Goal
Today, I discuss how to learn what individuals wish to earn and the best ways to respond to this knowledge.
Table of Contents
- Individuals Always Want Something
- Distraction From What You Want
- Three Ways To Determine What People Want
- How To Respond When You Understand The End Goals Of Others
- Reading List
- Actionables
Individuals Always Want Something
It is human nature to want to achieve extraordinary things.
“They muddy the water, to make it seem deep.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
As human beings, we desire to accomplish goals, gain benefits, or fulfill a want.
Some desires are noble, such as wanting to be virtuous. Others fulfill a necessity, such as desiring food. Other desires are monstrous, such as the ruthless pursuit of power.
No human being can live a life free of desire. And not all desires are attached to a tangible resource. However, the nobler a want is, the more pride you’ll experience pursuing and obtaining your noble end. Conversely, the more pathetic an aspiration is, the more shame and misery brought to the pursuer and others.
Distraction From What You Want
Distracting yourself from what you truly want ensures you cannot live your best life.
Vigorous individuals with clear morals, virtuous actions, and meaningful lives orient themselves towards what is right: building a stable family, helping those in need, investing in skill growth, and so on. These goals and aspirations support the community and promote personal stability.
Weak individuals want bad things: likes on social media, fiat currency, a false sense of accomplishment, admiration from the masses, knick-knacks, and so forth. All these items are subpar, especially when compare to a meaningful, enriching life full of value, virtue, and stability.
Weak individuals also know their goals promote social instability and personal insecurity. Thus, they distract from their desires by focusing on everything else. Through distraction, they never have to admit the wrongness and adverse outcomes of their wants.
An Example of Distraction
Never distract yourself from what you truly want.
“History is a set of lies agreed upon.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
Let’s take fiat currency.
Fiat currency weakens the purchasing power of all individuals as money becomes more commonplace and less valuable. Further, fiat currency leads to economic instability, predation on the unborn, and distrust in the financial system. Overall, it is a net negative for individuals and society.
With fiat currency, the end goal is to give the elites more power while ensuring the poor can afford inferior goods. Concentrated power in the hands of the few and crappy toys and trinkets for the poor are not noble goals, but this is what fiat currency provides.
How Weak Individuals Will Distract You From Understanding What They Want
People do not like it when you identify their pathetic and empty desires.
However, weak individuals pretend fiat currency is not a net negative. Why? Because they want to distract from what fiat currency gives them. And they distract you in three main ways:
- Weak individuals always misrepresent what they want. Fiat currency allows for the purchasing of cheap goods to fulfill consumerists’ materialism. However, we pretend fiat currency is about helping the poor or stabilizing the markets. We lie about the goal to pretend our actions are selfless instead of driven by greed.
- Weak individuals will focus excessively on the process, not the results. Intellectuals and economists describe interest rates, quantitative easing, and other buzzwords meant to impress and distract. All this knowledge obscures the fundamental reality: fiat currency gives more power to the elites and more consumerism to the poor while undermining our economic future. The fancy language ensnares us and ensures we do not examine our goals.
- Weak individuals will attack you when you acknowledge the evil of their desires. Paltry individuals will say you are “uneducated” or “hate the poor” when you highlight fiat currency’s problems. They use insults and guilt to shame you into silence. Once you’re quiet, you will not ask questions about end goals and results.
Fiat currency is like any other ignoble goal where the pursuit of this goal creates negative consequences for many individuals. Thus, the focus here and in other places is to distract from what is wanted and what the consequences are.
Three Ways To Determine What People Want
Fog is commonplace in today’s culture. If you can see past the noise and distraction, you will gain keen insight into others’ hearts.
“When no one you know tells the truth, you learn to see under the surface.” – Cassandra Clare
Seeing what other people want gives you keen insight into their character. However, if weak individuals are always creating distractions, then how do you pierce their veil? Through three ways:
- Is the individual addicted to vice or pursuing virtue? An individual who continually seeks what is virtuous will rarely display fog. You can remain confident they want what they say they want. An individual obsessed with vices, such as passivity or comfort, will typically obscure what he wants in everything he does.
- Secondly, look at the consequences of their actions. Weak individuals will say their actions and goals will achieve good ends. Ignore what they say and direct your attention to the results. When the consequences of their actions are terrible, you know weak individuals’ end goals are not noble.
- Lastly, how open is the individual to feedback about their ideas? Virtuous individuals do not become defensive when you criticize their actions. They listen and provide their feedback or change their behavior. However, weak individuals become defensive. This defensiveness arises from you uncovering their true desires and their need to protect that knowledge.
How To Respond When You Understand The End Goals Of Others
If you dislike a vice in someone else, always seek to overcome that vice within yourself.
“Above all, do not lie to yourself. A man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point where he does not discern any truth either in himself or anywhere around him, and thus falls into disrespect towards himself and others.” – Fyodor Dostoevsky
Once you see past the fog, what do you do? When dealing with social lies, such as fiat currency, I have lost my faith in the social order. To know the majority crave consumerism instead of sound monetary policy for themselves and their children is disheartening. Their desperate need to cover over their short-sighted desires is unnerving.
Interpersonally, I trust people less when I see past their narratives. Sometimes, we want ignoble desires. If we can admit to and control them, we direct these flaws toward a better end. Individuals who can’t do this are hard to trust and respect.
Lastly, I examine my desires. For example, I state I want to get in shape, but I’m not going to the gym. Do I want physical fitness? Or, do I want to earn justification for my laziness, and paying for an unused gym membership makes justification easier? These are questions you have to ask yourself.
Never cover up the nature of what you want, and you’ll benefit yourself and others.
Reading List
- The 48 Laws of Power – Robert Greene’s masterpiece deals with manipulative and deceptive people. When you understand these power laws, you will accept most people are driven to accomplish unjust and pathetic ends. This insight helps you interact with weak individuals as you navigate through the world.
- True Believer – Understanding the mindset of others gives you more freedom and knowledge. True Believer details how weak individuals are not driven by virtue, selflessness, or altruism – they are driven by fear, frustration, entitlement, and bitterness. And they are willing to hurt others to secure a sense of purpose. Reading this book will help you see how weak individuals always want what is ignoble. When you accept this reality, your interactions with them will improve.
Actionables
- What is something you want? How do you know you truly want it?
- How do you go about accomplishing a goal? What goes do you set? How do you record your progress?
- What is one thing you want or wish to accomplish? Why? What will obtaining or accomplishing this end give you?
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.
