Why we strive
I edited this a bit. It is an interesting and inspirational exert from a book that is about society. This bit about the individual is so incredibly spot-on I had to type it up and share.
Life and the world keep flowing and evolving. But we are of two minds as to whether we like it. There’s something in us that fiercely resists change. And there’s something else in us that welcomes it, finds it bracing, even seeks it out. It’s the latter trait that keeps the species going.
Failure to face the realities of change brings heavy penalties. Individuals become imprisoned in their own rigidities. Great institutions deteriorate. Civilizations fall. Yet decay is not inevitable. There is also renewal.
The factors that produce deterioration are powerful and universally applicable. They can be countered but they cannot be wished out of existence. Nor can they be held at bay by wealth, power or status-or any of the guarantees of worldly security. Indeed, one is tempted to say that deterioration sets in most quickly where worldly security seems most assured.
For men and women who have accepted the reality of change, the need for endless learning and trying is a way of living, a way of thinking, a way of being awake and ready. Life isn’t a train ride where you choose your destination, pay your fare and settle back for a nap. It’s a cycle ride over uncertain terrain, with you in the driver’s seat, constantly correcting your balance and determining the direction of progress. It’s difficult, sometimes profoundly painful. But it’s better than napping through life.
Though the book suggests that renewal depends on many factors, I would point to one as uniquely important-motivation. If people are apathetic, defeated in spirit, or unable to imagine a future worth striving for, the game is lost. It is worth exploring at some length how we may spare ourselves such a collapse of spirit and will.
First, I would stress the importance of a toughminded optimism. Both the toughmindedeness and the optimism are immensely important. High hopes that are dashed by the first failure are precisely what we don’t need. We need to believe in ourselves but not to believe that life is easy. Nothing in the historical record tells us that triumph is assured. Life’s problems resist solution, and we are fallible.
The future is shaped by men and women with a steady, even zestful, confidence that on balance their efforts will not have been in vain. They take failure and defeat not as reason to doubt themselves but as reasons to strengthen resolve. Some combination of hope, vitality and indomitability makes them willing to bet their lives on ventures of unknown outcome. If our forebears had all looked before they leaped, we would still be crouched in caves sketching animal pictures on the wall.
Second, I would emphasize staying power. Stamina is an attribute rarely celebrated by the poets, but it has had a good deal to do with the history of humankind. And with the life history of each person.
Nothing is ever finally safe. Life is tumultuous-an endless losing and regaining of balance, a continuous struggle, never an assured victory. We need a hardbitten morale that enables us to face these truths and still strive with every ounce of our energy to prevail.
But there is no possibility of sustaining ourselves in that effort if our values and beliefs are so weakened that nothing seems worth the struggle. First and last, humans live by ideas that validate their striving, ideas that say it’s worth living and trying.
Self-Renewal: The Individual and the Innovative Society
John W. Gardner
Life and the world keep flowing and evolving. But we are of two minds as to whether we like it. There’s something in us that fiercely resists change. And there’s something else in us that welcomes it, finds it bracing, even seeks it out. It’s the latter trait that keeps the species going.
Failure to face the realities of change brings heavy penalties. Individuals become imprisoned in their own rigidities. Great institutions deteriorate. Civilizations fall. Yet decay is not inevitable. There is also renewal.
The factors that produce deterioration are powerful and universally applicable. They can be countered but they cannot be wished out of existence. Nor can they be held at bay by wealth, power or status-or any of the guarantees of worldly security. Indeed, one is tempted to say that deterioration sets in most quickly where worldly security seems most assured.
For men and women who have accepted the reality of change, the need for endless learning and trying is a way of living, a way of thinking, a way of being awake and ready. Life isn’t a train ride where you choose your destination, pay your fare and settle back for a nap. It’s a cycle ride over uncertain terrain, with you in the driver’s seat, constantly correcting your balance and determining the direction of progress. It’s difficult, sometimes profoundly painful. But it’s better than napping through life.
Though the book suggests that renewal depends on many factors, I would point to one as uniquely important-motivation. If people are apathetic, defeated in spirit, or unable to imagine a future worth striving for, the game is lost. It is worth exploring at some length how we may spare ourselves such a collapse of spirit and will.
First, I would stress the importance of a toughminded optimism. Both the toughmindedeness and the optimism are immensely important. High hopes that are dashed by the first failure are precisely what we don’t need. We need to believe in ourselves but not to believe that life is easy. Nothing in the historical record tells us that triumph is assured. Life’s problems resist solution, and we are fallible.
The future is shaped by men and women with a steady, even zestful, confidence that on balance their efforts will not have been in vain. They take failure and defeat not as reason to doubt themselves but as reasons to strengthen resolve. Some combination of hope, vitality and indomitability makes them willing to bet their lives on ventures of unknown outcome. If our forebears had all looked before they leaped, we would still be crouched in caves sketching animal pictures on the wall.
Second, I would emphasize staying power. Stamina is an attribute rarely celebrated by the poets, but it has had a good deal to do with the history of humankind. And with the life history of each person.
Nothing is ever finally safe. Life is tumultuous-an endless losing and regaining of balance, a continuous struggle, never an assured victory. We need a hardbitten morale that enables us to face these truths and still strive with every ounce of our energy to prevail.
But there is no possibility of sustaining ourselves in that effort if our values and beliefs are so weakened that nothing seems worth the struggle. First and last, humans live by ideas that validate their striving, ideas that say it’s worth living and trying.
Self-Renewal: The Individual and the Innovative Society
John W. Gardner