Sometimes a problem doesn’t have a goal so much as an… ungoal. Basically, an attitude towards a state of affairs that is “I want ~that”. That seems awfully broad to classify as a goal.
Right; in addition to not narrowing down the search space, our hardware doesn’t process “run away from bad thing” in the same way as it does “search for good thing”; in particular, the former induces stress responses that were designed for short-term activities like escaping predators or territorial fights. To get optimal long-term motivation, you need to be seeking something good, rather than trying to escape something bad.
What’s more, simply reversing “~that” (e.g. turning “not be broke” into “have money”) doesn’t always work either. In Robert Fritz’s book, The Path Of Least Resistance, he points out that the reason most people fail at achieving goals is that their goals are simply rephrased versions of their problems. The key issue, he says, is attitude; merely changing the words around doesn’t automatically switch you from a problem-escaping mindset to a goal-seeking one.
That is not the original point your post is making, of course; I just wanted to add that even if you narrow down the search space to a specific target, there may also be an attitude issue required to prevent akrasia due to ego depletion—the most common result of operating in the problem-escaping mindset while trying to achieve a long-term goal.
Right; in addition to not narrowing down the search space, our hardware doesn’t process “run away from bad thing” in the same way as it does “search for good thing”; in particular, the former induces stress responses that were designed for short-term activities like escaping predators or territorial fights. To get optimal long-term motivation, you need to be seeking something good, rather than trying to escape something bad.
What’s more, simply reversing “~that” (e.g. turning “not be broke” into “have money”) doesn’t always work either. In Robert Fritz’s book, The Path Of Least Resistance, he points out that the reason most people fail at achieving goals is that their goals are simply rephrased versions of their problems. The key issue, he says, is attitude; merely changing the words around doesn’t automatically switch you from a problem-escaping mindset to a goal-seeking one.
That is not the original point your post is making, of course; I just wanted to add that even if you narrow down the search space to a specific target, there may also be an attitude issue required to prevent akrasia due to ego depletion—the most common result of operating in the problem-escaping mindset while trying to achieve a long-term goal.