Chase the Impossible, The Undesirable - Attempting to Exist No.4

Yes, dynamic terms are more desirable than static terms, but that does not make static terms unnecessary. You may have understood this but reconsidering the previous chapter, the main reason static terms are undesirable is that they are impossible to achieve. They are inapplicable, they simply do not work in reality. Dynamic terms are adjustments we make to create a sense of achievability in values that we choose to dictate our lives. They are convenient.

Convenient is not necessarily bad. However, they may be limiters. What is easy to achieve can be helpful, but may also decrease the fulfilment of our potential. I am assuming that you want to fulfil your potential, I do at least. These convenient dynamic terms can hurt our chance to reach our potential because they are realistic. Realism is a concept that has had a large part in philosophical and daily discourse, both upheld and criticised. Sorry to realists, but I will be criticising it this time. 

Having a realistic understanding of life with dynamic terms to live by sets limits to what we can achieve. That is why it is convenient. It sets goals - both short and long-term - that are definitely achievable. That is risky. Simply waking up, eating, defecating, and going back to sleep is achievable. This may cause us to settle with the time we have on Earth. If you want to fulfil your potential, it does not make much sense to settle. Although I am in no way against being grateful, settling is a matter that causes certain failure in terms of reaching one’s potential.

I cannot say I know your potential or anybody else’s, maybe even mine. However, I can say I know that any human’s potential is most likely unlimited or at least higher than we assume living realistic lives. When one does not have ideals to chase - be a realist - one does not have the incentive to chase more. That’s where the static, impossible to achieve, undesirable terms come in. Being free may be undesirable at its extreme which we have discussed, but it surely has benefits for someone with individualistic characteristics (define individualism however you want, I’m not taking you through a course of Locke and Mill). Not being bound by things and decisions is what some people want, including me. I wish not to be told when to sleep and wake up, when to take a vacation, when to spend my money, when to take time for myself to analyse things. You probably agree with me on some of these things if not all. If we reject the idea of freedom simply because it is unreachable, we are doomed to be bound in the aforementioned categories. If you choose a dynamic blanket term that is convenient in these matters, you will be bound by some of these for sure. That is because achieving all will seem impractical to you at one point and your liking to convenience along with realistic tendencies will lead you to settle at one point of another. Let’s say that even though you may have a dynamic term to conduct your general life, you chase this impossible undesirable shitty term that is freedom: “the state of not being bound.”

Since achieving this is a lot harder than your convenient dynamism, you will have to work harder towards it, spend time, consider, reconsider, keep going until maybe you feel like you can’t. As long as you do not give up and submit to your realistic tendencies, you will keep going as if you are running a marathon. Certainly, this will be a more painful and unsettling process compared to settling with the dynamic term, but you will find yourself completing the Moab 240 instead of being content with a regular marathon. Don’t get this the wrong way, if you ran 240 miles in chasing this static ideal, the ideal will be at least 241 miles, but 240 is still better than 26, right?

The paragraph above may have been a “The hell is he talking about?” for you, but this is an experience that a realist cannot fathom anyways. Simply, setting a higher goal will allow you to reach higher standards than a basic realistic goal. These are all assuming that you do not give up. 

The static impossible ideal will never be reached because it is impossible, obviously. However, chasing it will allow the person to reach new heights. Let’s think of a high school student for example. They wish to go to university in the United States. As a realistic person, they may set a goal as Lehigh University (not criticising the university at all, a perfectly fine institution to attend). I’d bet that they can work hard and achieve that goal. As an idealist, maybe even a daydreamer, they set Harvard as a goal. Being accepted by Harvard is near impossible for any average kid in the United States, I presume. However, raising the bar to arguably the best university in the country, they will have to push themselves to work harder and harder, maybe to the point of exhaustion. In the end, it is still very unlikely that they get into Harvard, but it is certain that they have a better chance to get into Northwestern (according to university rankings, a better one than Lehigh) compared to if they were being realistic and setting Lehigh as a goal. Now, chasing the near impossible if not impossible seems a lot more sensible because it ultimately gets one closer to their maximum potential.

This was a simple and concrete example that one may struggle to apply to abstract concepts like freedom, but I cannot see much of a difference between the two. In both cases, chasing the impossible requires the person to work harder towards it, but has a better outcome in the end. I listed four things that I want to be somewhat unbounded in in the previous paragraphs. Being realistic may get one to achieve one or two of those things in their life, but the chase of the impossible freedom and being idealistic in their behavior will get them to achieving three, maybe even four. Of course a realistic person may achieve all of the things I stated but the point is that when you apply this fundamental difference of thinking to one’s life as a whole, the idealist will achieve more than the realist.

I went back and forth with abstract and concrete examples but understanding the abstract part from this point on depends on you and you only as you will have to consider it further or try to apply it in your life to see if it’s correct or not for yourself. Going back to the concrete examples, I said that being an idealist works better than realism and criticised being a realist, but I have to admit that it is at times necessary.

I guess I should give credit where it’s due and explain how realism works in concrete examples like the high school kid one. There is one very simple thing that one can live by, at least I find it useful: be an idealist in your goals, but a realist in your planning. This way, one can address the underlying problem that idealism may cause in their personal life. Baseless confidence or daydreaming. Daydreaming may be fine at times, but when one is attempting to achieve something tangible, they need to have a proper understanding of the context that they are in as well as the conditions necessary to achieve such a goal. Realism may be lacking in synthesis - as in creating or achieving something - but it is definitely strong in analysis. If you spend time on your plan and consider what is necessary to achieve it without any baseless confidence, you are more likely to succeed at it. Someone who conducts their plans as a realist can be more objective towards what is lacking and what is already in place in their plan to achieve their goal. Simply, when creating a study plan, if the high school kid gets too stuck on what their potential is and overestimates their current ability, they will fall into the pit of laziness. However, if they are a realist in their planning they can make weekly schedules that allow them to manage their time better, figure out what areas they should improve on, etc. This way, their hard work towards an ideal will be more meaningful as it will be more productive. Only being an idealist may not be enough for the student to get into Northwestern, if not Harvard; supplementing their ideal with realistic planning will most likely be. So, chase the impossible, as it will get you closer to your potential, but do not forget to know how to get there.