Fundamentals of Facing a Challenge

[Iudicious]

Among my friends, I'm often the geek, tech guy, and even sometimes the wise one, that people come to for advice or help. When it comes to a difficult task, I know at least a few of my friends look to me for help because they've come to the conclusion that, for some mystical reason (to them), I'm better at completing these tasks than they are, especially when it comes to technology.

The purpose of this post was to analyze, and identify the essentials of, this situation. Basically, I've noticed that when it comes to any kind of challenge, I face the task in a fundamentally different way than many of my friends do, and I want to identify what ideas that I hold, or what ideas in general, make this so.

The first major difference that I noticed between my friends and I is that when I approach a problem, I look at it with the absolute knowledge that what I want to accomplish -can be done-, and by extension, it can be done -by me-. When my friends approach these problems, they often give up very early on, because they are not absolutely sure that a task can be accomplished, or that it can be accomplished by them.

The second major difference that I noticed between my friends and I (and by no means does it being second mean it's any less important; it may, in fact, be more important) is that when I face a challenge, I almost always face it as an opportunity, and as something to gain from. Every challenge is something that I can gain knowledge from and improve myself with, and this fact makes me enjoy challenges more. Many of my friends take challenges as something to be avoided at all costs. You can guess why they come to me.

These are just two differences, and I feel as if there may be more to it than -just- this, because I'm even aware of myself at times having problems accomplishing tasks, not for lack of skill but for other reasons (i.e. I get drawn away from a task and am easily distracted sometimes, and this is something that I work on conquering but it's also something that I want to identify the reasons for/essentials of.)

So, to sum up the main idea or question of this post: what ideas make one person more capable and willing to face a task than another person, and, as an addition, how can these ideas be faced and changed? I think that this is different from (specifically, broader than) just the difference between facing a challenge with pleasure and fearing it (which is the topic of another thread.)

[Lucio]

Maybe what you perceive as an opportunity to learn, is perceived by your

friends as an insurmountable problem.

Get your IQ. (http://iqtest.dk)

If you're above the median, then you must learn that you have

a world-view that is different from your friends. Keep that

in mind and do not think that everybody sees the world as you do.

[Eiuol]

So, to sum up the main idea or question of this post: what ideas make one person more capable and willing to face a task than another person, and, as an addition, how can these ideas be faced and changed? I think that this is different from (specifically, broader than) just the difference between facing a challenge with pleasure and fearing it (which is the topic of another thread.)

I think the main issue is they do not take their own life as the standard of value. Have you tried asking your friends why they get up in the morning, or what they want to do after college? There are people out there who do take their life as the standard of value, at least people who really have reached life goals in a short period of time and maintained it. The only way they could have done that is to focus on what *can* be done in that particular moment time. Focusing on anything else is changing standard of value into something outside the self, such as fame, fortune, legacy, inventing the equivalent of the airplane, etc. Your friends may be focusing on those non-self standards, thus they probably think of the meaning of achievement in an entirely different way than you. There becomes a need to do something really really amazing, but given how that is so difficult, it becomes a lot more satisfying to be mediocre and end up taking a 9-5 job after college until they retire. Such a viewpoint is almost demanding for certainty of the future. However, the best a person can do is act on the knowledge that they have, not the knowledge they wish they had. Such is the great thing about growing older: anyone can acquire more knowledge about how to reach their goals. In addition, anything you can't quite accomplish, that only means you learned something, quite like what you explained. This has nothing to do with fear of failure, it has to do with standards of action, and what achievement *means*. If anything, there is a twisting of achievement to mean that achievement then makes one's life worth living, rather than saying achievement is the result of declaring one's life as important and acting to further life.

In order to change these bad ideas, I think all that can be done is to think about why life is good and identifying how to make life good. That's what philosophy is for.

Edited July 29, 2010 by Eiuol

[Trebor]

There's an important distinction between standard of value (Lexicon) and purpose.

"The Objectivist ethics holds man’s life as the standard of value—and his own life as the ethical purpose of every individual man.

The difference between “standard” and “purpose” in this context is as follows: a “standard” is an abstract principle that serves as a measurement or gauge to guide a man’s choices in the achievement of a concrete, specific purpose. “That which is required for the survival of man qua man” is an abstract principle that applies to every individual man. The task of applying this principle to a concrete, specific purpose—the purpose of living a life proper to a rational being—belongs to every individual man, and the life he has to live is his own." "The Objectivist Ethics," The Virtue of Selfishness, 25.

Edited July 29, 2010 by Trebor

[brianleepainter]

Hey Ludicious, I think this quote is suiting to your idea on opportunities that are present in challenges:

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."

-- Winston Churchill

Anyways, I too see differences between myself and some other people when faced with a present challenge. For

instance, if I may make an example, I have heard from some people that they prefer painting from a photo rather

than engaging in the outdoors to paint directly from the landscape in reality. Perhaps it is more convenient, less tiring,

etc. When I'm faced with a challenge in front of nature I get excited by all the elements that are presented before

me. Eventually I get fatigued and feel like giving up but there is some sort of pleasure I get from taxing my mind

and body during a painting excursion. Something that no other person and create for me, something that only I can

put myself through, a sort of hell I suppose, it is a challenge that if continued will result in great fruits of labor.

Perhaps this is similar to "hitting the wall" for a marathon runner. What can be accomplished if you just put yourself through

"hell" for a bit more steps,actions, etc. For me, there is certainly something to be gained from expecting much from myself.

I imagine great minds such as Edison, Tesla, Turing put themselves through the same thing, perhaps.

[Iudicious]

Maybe what you perceive as an opportunity to learn, is perceived by your

friends as an insurmountable problem.

Get your IQ. (http://iqtest.dk)

If you're above the median, then you must learn that you have

a world-view that is different from your friends. Keep that

in mind and do not think that everybody sees the world as you do.

I don't think that this is the primary reason. I've never really had an IQ test, but even if I were above them in intelligence, unless there were a massive difference (and I doubt there is), there shouldn't be as much of a problem as there is.

I think Louie identified something that I probably should have, and it seems to me that what he identified (that some people don't hold their lives as the standard of value) could, and probably would, lead to the two differences between myself and my friends that I noticed.

And thank you to brianleepainter for that quote - I love it!