In our last +1, we took a detour from some +1s on Seth Godin’s The Practice to enjoy a trip to Someday Isle compliments of Brian Tracy’s great book No Excuses!
We’re going to spend some more time with Mr. Tracy then we’ll go back to Mr. Godin.
As we’ve discussed, Brian Tracy is one of my favorite old-school, kick-your-motivation-into-high-gear gurus.
Back in the day—as in WAY back in the day when CDs in your car stereo system were a new, cutting-edge thing—I’d listen to his audios ALL.THE.TIME.
He asks some of THE most provocative questions and reading his books often leads to some long journaling sessions packed with insight.
Today we’re going to talk about the fact that we’re TELEOLOGICAL beings.
Brian tells us: “Aristotle wrote that human beings are teleological organisms, which simply means that we are purpose driven. Therefore, you feel happy and in control of your life only when you have a clear goal that you are working toward each day. This also means that this ability to become a lifelong goal setter is one of the most important disciplines you will ever develop. We are teleological beings. We are purpose driven. We NEED goals that drive us. Or we suffer.”
Now…
To be VERY clear
That’s not modern self-help silliness.
It’s a scientific fact and a deep philosophical truth.
Modern Philosopher Tom Morris (who has a dual PhD in Religion and Philosophy from Yale) definitely agrees.
In his great book, The Art of Achievement, he tells us: “Aristotle has taught me we all need a target to shoot at. We must have goals to guide our actions and energies. The Greek word for target was telos. Human beings are teleological creatures. We are hard-wired to live purposively, to have direction. Without a target to shoot at, our lives are literally aimless. Without something productive to do, without positive goals and a purpose, a human being languishes. And then one of two things happens. Aimlessness begins to shut a person down in spiritual lethargy and emptiness, or the individual lashes out and turns to destructive goals just to make something happen.”
Know this…
The Heroic app has TARGETS we set for ourself BECAUSE OF ARISTOTLE.
Happy, flourishing, EUDAIMONICALLY joyful human beings have CLEAR TARGETS.
The best among us know what they are and hit them—ALL DAY, EVERY DAY.
Modern scientist Sonja Lyubomirsky agrees with Brian and Tom and Aristotle and influenced me and our Heroic app development as well.
Sonja wrote The How of Happiness and The Myths of Happiness. (She ALSO helped us design the study that showed how impactful our Mastery Series/Coach program can be!)
In The How of Happiness, she tells us: “In 1932, weighed down by the sorrows and agonies of his self-absorbed and aimless clients, an Australian psychiatrist named W. Béran Wolfe summed up his philosophy like this: ‘If you observe a really happy man you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his son, growing double dahlias in his garden, or looking for dinosaur eggs in the Gobi Desert.’ He was right. People who strive for something personally significant, whether it’s learning a new craft, changing careers, or raising moral children, are far happier than those who don’t have strong dreams or aspirations. Find a happy person, and you will find a project.”
I repeat…
Happy people have TARGETS.
Happy people have GOALS.
Today’s +1.
What are YOURS?
And…
Are you taking consistent action to hit those target-goals every day?
Here’s to the Wisdom and Self-Mastery to know what we’re here to do and then to actually DO IT.
Not someday…
TODAY.
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