VISION

Carl Jung wrote, "Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart."

Today we live in a world of distraction. There is electronic noise all around us. We are immersed in the flashing glitter of technology. We are filled with escapist avenues to propel procrastination into an art form. But in the end, very few people are truly happy.

The disconnect may come from the fact that many people do not live their own lives. They are more concerned about what other people think of them then try to be the best person they want to be. It seems counter-intuitive to think not being the best person you want to be could hurt you in social and interpersonal relationships.

People can become trapped in their situation, whether it be work related, social, or emotional. Once a person falls into a pit of routine, it is very difficult to spend energy to get out of it. Humans find comfort in habits, even if they will lead to a self-destructive pattern. Suddenly, the years fly by. In an introspective moment, one could shake their head in disbelief. I thought one, two, three or four years ago, things would be different.

These lightning bolts of despair often occur on special days, such as a birthday. A birthday is the personal doomsday clock when people leave their 20s to face adulthood. Family, social, cultural and occupational headwinds will hit one hard in their early 30s which can result in the disconnect of a person's true feelings and their current situation.

Very few people have a vision of their future. Because it is clouded in the past. Mostly, past failures. People do not want to hurt themselves, physically or emotionally. They tend to isolate themselves from people or things that could potentially cause them pain, like a new relationship. But because there is comfort in isolation, there is no opportunity to find true happiness, such as a meaningful and loving new relationship. It is a Catch-22.

New year's resolutions normally command demands for self improvement. Usually, it is the physical traits such as diet, quit smoking, exercise more . . . . external things to make one appear better to the public. But rarely do people dig deeper into their own soul to map out a route to find their true happiness in life. So many people are stuck in a hamster wheel existence; around and around they go going nowhere.

DREAM POSTS

“Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.” - - -  Earl Nightingale

Life is a long journey filled along the way with pot holes, obstructions, smooth pavement and challenges. It is how each person deals with things in their path creates a lesson on a "life well lived."

One has to ponder whether the next generations will have a similar view of their world.

For example, in the 1970s, a boy would dream of becoming a millionaire and owning a Cadillac. He was told that if he worked hard in school, and got a good job with a good business, he could achieve anything. The generation who got through college in the early 1980s and into professions probably made those dream posts along their paths.

But can the same be shared with boys today?

He is immersed in technology from an early age. Before he speaks, he can play simple games on his parent's smart phone. He views the world as an entitlement. He is pampered by his parents and spoiled by his grandparents. He will have a different view from his parents dreams. He may not want to own a car. He may not want to work hard (spending extra time to get promotions and salary/benefit increases). He may not want to learn about 401(k) or retirement planning. He wants to live a free and simple lifestyle with his other Millennials in a faux sense of utopian ignorance.

He really does not ponder future dreams but instead views the world in the present. What can he consume, digitally and physically, in this moment. His goal is to move through life and experience it as it comes to him like a shark wandering the ocean currents for food.

There will be exceptions to this view. But many employers have commented in the past five years that they have good, well paying jobs that remain unfilled due to the deficiencies in entry level hires, especially their personal views toward work and self-determination. They need supervision, encouragement and rewards for simple tasks. Employers want employees not burdensome babysitters for managers.

Dreams and goals are the markers for people to expand their horizons, to push themselves to greater heights, to prove to themselves there is more in this world than just what could be handed to them. There are the creators and there are the consumers of content. The gulf seems to have widened in the passing generations.

 It is like the professional who is bogged down in their regular job. But they have always dreamed of writing the great American novel. But they seem to feel there is not enough time to start or finish one. Your mind will trick you into that trap of procrastination. Instead of watching a TV show repeat, fire up the word processor. Instead of going out to eat, set a slow crock pot meal and fire up the word processor. Instead of just walking in a nature preserve taking in its beauty, multitask and think about your novel's characters and story structures.

Time management seems to be the biggest hurdle for people who want to accomplish their dreams.

PLANE CRASH DREAM

One of the basic theories about LOST is that the entire series was a dream.

A dream by a character (known or unknown) who has a nightmare about living through a plane crash. But what does a dream about a plane crash represent?

It is not an uncommon dream. A person dreams of a journey – airplane or car are the most common – that ends in a crash. Alternatively, the person wakes up just before the crash. The dream analysis is that the person has angst, anxiety and fear of failure in their personal life, either a project or a goal.

Plane crash dreams are about the fear of not hitting your goals. Perhaps they are unrealistic, or perhaps new circumstances have made them appear harder to achieve.

If you dream of a plane crash it suggests you are anxious about the failure of a project. The dream meaning is of you having planned a project that doesn’t get you where you thought it would – and is accompanied by the fear that things will end badly.

Plane crash dreams (and car crash dreams) are particularly common during recessions and times of financial crisis, and can be directly translated as someone worrying about their financial situation – a lifetime’s journey, with a planned end, where there is a sudden concern about getting safely to the goal.

However, the dream can in fact relate to any important project or goal where there is a fear over successful completion.

Plane crash dreams can signify you have set unrealistic goals, that the goalposts have moved, or that events have suddenly obscured the finish line. The dream is an expression of your anxiety.

A dream of a plane crash represents your self doubt and your lack of faith that you can successfully complete a project.

Plane crash dreams can also represent an extreme fear of phobia of a future event.

Plane crash dreams are about your anxiety for the future.

