Happiness Through Humanism: pragmatic

To me being practical means being reality based. I might be shooting for the sky – but my strategy to get there – is grounded in reality.

It does not mean to limit myself. It is just a reminder that if I want to achieve my goals – I need to take practical reality-based steps to make it a reality.

Being practical means understanding that my ultimate objective is more important than the steps I take to get there – so I can innovate and be flexible in my plans.

Being practical means – not getting side tracked on fun things that don’t get me to my ultimate objective.

Of course, to be practical – means really understanding what my ultimate objective really is.

I offer online personal and professional development programs on humanist life skills. Just published my course – Planning for Personal Success ( https://humanistlearning.com/planforpersonalsuccess/) as an ebook, a paperback and as an audio book. https://amzn.to/2VSFbsu

You can't just wish your
problems away

I don’t know about you, but every once in a while, I wish that I could just solve my problems without making any real effort. Just a wave of my wand and whatever was bothering me would go away.

Obviously I know the world doesn’t work like that. In order to solve my problems, I have to actually work at it. The problem is that magical thinking is really tempting. I mean, who hasn’t wished they could just teleport somewhere when they are running late?

The danger of magical thinking though, is at it’s greatest when we are confronted by a problem we cannot solve. And yes, this does happen. Quite frequently actually. This is why the Serenity prayer is so important. Yes, you must have the courage to change the things you can, but you also need the patience to tolerate the things you cannot change and, the wisdom to know the difference.

The reason you don’t want to resort to magical thinking is this. If you aren’t trying to practically solve your problem, you won’t know whether this is a problem that can be solved or not. You can usually only find that out by actively trying to solve your problem. While magical thinking is harmless if you are trying to solve a problem that can’t be solved, it will prevent you from solving the problems you have.

Better to at least attempt to solve a problem and fail than to never try at all.

Image: "The Magician" by luigi diamanti http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/