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Striving to Be Your Best Self, Acting ‘as if’ and Committing to Fictional Goals
Since striving requires an object, pursue fictional goals when necessary
I have been interested in striving for years. I fit my efforts at self-change in this framework. I have oriented towards pursuing the fictional goal of more worthiness and self-respect and this strategy has paid many benefits.
Man, the Striver
For Plato, man is a striving creature; he lives not simply to fulfill his basic needs but is also driven to expand and go beyond these needs which is the object of his strivings.
Why do we stretch ourselves in this way? He argued it is because “all men are pregnant in respect to both body and soul. We are all incomplete until some potential we sense within is made real. "We are this way,” says Plato, until “we can beget in the beautiful.”
When I look over the big picture, I see that again and again I am STRIVING to overcome resistance, implement true self ideas; I seek to go from inside to outside, realize my intentions, to regulate self, to overcome fear act or act more in accord with my ideals; I aim to change my unhealthy habits, and silence the inner critic.
I embody what Plato is talking about here. Man as an imperfect being always striving to change and be…