finds him employment and happiness, whether it be to make baskets, or broadswords, or canals, or statues, or songs.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
No man is an island, so how involved should the community be in deciding a life goal?
As always, determine your responsibilities. Who are you obligated to help? Who are you loyal to? Your life goal should not impede your obligations to provide for, care for, and love others.
However, only an individual can decide his purpose. His community should direct him towards the most virtuous outcome. But the decision is ultimately his, and only an honest community can offer proper guidance. Your deadbeat dad has no say in what you want to be. But a trusted friend who has stood with you since you were children? You should listen to him and reflect deeply on whatever feedback he provides.
Your Life Goals Determine Your Legacy
Memento Mori – create a legacy worth celebrating.
How do you wish to be remembered? Your legacy dictates how others will remember you. If you set virtuous life goals that challenge you to become your best self, your legacy will inspire others.
My legacy is that people remember me as a man who took every chance he could to become a better person. “Better” means radically pursuing virtue while protecting my sovereignty as an individual.
Once you’ve determined your life goal, look at what you want to be remembered for so you can ensure all actions adhere to your life goal while also providing positive benefits to descendants.
Actionables
- What is something you’ve always wanted to accomplish? What great things are you destined to achieve?
- Decide on or refine your life goals. What are they? How do they answer the questions above? Additionally, are you on the path to fulfilling them?
- WHat are some of your greatest distractions? How do these distractions prevent you from fulfilling your life goals?
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.
