02 Jan Man is a goal setting animal.

Man is a goal seeking animal – discuss! I’ve just discovered this quote by Aristotle and it has set me off thinking. Until quite recently, I hated goals and Resolutions and all that nonsense and pooh poohed them as many do. I didn’t like setting goals. I never achieved them. I’d rather be spontaneous. Planning was for control freaks.  But actually, it was because I didn’t know how to make them work for me. Or rather I didn’t work for them – I just threw them out there and expected change. However, it doesn’t work like that!

Aristotle’s quote got me thinking. Could this Greek philosopher from 384-322BC, be on to something here? Is it, in fact, the norm to set goals and a cause of great unhappiness when we don’t? Is it something we fight against doing, yet do automatically?

Let us consider the Caveman. He had basic needs, food, shelter, safety. So his overarching goals were to

• find food,
• build or find a structure that would keep him warm and dry and
• keep away from nasty big dangerous things or provide himself with weapons to protect him against said beasties.

Well then, Caveman must have required something to hunt with and to protect himself with. Goal: to find some kind of material with which to make those hunting thingies or defence thingies. Having found the material, Caveman needed tools to craft hunting thingies or defence thingies. New Goal: make tool thingies. And so it goes on. I wonder if cave paintings were types of goal maps.

Our needs haven’t changed much so we still have goals that relate.

• Have enough food
• Have an adequate shelter
• Protect ourselves and our loved ones from whatever may harm us (fewer big beasties but other nasties are available)

So Goal: make enough money to buy food and house. Goal: have correct skills to earn money. Goal: gain correct skills through education and training. Really, not that dissimilar in many ways. If you add in our “wants” (bigger house, faster car, more holidays) then there are more goal making opportunities.

 Man is a goal seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals. – Aristotle

There are those who will say:  “Well what about holidays then? We long for time off work, time to do nothing, recharge.” But even then, we don’t do “nothing”. We just find different goals. Consequently, on last year’s ten days away, our days became about where we wanted to reserve sunbeds the next day (goal), going to the gym or walking somewhere to offset all the food (goal), what time we would eat (goal) how much all-inclusive Prosecco I wouldn’t drink (goal). We still set goals! It was impossible not to set some kind of goal! This Christmas, it’s been about whether we could watch all the X-Men movies (goal achieved!)

And I know it’s not just us!

There are plenty of stories around about those who believe that they have got better more quickly from serious illnesses, and even made full recoveries, by using goals to keep them going – telling themselves they would walk again by Christmas for example. Furthermore,  there are those who have been dying that have held on for an event that they didn’t want to miss – the birth of a grandchild, the wedding of a daughter. We all know people who have those stories to tell.

I think Aristotle was spot on. All these years I have been fighting against something I do naturally. I am a goal setter after all! So, I must have years of experience to help me move forward. If I list my achievements, none of them have happened completely by accident. They have happened with purpose and direction and hard work. They have been goals, maybe at a subconscious level if not at a conscious one. If I can identify the skills that have got me this far, I can use them to help me with the next steps in my journey.

And if I am a goal setter – then you are too. There’s no point denying it any longer. We have no excuse my friend. We’ve been setting and achieving, reviewing and redesigning our lives from before we were born, so we might as well embrace it, refine the process and make the very best life we can.

Aristotle says so.