Imagine you’re playing Pac-Man, racing around the maze eating dots, except it’s a little different than usual. Right after you eat a pellet it reappears behind you, so there’s no way to ever clear the board completely. How long do you think such a game – with no potential for achievement – would hold your interest? Hopefully not long.
In a way, we can get stuck playing a similar game for months or years of our lives – moving aimlessly through the maze, munching the same old pellets – if we don’t intentionally set goals for ourselves and endeavor to keep growing. If we don’t step back and get enough perspective to see that we’re playing an unwinnable version of Pac-Man, we may not understand why it feels like something is missing.
On the eve of Labor Day – a day to honor the millions of workers who have made possible the socioeconomic achievements of the United States – it’s a good time to think about the ways we work, what we achieve, and why we do it. Most work is good and noble, but depending on the point of view of the person performing the work, it may not always feel that way.
Setting goals and achieving them is part of our natural inclination to move forward: to grow, to evolve, to improve, to strive to actualize the potential within us. When we say to ourselves, “I’m going to beat my own high score” … why bother? Because it’s a healthy expression of the lifeforce within us. It’s a challenge and it’s deeply gratifying.
To be fair, striving isn’t always healthy. It’s important to understand our motivations. We can be driven by our animalistic survival mechanisms, by a persistent feeling of inferiority, by trying to get someone’s approval (who may not even be alive or aware of us), or by a fear that something bad will happen if we aren’t constantly running.
Healthy striving is different. In my view it emanates from a spiritual force – the power that birthed us, sustains us, and moves us toward self-actualization. It’s the same force that drives a tree to keep growing for its whole life. (That said, trees have phases of dormancy, and we should too!)
Most people have an experience of this urge when they’re engaged in a project that matters to them. In these cases, we tend to perceive the force as a strong interest in our current work. But if we’re only connected to the force when doing things we enjoy, we may feel unmotivated or averse to doing the less-fun tasks of life.
For this reason, I think it’s important to try to experience this power in its raw form. It’s something you can encounter in meditation if you ask for it. It’s also easy to access if you quiet your mind during a moment of achievement, or at a time that you’re feeling excited about learning or accomplishing something. In this state, close your eyes and ask, “What is this flow of energy moving through me? Where does it come from? What does it feel like? How does it move? How does it inspire me? What is its purpose? Listen and feel, and see what you discover.
The more we can tune into this force – the generative power that transmits our potential into the world – the better we can understand it, and the more we can channel it into whatever we do. Even the tedious tasks. Setting and achieving goals is a way to exercise and embody this power.
We’re more likely to be successful if we practice seeing all our tasks as serving a purpose. If you’re embarking on a task you feel unenthused about, (1) try tapping into the creative power and allowing it to infuse the task, and (2) try to reframe the task in a broader context. One way to clarify the broader context is to know your gifts, values, and life purpose, which we explain in our Dreambook. Orienting from these virtues can energize and align everything from the smallest actions to the grand arc of your life.
Give it a try and let me know how it goes.
Be well,
Peter