A Survey on Goals: why does everyone in your office want to
drive the same car?
What are your goals?
Goals are something we put out in front of ourselves to reach
one day. But who sets our goals. If someone else had set them
for you to reach, should you attain them or another. If they
belong to another why should you ever reach those goals, they
are not for you. But the more we try the more disheartened we
become. In this case our failures are our saviors. They, our
failures, are there to prevent us from living an inauthentic
life living out some one else's goals. They are there to keep us
from living some one else's life. So who has set your goals?
Now if we have set our own goals, and we find ourselves not
there yet; there is still something for us to learn yet so we
may access them. It is like getting a pair of running shoes
before you have learned to crawl. Even holding onto those
sneakers for the future would be no good. By then your feet
would have out grown them. The secret is in the symbol on the
shoe. Victory comes from just doing it. As long as you are in
the process of your life, all is fine. But if you are putting
off what you deserve for another day, it might never come.
One of my Grandfather's goals was to work hard and retire, so
he could enjoy life later. He was one of the first State
Troopers in the country back in New Jersey. He Served under
General Schwarskophf's father for many years as the head of
traffic safety. Now every day before and after his shift at the
barracks he would farm his tree nursery to save that money for
the good life when he retired. As he bent over and felt the
strain in his back from balling another tree, his thoughts went
to the future enjoyment he would receive. As he bent over a
second time and felt the strain in his back from balling just
another tree, the thoughts of all the time he would have later
in life to play golf and travel would sustain him. Well he
retired right on schedule and he became ill. I knew him most of
my life as the Grandfather who rarely left his bedroom who could
not stand loud noise. A man who held a lot of authority in his
youth had no voice in his maturity. He had his larynx removed.
But besides that I still do not know why he never left his room
and his bed? I can not recall any other ailments he had. Only
thing I can imagine is that his life had left him before his
body did. Too many years of being ignored. Life was always
something to behold later and not in the moment. Another one of
his goals was to provide for his family? So he would work long
hard hours and be on call at all hours of the night. Then in the
morning be out in the field alone until he had to be at the
barrack once again. He escorted rich widows from the grocery
store and back, paraded and protected presidents such as Wilson
and Roosevelt, Solved the Palisades Heights Murder, and was in
Society column next to the Dows, the Vanderbuilts, and
Rockefellers. He was always away from his family providing for
them. Now as my Father looks back on him, he can not remember
much about him until he got sick. At that point it was not hard
to nail him down for a good game of Gin. But thirty years had
slipped by. Yes, my Father's house was paid for in the first
five years thanks to my Grandfather's savings, but I think my
Father would of much preferred much more of his time a bit
earlier.
Is it Too late to reassess? No it never is, but it is harder the
longer you wait. Because the behaviors over our life time
solidify and begin to be set in their own ways. Caught in time
the old dog of your inner life can indeed be taught new tricks.
One of the most popular afflictions is an incorrect
understanding of ones social duty or Dharma. In Norse Mythology
Tir, the god of the generals and the symbol of masculinity, is
represented by an upright arrow. When this Rune is pulled it is
a call for assertive energy to be called into play. It is asking
for you to be assertive in a healthy and balanced fashion to
strive for the peak of strength and creativity in your life. To
charge your batteries to their full capacity. To come full round
and gain your happiness in the moment and peak your personal
wonder. The crux of the issue is this, once you at the peak of
your knowledge, wealth, or happiness; you must perform the
return.
"Half way through the journey of our lives, I came to myself in
a dark wood and found that I had lost the true way."Dante;
Divine Comedia
Now the Return is expressed by Plato returning his character to
the cave with the light, Frodo coming back to free the Shire of
bandits, and Prometheus returning with his torch. To take
everything you have learned, experienced, felt, or gained and
give it freely in a wise fashion. It does not mean to empty your
bank account and give it to the first homeless man you see, for
that might not be what he needs to progress. He might just take
all of that money and lose it on the horses. He might of just
needed some one to share a bologna sandwich and an ear to
listen, simple justification of his existence. Now if you handed
him your king's ransom, you might be sharing the same
refrigerator box! So give wisely of yourself, but do give. For
Tir calls for you to never expire your future potential strength
but to always give your kinetic strength. It is kind of like
trying to provide the neighborhood with fresh eggs after you had
roasted the hen.
There once was a man who had been a man working for Civil
Engineering during the Roosevelt's public works days, who upon
retiring taught at Boston College free of charge to the
incurring immigrants in his spare time. One of his students
moved to Jersey and was responsible for the creation of what is
commonly called a "Jersey Barrier", which as fate would have it
kept that professor alive and prevented him from leaping into
oncoming traffic in the Sumner Tunnel entering Boston when his
tire exploded. Now that is Dharma correctly lived. That is
Social Duty played out well.
So as you come home from work at the end of a seventy hour week
and Junior wants to play catch and you barely have enough energy
to lift your brief case unto the table, what was it that Junior
really needed? Was it your wealth, knowledge, concern, time,
understanding, compassion, Love, friendship, or laughter? Or D,
all of the above. In a well balanced fashion. Some times we are
just doing exactly what our parents had done for us without
knowing any better. Sure, we say " I'll never do that to my
children!" We all exceed our parents mark. But how far off was
theirs in the first place. We need to know this to truly
understand where that balance is in life. For we all must be
that Professor, friend, or father to all through out our whole
life..
When we smile the whole world smiles with us, Yes it is a corny
phrase, but it is same as when Christ had said in the Gospel of
Thomas "..Lift that stone and there I am." For you and me are
the same person and the same essence as that stone. Much like
your finger is part of your hand which is in part of yourself.
As Christ was the Son of God and at the same time God himself,
we shall also be the Alpha and the Omega. But then again your
finger is still your finger. Now again, if that finger of yours
is cut by a rusty nail and your tetanus shot has expired? Left
to its own, can kill the rest of the organism. In Ancient Rome,
they let the middle class dissolve into poverty thinking they
can retain the wealth in the higher echelons of the few. Now the
tax base dwindled down to close to nothing and the
infrastructure collapsed. Before they had 6% of millions of
citizens, but now was reduced to 6% of the wealthiest thousand.
Also when a Plebe in a distant outskirts coughed on a traveling
merchant, well when all roads lead to Rome it is not hard to see
how the plague reached up into the Senate.