sometimes in baseball a hitter goes into a ‘slump’. they might go for a week or weeks and only get 1 or no hits. the best and sometimes only advice for the hitter is to stop ‘pressing’ as they call it in baseball. basically the hitter is up there thinking about how they have gone so long without a hit, and they think to themselves that they gotta get a hit with this next pitch, and they try so hard to hit it that they keep sucking. usually something fortunate happens to them, they get a bloop hit, a sacrifice bunt or fly, they hustle out an infield hit, and they get a little relaxed and stop thinking so much about how they havent got any hits. then they just go up there and hit the ball like they always have.
or how about when you fall in love, could you ever try to do that? think about if you’ve ever fallen in love, the moments that led up to you realizing you were in love. did you ever have to say to yourself, “c’mon love her, it’ll be better for you in the long run.” the feelings just came out of you. theres a better chance that you said something like “c’mon you don’t need her, there are other girls out there.” but you couldn’t try to not love them either.
there are lots of other, better examples that im not smart enough to think of that illustrate my point. many times in life you will hear the advice to stop trying so hard and just do it. or something along those lines. i mean obviously you have to try in some sense. because you actually have to show up. but trying is really just attempting something. its not doing it. what im trying to say is that i believe that i shouldn’t try to be something in life, i should be what im supposed to be. ive been trying to make my life this or that, and thinking that i should try to be a musician or try to be a writer. but if im not one of those things then maybe im not supposed to be one, even if i want to. i mean, most people think that they have a purpose in life, id like to think that i have one, but what steps do i take to find that out. should i try to make it happen, or should i relax, not think about it so much, and trust that my life is happening how its supposed to, and im living out the steps that will lead to what i want to know.
Telos is an inner goal that something is meant to attain. an acorn’s telos is an oak tree. a caterpillar’s is a butterfly. so does human life have a telos? if so is it the same for everyone, or is everyone’s telos unique to them. Aristotle thought that human lifes’ telos was happiness, St. Augustine thought it was to love God. Telos is what you are meant to be, goal’s are what you want to be. they could be the same thing, they could be different things. whats your telos? maybe you dont know, but you probably have goals. maybe you think your goals are your telos. maybe you think this is all a bunch of crap.
are we meant to be something, like how mozart was just able to remember and compose beautiful music when he was a child. maybe you were born with natural ability in archery or penmanship or playing the clarinet or cooking. pretty much everyone seems to have a natural advantage in something without even needing to practice it. this goes hand in hand with being true to yourself. if you have an uncanny love for sewing, don’t let the embarassment stop you from sewing your little heart out. be proud of the sewing ability you have and let it flourish.
there is an order to life and nature. we should be attentive and perceive things as they are showing themselves to us.
