What is a worthy goal?

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Questioner: Acharya Ji, it is a question about selfless goals. I have not understood ‘goals’ yet. The freedom fighters, social workers, humanitarians are all working tirelessly to achieve something. What’s my responsibility towards my country, people, and religion? For example, our culture and tradition need to be preserved. Is it not good to have a goal beyond one’s selfish desires?

Acharya Prashant: The only genuine goal is the one that fulfills your life. Obviously, when you are talking about having goals, you are talking about having goals as a person. You are born; you are living; you take yourself to be a person. And you are talking about the goals of that person. Essentially, you are asking — What is worth doing? Essentially, you are asking — What is worth taking as a goal?

The goal of work has to be aligned, obviously, with the goal of life. You cannot say that in the end, you want to reach north, but right now you are traveling south. If the goal of life — just an example, please get the drift — If the goal of life is to reach the north, then the goal of every month, every day, every hour has to travel to the north direction.

So, the goal of work, the goal of all small periods of time has to be aligned with the overall goal and purpose…