Overcoming Uncertainty by Sean Ogle
Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Write down a major life goal you have yet to achieve or even begin to take action on. For each goal, write down three uncertainties (read: fears) you have relating to each goal. Break it down further, and write down three reasons for each uncertainty. When you have three reasons for your fear, you’ll be able to start processing the change because you know where the fear stems from. Now you’ll be able to make a smaller changes that push you towards your larger goal. So begins the process of “trusting yourself.”
(Author: Sean Ogle)
Overcoming Uncertainty by Andrew Cairns
Another day, another 'what is your lifetime goal' prompt...
Major life goal : world domination.
Uncertainties :
1. Lack of originality - it's been done before, to various degrees of success e.g. Geographical domination - Caesar, Hannibal, Hitler, British Empire, USA today...; Information Technology domination - Microsoft, Google, Facebook...; Cultural domination - McDonalds, Starbucks, Hollywood... How to find a new twist on the well-worn theme?
2. Making enemies - "You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies." (Social Network - film).
3. Going down in history as an evil dictature / evil multinational director / evil destroyer of indiginous cultures... (what would I do without the '...' ?)
Three reasons for each uncertainty:
1.1 "There is nothing new under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 1:9). No matter what you do, there will always be someone to compare it to something that has already been done and accuse you of being un-original (thus diminishing your efforts).
1.2 Our ego pushes us into wanting to be the best at something, finding the best most original idea, being unique and wonderful, uncomparable to anyone else... If what you do is perceived as a second rate copy of someone else then it's a big ego deflator.
1.3 Being unoriginal is like stealing; in the short to medium term you might be able to fool most people including yourself as to the brilliance and newness of your approach, but in the long term someone (or your own conscience) will expose you and demand you to face up to your theft.
2.1 Enemies are bad, they may try to kill you (and possible succeed).
2.2 If you've made enemies, then you've done bad stuff; a lot of enemies a lot of bad stuff (or bad stuff on a big scale); if you have a conscience you'll feel guilty and ashamed. Conscience or not your bad actions will undoubtfully have bad consequences which in the long-run (poetic justice) will effect you or people / things you care about.
2.3 If you've broken the rules, payback is coming in this world or the next.
3.1 Again our ego pushes us to want to be remembered for something (perhaps one of the reasons for having such lofty 'goals'); being remembered for being evil (with few or no redeeming features) is worse than being forgotten.
3.2 Underlying suspicion is that it is nigh impossible to dominate globally in any given area without being labelled evil; you become the world's biggest charity, raising the most funds for the poor, you'll still be accused of ulterior motives, of squashing the small grass-roots charities, of accepting money from un-ethical unsavoury people or organisations, of creating and maintaining dependant unskilled handout receivers...
3.3 History is written by the victors; if you win, you can write what you like about yourself (and hush up the conspiracy theorists); nevertheless the truth will out in the long run and your name may well end up as mud (or as hero for some; devil for others - proportions depending on what you've done, how you've done it, who you've done it to and how all that is written up, investigated, perceived... a real minefield).
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