Unattainable Goals

Don’t particularly want to harp on all the psychology knowledge I’m acquiring, but the more I find out, the more questions I accumulate, it seems.

I’ve talked about Adler before and along with his theory of “wanting to improve yourself” comes the idea of having an end goal. Something you want to be.

The trick is that if your end goal is unattainable, you are neurotic (yes, neurotic is a big thing with these psychiatrists). Obviously it’s cause you’re setting yourself a goal that, somewhere deep down, you know you can’t possibly achieve. Therefore, you will forever strive towards a goal that you will never reach. So you must be neurotic to put yourself in that situation.

It all makes perfect sense to me.

The teacher gave an example of a mediocre high school student who wants to make it to the NFL. Up until that point, I was happy with Adler’s theories. I don’t know if it just was a bad example on the teacher’s part or if Adler really did imply such cases, but I wouldn’t have considered that high-school student neurotic.

Which, of course, brings to surface the question of what’s an unattainable goal.

While I’ll admit to its being a little drastic, my opinion is that everything is an attainable goal. Short of biological/scientific limitations, I truly can’t think of a wish impossible to reach. Yes, you can’t be younger. Yes you can’t go back to the past or future. But I’m talking about life goals within the confines of science as we know it today.

I can think of some dreams which would be hard to reach. I’m 26 and I have a technical background. If I decided to be an anesthesiologist, I’d have to work really hard and be extremely patient. I’d have to fulfill all the perquisites to some of the biology courses needed to get accepted into medical school. I’d have to do several years of medical school and many more of residential experience and etc. But it is possible. Same with any other profession. Or traveling the world. Or wanting to publish a novel. Or jump out of an airplane. Or fall in love. Or anything.

Maybe my imagination is limited. Maybe you can think of other goals. Is there really such a thing as the unattainable goal? Given enough drive, motivation and hard work, what can you not do?

Previously? Sweet Dreams.