Motivational speakers, personal coaches and self-help
proponents all underscore the importance of having a VISION, a DREAM, a LIFE
PURPOSE, a PASSION … an overarching GRAND GOAL as an essential driving force
for a successful life. Unfortunately, not
everybody has one!
So, how does one go
about “capturing” a Dream or a GRAND GOAL?
Or is that really
necessary?
For the Neanderthal, mere survival was the GRAND GOAL. Subsequent civilizations – roughly through
the middle of the 20th Century – simply worked and fought for a
“better life” – more certain food supplies, better and more secure housing, more
secure sources of heat and cooling, etc.
Eventually, the starkest realities dissipated and non-conscripted
time became available beyond scrambling-to-cover-basic-needs. This gave rise to aspirational & creative
engagement, with innovation and unbridled imagination, which gave us
literature, poetry and the arts, plus astonishing advances in science,
technology and medicine.
Interestingly, slaves and the
inextricably down-trodden developed strong spiritual roots and renderings,
often buoyed by music and dance, to help them rise above their circumstances
and engender Hope for a better day to come.
The power to be found in deep spiritual roots is hard to overstate.
But as civilization advanced, life became “tough” in more
complex ways, and we needed different coping skills. Those whose mantra had always been “God will
provide!” had to come to terms with a more fundamental Truth:
The
Almighty had already given them hands, feet and all the rest of what
they needed for starters, so most of the rest of “providing” was in their own
hands!
As life’s complexity increased, so did the path to
independence. Longer and better paved
runways to the future had to be built.
Instead of slopping the hogs beginning at age 8 or 9, planting cotton, tobacco,
rice and corn at ages 10-16 and bailing hay at ages 12-18, youth were sent to
public schools through age 18 to learn the technicalities required to navigate
a new world. This separation from “old
realities” – at a “ghosted subsidy” of roughly $300,000 per student in 2017
currency – distanced them from understanding the full power needed for lift-off
toward NEW REALITIES.
How so? When the
compelling needs to hunt deer, grow crops and put food on the table were taken
out of the equation for survival, a new freedom from home-based authority
emerged. School, for some, became a
ready-made venue for autonomous “freedom of expression”, “freedom from
oppression”, perfecting the practical joke, bullying others, defying the new
“authorities” and “seeing how much they could get away with”.
Unfortunately, REALITY never took a day off! It was
there – always there – with its burgeoning indebtedness constantly accruing, waiting
for each new wave of freshly minted “soldiers of fortune” to begin shouldering
their part of a bargain they neither clearly understood nor completely
accepted: But the “Cost of Living” still
had to be paid!
Interestingly, the “Cost of Living” hasn’t really
changed. Everything we Deserve – and everything we can legitimately Dream – is
going to take everything we’ve got, and it’s always been that way. However, the cost of “slippage” has
increased. The speed of change, the
increased demand for focus, the expansion of access around planet earth, and
the increasingly “global economy” now require us to compete more competitively with
7 billion other inhabitants!
So, here’s the question one could legitimately ask: If
all that’s required for any one of us to “make it” is “everything we’ve got” – and if “everything
we’ve got” we’ve already GOT – why aren’t more people “making it”? Why are so many underachieving their true
potential? Why are so many
35-45-year-olds so hopelessly in debt … why so many divorces … why so many jobs
lost … why so many promotions foregone … why such increasing numbers unable to
consider retirement?
While real reasons and contributing factors vary, including
misfortune and the lack of opportunity, we need to take the poorest reasons off
the table, starting with:
1)
Holding back on “everything we’ve got”,
and
2)
Allowing too much “slippage” … which
would include:
Shoddy preparation / Truncated
Education / Limited Skills
Poor Use of
Unscheduled Time
Excuses and
Explanations
Blaming Others
… etc. …
The challenge is compounded by too little “burning passion”
and a hollowed out sense of urgency.
“Living in the NOW” and immersion in “Mindfulness” doesn’t light fires …
it puts them out!
So one is left wondering:
If we’re not driven by Dreams, Visions, Purpose and Grand Goals, what ELSE
can produce, engender or substitute for “burning passion” and a “sense of
urgency”?
Ultimately, everything funnels down to a grand “WHY?” If there’s no compelling reason to look
beyond our immediate comfort zone, we’ll never see or pursue new horizons of
possibility, even as the old horizons continue to shrink, become stale and
obsolete, and disintegrate around us.
Obsolescence and the disintegration of Absolutes [see “Living Without a Goal” by James Ogilvy]
should galvanize our “WHY?” and “WHAT
FOR?” In fact, this realization should
give us a new sense of liberation by releasing us from the constraints of unworkable Tribal Truths, “died in the wool” political party allegiances, prejudices, the
incongruities of a 6,000 year-old earth, a Heaven that’s only one layer of
stratosphere deep, etc.
At this writing, I’ve just found out
that Kroger is eliminating its “Senior Discount Day” program – which I have
“religiously” followed for its entire duration.
I now realize that this program had been holding me “hostage” every week
until Thursdays; however, now I can shop ANY day of the week when provisions
run low and not feel that I’m unconscionably compromising my principles of
thrift!
Sooner or later, we’re going to be faced with both the
prospect and the necessity of deep water navigation where there are no
constraining buoys, no prescribed “shipping channels”, capricious currents and
weather patterns to negotiate, and a whole lot of flotsam and jetsam. That
– if nothing else – should send us scampering … with all the urgency we can
muster … to maximally capacitize ourselves, gain more stabilizing “ballast”,
and construct a life-line network of associations and affiliations to help get
us wherever it is we’re going.
Capture a VISION of DEEP WATER NAVIGATION, generously
“Pixelate” that VISION [http://www.ertiaunlimited.com/pixelate-your-life/
], and power UP for the voyage of your life!
Quartermaster
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