Q: I am no longer as motivated and enthused about life as I once was. How do I regain the driving force that once made me so successful?
A: It strikes me that you do not seem to have goals. You are not pursuing anything, building anything or conquering anything.
You seem to be stuck in one of those sloughs that can be so devastating to even the most powerful of tractors.
Let me put this into perspective. Carl Jung, that great Swiss psychiatrist, often said that no matter what age, we have to have goals. We need something to pursue.
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But it is more than that. We need to go beyond ourselves and work on goals that are more universal, perhaps even spiritual, in nature.
You had personal goals when you were younger. Your primary goal was to build the farm into the prosperous and successful enterprise that it is.
That was a personal goal. It really only made a difference to you and your family.
The problem is that it only worked for a little while. Once you fulfilled it, you were lost.
Now it might be time to look beyond yourself and set bigger, more challenging goals. Think about it, your farm is contributing to the well-being of the world. Yours is that nutrient that barren lands elsewhere are failing to provide for their peoples. What can you do to make the world better?
What can you do to help people elsewhere provide more directly for themselves and not have to rely on the cultivations of our lush lands?
There are some big time goals out there, humongous challenges, big enough to motivate even the most lethargic of television addicts.
Setting goals is difficult. It is a process that takes time and effort. You start by brainstorming, letting your imagination run wild into all the various ventures you might consider.
Then you let reality play on you for a bit. Let’s face it, you will not resolve all the hunger everywhere in the world. You have to whittle it down to something bordering on realism — what you can and cannot achieve.
You do what you can, continually reviewing your goals, amending them and modifying them, and turning that sensitivity you have for your own personal goals into quests for better lives elsewhere.
Perhaps then you will shed your lethargy and recapture that enthusiasm you once thought was monopolized by the very young.
Jacklin Andrews is a family counsellor from Saskatchewan. Contact: jandrews@producer.com.
