Achieve A Goal, Win At Life.

I can understand why some would consider Jordan Peterson’s writing exercise “life-changing,” like Anya Kamenetz discusses in her article for NPR. As someone who suffers from severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and depression, I know the therapeutic remedies creative writing can provide.

Crafting creative pieces, specifically character driven works, can alleviate a great deal of pain as well as influence clarity. We can place our personal struggles onto our literary hero, externalizing our traumas and viewing them through an objective lens. We prevail by having our characters learn from mistakes, defeat adversity, overcome obstacles and achieve goals. Living vicariously through our characters is a coping mechanism that allows us to acknowledge our circumstances, realize them and solve them. It is cathartic emotionally as well as physically.

Where creative therapy fails, Peterson’s exercise succeeds. Though this exercise we are able to write expressively as well as set personal goals. Through this we are forced to be the literary hero and face our circumstances directly. We acknowledge our situation and take necessary steps to improve or refine it. A list of goals will provide more satisfaction upon completion because a) you will experience real accomplishment, and b) because it will be you succeeding, and not your character.

Achieving a small goal makes you feel proud. Achieving a set of small goals makes you feel even better. Attaining a large goal makes you feel fantastic and completing a set of large goals, well, now you’re just showing off! When we meet goals, no matter how small they are, we feel like we have purpose, and we are encouraged to target greater ambitions. This theory is becoming increasingly more popular but has been around for decades, primarily thanks to EA Locke and Gary Latham. Daily goals can also serve as welcome distractions from poor circumstances, or serve as driving forces to get out of those circumstances.

Obtaining goals aside, people positively benefit simply from having structure. We underestimate the power of structure in our daily lives. Some people prefer to live their lives as free spirits, but others require organization and daily systems to manage and succeed. Some people go so far as to have Google docs for daily activities. (How’s that for structure?)

I see Peterson’s exercise as a positive for people of all ages. Young students have the advantage of being ripe and impressionable, but older people have the advantage of experience and wisdom. Those who are older have a better understanding of context and can establish more attainable goals. Students and youth can learn these positive behaviors sooner and can focus on grander goals. Overcoming simple objectives can also assist in overcoming larger obstacles. Successfully meeting requirements demands strong problem solving skills, skills than can carry over from exercise to real life experiences. Again, anyone of any age can benefit from these skills.

We will face a plethora of obstacles in life and our lists of objectives will be never ending, but despite this, there is only one life-changing goal that I would assign in order to triumph: find happiness. Seek out and do one thing every day that brings you joy. In doing this, you will find gratification even when times are tough. We will all face hardships. Whether it’s work, school, medical issues, family feuds, or just plain stress, they will try to bring us down. I need to follow my own advice. I need to seek out happiness, but maybe if I followed Peterson’s exercise, I would find it sooner than later.