Flirting With DarknessSample

Weapon #2: Setting Goals

There are two kinds of pain: 1) the pain that hurts you, and 2) the pain that changes you.

In The Problem of Pain, C.S. Lewis remarks on the difference between the suffering of animals and the suffering of humans. The former, he said, merely have sentience, but the latter have consciousness. Lewis argued that the problem of human pain is that we are so acutely aware of it. When a man’s tooth aches, it’s not only the toothache itself but the experience of lying there thinking about the toothache that makes it that much worse.

I’ve always had an overactive brain. I get trapped inside an endless hamster wheel of thought and frequently suffer Kierkegaardian existential nausea. I needed something to distract me—a worthy goal that could help me escape the angst. A purpose.

I set my foot upon my own path out of depression. I gave up my flirtation with darkness and began to tread the road toward a grand purpose.

And it worked. After many, many years, the dreams I had begun to despair of finally came true. New ones came into sight. But it all began by putting one foot in front of the other.

“Hard work brings prosperity; playing around brings poverty” (Proverbs 28:19 TLB), and “Work hard and become a leader; be lazy and become a slave” (Proverbs 12:24 NLT).

It’s all too easy to allow yourself to become a slave to your ennui, sadness, disappointment, and depression.

I’m not saying it will be easy, but hard work is one of the things that pulled me out of despair.

It can do that for you.

Get off the couch.

Get active.

Set goals.

Focus on one skill, one purpose, one goal…and get really good at it. Put in the necessary effort and hours into an ambition that can help you make a difference in the world. Use the power that Jesus used to rise from the dead to rise from your bed. Focus on one skill, one purpose, one goal…and get really good at it.

As Steve Jobs put it, use your ambition to put a dent in the universe!