We are all guilty of taking shortcuts. It is economy to think that there may be a cheaper way to accomplish something and much to gain if we find that alternative. In our thinking we do the same, we follow a heuristical approach to problem solving using a subset of what we intuitively know is the full process. These acts of economy may have the appearance of being successful, yet at the crucial time fail to satisify all the criteria originally established as the formula for consistent success. Thus, our search for economy can lead to failure. It may mean that we are never successful even though we could be.
Failure as a Weakness in Processing
In life, we set goals that will move us to a different situation level of achievement. For those that would think of themselves as successful those goals are beyond what they have already achieved. Such people ratchet up their goals a knotch to reach a higher level of success from that which would be experienced in the normal course of things under an existing regime. Each time the goals are set higher, the processes needed to reach those goals become ever more specific and additional processes are added to avoid or eliminate failures.
This does mean that some people are very successful almost all of the time. The reason is that they set their goals at a lower level and engage in processes that will have consistent success and involve little risk. Nevertheless, for those willing to set higher goals, there is the possibility of defining goals differently or being more specific as to the quality of outcome that is to be regarded as success. Only by setting more specific goals can one establish the more specific demands on the processes and inputs that are needed to reach the more specific goals.
Longetivity or the Goal of Living to be One hundred Years Old to be a Centinarian
An example, would be the setting of a goal for exercise. One would rarely achieve a higher target of exercise without thinking about how that higher target were to be achieved. The goal of increased exercise may be part of a larger program in which a higher goal might have been set, such as a goal to live to the age of 100 years. Thus, within one goal there may be other goals that are necessary milestone to the success of the overall goal of living longer. The fact is that some people may seem obsessed with minutiae because they have set very high overall goals that others can't even dream of.
We may even poke fun at people because they seem peculiarly fussy about details. What we may not know is that such behaviour is indicative of higher goals, or goals set well above the norm. We may also be aware of people who seem obsessed or distant. Again, we may not be aware that such people are likely to have hidden goals, private goals that they do not discuss with us. Perhaps, such goals are due to an illness that they are struggling with or a fear that they have which dominates their thinking. It is very awkward when we think we understand people, but have no idea od their goals nor the circumstances within which they must struggle.
National and Nationalist Goals
History is full of stories where some nations pursued goals that set them apart from others by being beyond anything that had been previously achieved. When nations behave strangely they engage in specific activities to such an extent that the composition of activies seems biased or specialized. Specialization of a consequence of setting higher goals for achievement. We may ask what the goals are and be suspicious if we are not told. Like in the case of people, nations led by governments set goals. These goals are for the community or for people within the community and may, or may not, be evident to neighbours. In working towards new goals, people and nations establish strategies that they feel will be successful. These strategies may or may not be declared openly.
As a country, we may become aware of strategies when we see evidence of change that seems premeditated. For example, we may assume that a group has adopted a new strategy were we to see increased use of very specific resources that would not normally be used, or when we see greater care being taken to achieve specific goals, such care being evident from new standards or different ways of doing things.
