EXSTRINSIC VS INTRINSIC GOALS

There are people who work hard to archieve something they've always wanted to get, thinking about the goal itself and so being focused just on the prize they would get in the end. Those goals are called extrinsic, and they're usually connected with narcisism, individualism and also depression. People having those goals are often people with denied choices or people under pressure who are trying to escape from their condition.

Taking Martin Eden -  the protagonist of Jack London's autobiographical novel - as an example,  we can notice how bad exstrinsic goals are for us. He worked hard to become a writer because he wanted to belong to the same social class of the woman he fell in love with. In the end he reaches his goal, he becomes a successful writer, but he isn't accepted as their equal by the upper social class and neither recognized by his old one as one of them. This happens because he neglected all human bonds thinking he would be happy just  reaching his goal.

Gianluca Marinelli as Martin Eden (2019)

People, instead, who work hard for something and "enjoy the journey" are those people who have intrinsic goals. They're happier than people with exstrinsic goals because they're working not only for the prize but also for their personal growth.

The poem Ithaka by Constantin Kavafis  helps us reflect about intrinsic goals. We shouldn't take the destination itself as something giving you richness, because, instead,  the journey you went on is more important.

We can summarise all the things I said so far with the famous Latin expression carpe diem. I 've recently watched the movie "Dead Poets Society" (Peter Weir, 1999) whose protagonist,  a college teacher called Mr. Keating,  who has been trying to make his students undertsand some important life teachings,  can be considered the embodiment of a happy successful person with intrinsic goals.

Among his teachings we find a lesson all focused on the importance of seizing the day, the English for carpe diem,  which means make your life extraordinary.

Lucrezia M.