IMPULSES
A friend recommended Baltasar Gracian's The Art of Worldly Wisdom. Gracian was a Spanish scholar of the 17th century who set forth a series of maxims for ethical action. From time to time I'll write about one of his maxims.]
Gracian notes that many people are ruled solely by their impulses and counsels us "Do not give way to every common impulse". I fear that I am one of those who has lived impulsively, changing course on whims and fancies, letting momentary urges guide me, basing plans on optimism rather than reality, believing that everything would turn out ok rather than looking into the future, realistically planning ahead and acting accordingly. I've often taken the wrong fork in the road without really thinking about it, without pausing to reflect. I'm glad to have been an optimist- I remain optimistic and hopeful. I'm glad I didn't let fear slow me down- I want to believe in the future. I'm glad that I'm willing to proceed on impulse- I don't want to spend so much time in analysis that I become unable to act. But I also wish I had planned more, thought more about the future, made more rational predictions and based my conduct on them, been more controlled and less spontaneous in various situations.
I fully subscribe to the notion that life has to have fun as a component. And I think that a life which is totally planned, totally controlled, rigidly circumscribed is not as much fun as a life of spontaneity and surprises. But I can see that a life without planning, goals and focus on the goals is like driftwood on the sea- it may arrive at a good place, but it has no control over the route or the destination. Such a life will always be vaguely unsatisfying because the lack of control takes away at least some of the feelings of a job well-done. How can you be proud of your life if all you did was let things happen to you?
Gracian says that "self-knowledge is the beginning of self-improvement". That is, we have to learn what our impulses are and allow for them if we are to reach our goals. Note that he doesn't say avoid or repress our impulses: We may choose to follow our impulses but we must understand the impulses and consciously choose to follow them. Our goals may well involve our impulses; our rational judgments and plans, the very steps we take and the very goals of our lives may be the same as our impulses would lead us but we have to be the ones in control, we have to decide. Gracian says that those who let their impulses rule their lives lose all power of judgment. It's the ruling of our lives by impulses that is wrong, not rationally making the judgment to follow our impulses.
Live your lives in a way that is fun and satisfying. Follow your goals without fear. Let your impulses form part of your life but know what they are and control them.
7-16-01
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