In a person's life, the greatest value is his life goals. Their presence and scale determine the level of achievements of the individual, and their absence leads to an existential vacuum. The consequences of such a state can be the so-called noogenic neuroses, which are treated only by meaning.
The concept of goal in psychology
In psychology, goals are understood as the results realized by a person, towards the achievement of which his actions are directed. Thus, goals encourage a person to act in order to meet actualized needs. Distinguish between activity goals and life goals.
During life, a person performs a huge number of various activities, each of which has a specific goal. They reveal only certain aspects of the direction of the individual's personality.
The life goal is a generalization of all private goals of certain types of activities. At the same time, the implementation of each individual goal of the activity is a partial implementation of the general one.
In the life goals of a person, the “conceptown future. When a person is also aware of the reality of its implementation, they talk about the perspective of the individual. Therefore, the level of achievement of the individual is associated with life goals.
The highest goal of man
E. Fromm, a famous German-American philosopher and psychologist, considered the disclosure and the most complete realization of his inner potential as the highest life goal of a person. He considered it unchanging and independent of other supposedly higher goals.
According to E. Fromm, who shares the highest values of humanistic ethics, a person must understand that he is the center and goal of his life. Being yourself is what matters most. To achieve this, you need to be a person for yourself, which means loving yourself, instead of throwing yourself into extremes of self-denial or self-love, the manifestation and assertion of your own "I", and not the suppression and rejection of your individuality. In other words, you need to allow yourself to be natural and become what he potentially is.
E. Fromm saw the development of a person's own personality as the goal of the life path. At the same time, he emphasized that there is no other meaning to life, except that the individual himself gives it in the course of a fruitful life and the disclosure of his natural talents.
Why it's important to be the center of your life
The main moral problem of our time, according to E. Fromm, is the indifference of man to himself. Speaking about moral problems, he emphasizes the differences between the authoritarian conscience of a person and the humanistic one, whichvery often have contradictions.
Authoritarian conscience is the result of internalization of external authorities of parents, society, state. On the one hand, it performs a regulatory social function, on the other hand, it makes a person dependent on someone else's opinion.
Humanistic conscience does not depend on external rewards and sanctions. It represents a person's own inner voice, expressing his integrity, personal interests, and demanding to become what he potentially is.
Contradictions and intrapersonal conflicts of a moral nature E. Fromm saw in the basis of most neuroses. He considered them as a symptom, as a result of an unsuccessful attempt to resolve the contradictions between the insurmountable internal dependence on some attitudes or rules and the desire for freedom. This shows how important it is to be at peace and harmony with yourself.
Innate desire for meaning
According to the views of the Austrian psychologist, neurologist and psychiatrist V. Frankl, a person's desire to find and realize the meaning and goals of his life is an innate motivational tendency. It is inherent in all people without exception and is the main driving force that determines the behavior and development of the individual.
Feeling the meaning of one's own existence and determining vital goals are extremely important for maintaining the mental and psychological he alth of any person, regardless of age. Guided by their life observations, the results of clinical practice andUsing a variety of empirical data, V. Frankl came to the following conclusion: in order to live and act actively, a person must believe that his actions have meaning.
Existential vacuum
B. Frankl discovered that the absence of meaning in one's actions and deeds plunges a person into the so-called existential vacuum. This state can be described as suffering from a feeling of emptiness and loss of life orientation. The loss of life goals and values makes him think about the meaninglessness of his own existence. At the same time, a person loses interest not only in the activity performed, but also in life itself.
According to the observations of V. Frankl, supported by numerous clinical studies, the reason for the widespread today noogenic neurosis is precisely the existential vacuum. To work with such states, the scientist developed his own method - logotherapy, which means treatment with meaning. To overcome such an ailment, a person must reconsider personal life priorities, change his attitude to the world around him, and find his own unique meanings.
Freedom of choice and responsibility
According to V. Frankl, finding the meaning and main goals in life is only half the battle. It is also important to implement them. This process is not simple, it is not done automatically. Fear of losing something is often the main reason for not moving towards the desired goal.
Man has freedom of choice. It is the freedom to make independent decisions about your present andfuture, listen to your inner voice and act in accordance with it. It is also freedom from the need to conform to some patterns, the freedom to change and become different. But in the absence of responsibility, it degenerates into arbitrariness.
The key point of V. Frankl's logotherapy is the problem of responsibility. The scientist considered a person as a being constantly making a decision about what he will be in the next moment of time, and thus continuously shaping himself. Freedom of choice always comes with responsibility. A person constantly has to decide which opportunities, interests, life goals deserve to be realized, and which ones do not. In fact, this is a person's responsibility for himself, his life, for the implementation of its personal unique meaning.
