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The Meaning of New Year’s Resolutions
Alex Epstein of the Ayn Rand Institute has written a great column about the significance of New Year’s resolutions and why so many people find it hard to keep them:
Every New Year’s Eve millions of Americans make New Year’s resolutions. Whether the resolution is to get out of debt, to spend more time with loved ones, or to quit smoking, these resolutions have one thing in common: they are goals to make our lives better.
Unfortunately, this ritual commitment to self-improvement is widely viewed as something of a joke–in part because New Year’s resolutions go so notoriously unmet. After years of watching others–or themselves–excitedly commit to a new goal, only to abandon the quest by March, many come to conclude that New Year’s resolutions are an exercise in futility that should not be taken seriously. “The silly season is upon us,” writes a columnist for the Washington Post, “when people feel compelled to remake themselves with new year’s resolutions.”
But such a cynical attitude is false and self-destructive…
You can find the rest of the article here.
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Objectivism
The Undercurrent's cultural commentary is based on Ayn Rand's philosophy, Objectivism. Objectivism, which animates Ayn Rand's fiction, is a systematic philosophy of life. It holds that the universe is orderly and comprehensible, that man survives by reason, that his life and happiness comprise his highest moral purpose, and that he flourishes only in a society that protects his individual rights.Event Calendar
Alex Epstein makes the point that the best life–one possibly leading to happiness–is the goal-directed life.
I would like to emphasize one point: One’s goals–both the broad ones and the narrow ones–need to be integrated. For example, to achieve happiness (the ultimate purpose of my life), I need to define a central purpose in life, that is, an abstract statement of purpose that subsumes all my productive activities.
(I discuss my view of a central purpose in life here: http://aristotleadventure.blogspot.com/2008/05/what-is-central-purpose-in-life.html )
In turn, to achieve my overall central purpose in life, I need to define and plan a career, that is, an orderly sequence of jobs (for a doctor: med school, internship, residency, etc.). On any particular job in that sequence, I need to define my goals for that job: What do I want to achieve? What do I want to learn? What will the next step up be?
And so forth. The point is that all of one’s goals should be ambitious (but achievable) and integrated. At a minimum, the payoff will be great satisfaction. At best, in a healthy society, happiness will be a reward.