It might therefore be an appropriate time to look at your goals to see if they are still achievable. Can you make changes so that your goals appear easier? Or do you need to recalibrate your goals to take into account current circumstances?

The fear of failure can often be overcome by a fresh analysis of the obstacles in your path and a more realistic plan on how to reach your goals.

The most clues in the series point to one character who had the most plane crash type associated mental issues: Hurley. The Numbers were weaved throughout the story line, which directly connect Hurley to the plane crash dream theory. Hurley had many fears and phobias. One of them was finding love. At the same time, fear of rejection which was embodied by his father leaving him at an early age. With his self-image and self-esteem at a low point, he puts little effort into himself or his goals. He is stuck in a personal and financial rut. Even with his dream of being a lottery winner, that success in his dream or mind is cursed. He is anxious around people and fears making decisions. He would rather hide in the shadows than have the limelight on him. As such, he was extremely anxious about his future - - - with his mother pressing him to find a wife, have kids and be responsible. Instead, Hurley would find comfort in a bucket of fried chicken, perpetuating the doom he cast upon himself.

In a sad twist, it would then seem in Hurley's plane crash dream that his only fulfillment in life is in death, when he re-connects with Libby in the after life to live happily ever after. In other words, he has little reason to move forward to change his current life - - - procrastinate to the bitter end. There are many people who can relate to Hurley's plight of being stuck in a routine, a quiet, meek, miserable life with little personal growth to risk even the harshest rejection in order to find happiness with others. That could be why The Others were shown as evil, dark and dangerous. Hurley was more a shell introvert around strangers than a humorous, nice guy around friends or co-workers. It is very difficult to break old habits to risk putting yourself out there for failure. This is why the Hurley dream theory makes sense in the LOST mythology. The story was about fears, anxiety, loneliness, risk, rewards, new friendships, bonds and love.

HAPPY GOALS

If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes. — Andrew Carnegie

Carnegie was a turn of the century business mogul who obtained great happiness through the accumulation of wealth. Wealth equaled power, freedom, luxury and philanthropy. 

There were only a few characters focused on a set goal.

Bernard's goal was to find a cure for Rose's terminal cancer.  He failed (unless you believe the island's magic prolonged Rose's life).

Sawyer's relentless goal was to find and kill the con man who destroyed his family. He succeeded by killing Cooper on the island, but not after becoming the man he hated his entire life.

Locke had a very weak goal of finding a "new family" unit or home where he fit in as an equal. He never found one.

Jack also had a very weak goal of getting his father's approval and acceptance. He never really received that acknowledgement from Christian.

Widmore had the ruthless goal of conquering the island. He failed when Ben killed him.

Kate had the transient goal of avoiding justice for her crimes. She also failed, but she really was not punished for them.

Sayid had the goal of reuniting with the love of his life, Nadia. But he failed in his own quest, both in real life and in the after life.

Desmond also had the goal of reuniting with the love his life, Penny. He found her and they moved on together.

Charlie had the unrealistic goal of getting his band back together. But he failed. Then on the island he had the goal of saving Claire. But he also failed in that rescue promise.

Then there were many characters who really had no goals. Hurley. Boone. Shannon.

None of these stated goals and resolutions were compelling or realistic. None of these goals had profound happiness as the end result. As such, LOST is really a series of sad consequences masked by an action-adventure overlay.

There are some universal basic human goals.

1. Goal of affiliation
In the most part humans are social so they want to be liked. Rejection is no fun and we'll do almost anything to avoid it. Not only do we want approval from specific people, we also want it from society at large.

2. Goal of accuracy
People who don't care about doing things correctly never get anywhere in life. To achieve our goals in what is a complicated world, we have to be continually trying to work out the best course of action.
Influencers understand our need to be right and so they try to offer things that appeal to our need for accuracy. For example, experts or authority figures influence people heavily because they offer us a 'correct' view or way of doing things, especially one that we don't have to think too carefully about.

3. Goal of maintaining positive self-concept
People want to protect their view of themselves because it takes a long time to build up a semi-coherent view of oneself and one's place in the world. We want to maintain our self-esteem, to continue believing in the things we believe in and to honour whatever commitments we have espoused in the past. Persuaders and influencers can leverage this goal by invoking our sense of self-consistency.  

Further, there are six basic attributes to build, foster and maintain an intellectual, human society:

The six basic pillars to build a sustainable society are equity, sustainability, productivity, empowerment, cooperation and security.

Equity is the idea of fairness for every person, between men and women; we each have the right to an education and health care.

Sustainability is the view that we all have the right to earn a living that can sustain our lives and have access to a more even distribution of goods.

Productivity states the full participation of people in the process of income generation. This also means that the government needs more efficient social programs for its people.

Empowerment is the freedom of the people to influence development and decisions that affect their lives.

Cooperation stipulates participation and belonging to communities and groups as a means of mutual enrichment and a source of social meaning.

Security offers people development opportunities freely and safely with confidence that they will not disappear suddenly in the future.

The main characters, at times, exhibited the three basic human goals affiliation, accuracy and positive self-esteem, but for the most part those personal goals had brooding negative connotations inside each character.

Perhaps as a result, the main characters could not come together as a cohesive community on the island because they lacked the will or consensus to build one using the six pillars  equity, sustainability, productivity, empowerment, cooperation and security.

If LOST was meant to be mostly a character study of individuals and their behaviors, it is difficult to argue that the individually and collectively the main characters reached many "happy" goals or achieved happiness on the island.