The title is based on a short story dating back many centuries. The story was called Buridan’s Ass, named after philosopher John Buridan (1300-1358).
The story tells us about a situation in which a pile of hay and bucket of water is placed equidistant from the donkey. Due to equally attractive options, the donkey is unable to choose between them and dies of hunger and thirst. This story is used to depict that there is no free will and if a donkey chooses between any one of the options it’s because he is pulled in that direction and not by his own free will.
However, we will not discuss that aspect of this story. We will study this story from a different perspective.
Chasing too many goals at a time will make you that donkey
I wanted to see this story from the perspective of achieving our goals. If we set our eyes on too many targets or goals we will be unable to decide on which ones to focus on effectively stopping us from making any progress.
We will be like Buridan’s Ass unable to decide between so many options and thus staying at the same place.
This happens because we often overestimate what we can achieve in a year. Instead, we should just focus on one major goal in a year. Then take on the next goal in the next year. This will work simply because it eliminates the options from our sight and now we see only one goal. We are able to focus on that one goal with all our ability. We are able to see what steps we need to take in order to complete that specific goal. We take those steps without any worry about the other goals.
So, remove the hay or the water from your sight. First, eat the hay and then drink the water or vice-versa. Tackle your goals one at a time.
I write daily here on my blog. There is no limit to the word count. I am not focusing on any topic here. I want to build a daily writing habit. This is Day 9 of the Daily Writing Challenge in 2022.