An ideal to live for

Many people live without any aim, taking things as they come. Some have an aim, but an ordinary or petty one, thinking only of their own gain and happiness. A smaller number live for a noble goal. They live to serve, to contribute, to bring happiness to everyone, and we call them people with an ideal.

The ideals of such people are alike in essence: working and striving hard to benefit the world. The details differ from person to person. Some strive in medicine to treat the poor, accepting that they will earn little as doctors. Some choose the protection of wild species to preserve the Earth's biodiversity. Some choose agriculture to find ways to raise the food supply. Some choose journalism, to use the pen to praise and spread what is good and to oppose what is bad. Some choose monastic life, hoping that a life of precepts will make social charity easier. Some choose a career in government because they see that their party's motto is one of noble sacrifice and service.

Whether it is realistic or not, a person with an ideal has a fire in the heart and a drive to strive, study and cultivate themselves. The ideal pushes us to study and train, and does not allow laziness. It pushes us to improve our own morals, and does not allow a selfish life of pleasure. Whatever does not fit the ideal, the ideal throws out.

Unless the ideal is too weak and the bad habit too strong, in which case the habit will kill the ideal. Take someone with a patriotic ideal who is also susceptible to the charms of women. At first they serve their homeland well, but then they are caught in a honey trap and the enemy forces them to do things that betray it. Or take someone with the ideal of serving the people's livelihood, finding jobs for fresh graduates, but who is too hot-tempered. Later, out of temper and wounded pride, they drop everything and stop, abandoning a working network that had been connecting young people with jobs everywhere.

If the ideal is strong enough, it heals the flaws of the spirit and develops many abilities, and the person's life becomes beautiful and meaningful.

To have an ideal in life, at the start we should read often about the lives and achievements of famous people, until real admiration and respect arise in us. The more admiration and respect we feel, the more strongly an ideal will eventually appear in our own heart.

We should not confuse an ideal with ambition. Both meet in big aspirations: wanting to do great things and hoping to influence many people. But an ideal means forgetting yourself to benefit others, while ambition means seeking glory for yourself.

An ideal gradually makes the spirit noble, like a saint's. Ambition ruins the spirit and turns us into demons.