Dynamics of human motives and goals
American psychologist A. Maslow considered a person as a unique integral self-developing system, and all his needs as innate. He correlated the latter into a multi-level hierarchical pyramid and identified the following groups of needs:
- physiological;
- safe;
- in belonging and love;
- in respect;
- in self-actualization.
As the needs of one level are met, the needs of the next level are updated. Accordingly, as you move from the lower floors of the pyramid to the higher, the priorities, goals and motives of a person change. At a certain stage of development, the most important isthe need for self-actualization.
Self-actualization of a person
Self-actualization according to A. Maslow is a person's desire for self-fulfillment, for the manifestation of one's potential and the full use of one's talents, abilities and capabilities.
According to his concept, people are intelligent, conscious creatures. They are naturally good and capable of self-improvement. The very essence constantly moves them in the direction of personal growth, creativity and self-sufficiency.
A self-actualized person is not an ordinary person to whom something has been added, but an ordinary person from whom nothing has been taken away. He considered the average individual as a complete human being, with suppressed and unconscious abilities and gifts.
A. Maslow considered the tendency to self-actualization as the core of personality. A person strives to constantly embody, objectify himself, his abilities and talents. But he can realize himself only in activity. Thus, the need for self-realization and the need for activity are indivisible for the individual.
How to define your strategic goals
Since a person's life goals are a generalization of all his private goals, then you should think about them with a scale. At the same time, attention must be directed to the desired future. What prospects of his development does a person see? What achievements do you dream of? What is the meaning of them? How does he see the purpose of the life path?
Often people don't have conscious goals, they justbecause they live on autopilot and do not think about the future, do not engage in strategic planning for several years ahead. And it happens that there are goals, but not their own. For example, mother, father, husband, child. In this case, in order to increase the level of awareness and understanding of oneself, to determine and separate one's own goals from those of others, a person is invited to conscientiously answer questions like these:
- What are my goals in life?
- How would I like to spend the next 3 years?
- Where do I want to be in 10 years?
- If I had 3 months to live, how would I live?
- If I lived forever, what would my life be like, what would I do?
- If I was incredibly rich and could never work at all, what would I do?
There are no strict and specific rules for setting goals. This process is deeply personal and creative. And yet, in order to determine your life goals, it is better to rely on some scientific model, technique, system. For example, the model of neurological levels by R. Dilts is well suited. And you can get tips, pointers, codes for a life goal in numerology, astrology.
Pyramid of logical levels
As part of neurolinguistic programming, R. Dilts developed a model of neurological levels. It is based on a hierarchy of semantic levels of personality, each of which has its own specific questions. The author presented it in the form of a pyramid and highlighted the following levels:
- Mission - For what? For who else?
- Identity - Whome?
- Values and beliefs - What matters? What do I believe?
- Abilities - What can I do? How?
- Behavior - What to do?
- Environment - Where? With whom? When?
The pyramid of neurological levels by R. Dilts allows you to deeply explore a specific goal. Answering, it would seem, very simple questions, moving from one floor of the pyramid to the next, a person acquires the opportunity to ascend from the lower level of the usual surrounding reality to the level of awareness of his mission.
Filled with new meanings, a larger and more holistic vision, it is necessary to go through the issues of the pyramid again, only now in the opposite direction. This will allow you to see untapped opportunities, inhibitory factors and understand what adjustments need to be made at each level of the pyramid. The use of this model by R. Dilts to determine the main life goals of a person will also authentically harmonize his private goals with them.
Everything is possible, but what a person allows himself is possible
Many people consider some things unattainable, and therefore do not set themselves ambitious goals. They proceed from the principle: if all this does not work out early, then there is no need to try. Nevertheless, life is replete with examples when some individuals prove by their example that it is never too late to radically change your life, fill it with meaning and make it more rich, fruitful and happy.
Nick Vujicic is a motivating and inspiring speaker who collects wholestadiums, a writer, and also a husband, the father has neither arms nor legs. However, he managed to cope with the difficult situation of his life, find meaning, and now helps other people find them.
Neil Walsh writer, participant in the documentary "The Secret" before he began his path to success, was at the bottom of life, having neither a livelihood nor a place to live. It was desperation that pushed him to Conversations with God. This is the name of his first book, and the film subsequently shot based on it.
Joe Vitale is a popular author of books about achieving success, the owner of his own company, a millionaire, a participant in the film "The Secret" in his biography has a long period when he was homeless. Perhaps it was this circumstance that served as a launching pad for a deep transformation of the personality and opened the way for a new life, self-realization and prosperity.
The acquisition of faith in oneself, the meaning and purpose of one's life is available to every person, and with them the ability to change it for the better. Achieving life goals depends on the continuous search for new opportunities for self-realization. Self-knowledge, expanding horizons, new interests and hobbies are great for this.
