"Goals help you overcome short-term problems"
About this Quote
In a single clean stroke, Hannah More turns “goals” into moral scaffolding: not just targets, but tools for surviving the petty chaos that threatens to shrink a life. The line reads almost like advice, but its real intent is disciplinary. Goals aren’t framed as self-expression; they’re framed as governance, a way to keep the mind from being hijacked by whatever today is throwing at you.
That’s the subtext: short-term problems win when they become the whole horizon. More suggests that aimlessness is not neutral; it’s a vulnerability. A goal creates a narrative in which setbacks are episodes rather than verdicts. It also quietly recasts suffering as manageable, not by denying hardship, but by giving it a place to go. You don’t “solve” every irritation or obstacle in the moment; you outlast them by staying attached to a longer timeline.
Context matters. More lived through an era of upheaval - industrial change, political revolutions abroad, social anxiety at home - and made her name in a culture obsessed with virtue, improvement, and self-command. As a writer associated with moral instruction, she’s offering a Protestant-flavored psychology before “psychology” was a thing: purpose as an antidote to distraction, despair, and drift.
The quote works because it flatters the reader’s agency without pretending life is smooth. It promises no miracle cure, only leverage: a future-oriented reason to keep moving when the present is being difficult, loud, and small-minded.
That’s the subtext: short-term problems win when they become the whole horizon. More suggests that aimlessness is not neutral; it’s a vulnerability. A goal creates a narrative in which setbacks are episodes rather than verdicts. It also quietly recasts suffering as manageable, not by denying hardship, but by giving it a place to go. You don’t “solve” every irritation or obstacle in the moment; you outlast them by staying attached to a longer timeline.
Context matters. More lived through an era of upheaval - industrial change, political revolutions abroad, social anxiety at home - and made her name in a culture obsessed with virtue, improvement, and self-command. As a writer associated with moral instruction, she’s offering a Protestant-flavored psychology before “psychology” was a thing: purpose as an antidote to distraction, despair, and drift.
The quote works because it flatters the reader’s agency without pretending life is smooth. It promises no miracle cure, only leverage: a future-oriented reason to keep moving when the present is being difficult, loud, and small-minded.
Quote Details
| Topic | Goal Setting |
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