It's a common assumption, especially when looking at ambitious students or adults, that the primary goal is financial success. We often hear that people, particularly Americans, are mainly driven by the desire to "earn a lot." But is that the whole picture?

The Surprising Truth About Our Deepest Drive

Consider this: when students were actually asked about their main goals, the results painted a different picture. While a portion, around 16 percent, did identify good earnings as their primary life task, a much larger group voiced a different priority. A significant majority, reportedly 78 percent of young Americans surveyed, expressed a deep concern with something else entirely. Their main focus was, in their own words, figuring out how to find meaning and purpose in life.

This suggests a more profound view of what drives us. It points towards an inherent human need that goes beyond material wealth. The renowned psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, Viktor Frankl, built much of his work on this very idea – that the search for meaning is a fundamental human motivation.

Why Aiming Higher Matters

It brings to mind an interesting lesson from learning to fly. Imagine you want to fly from one point to another, directly east. However, there's a strong crosswind blowing from the north. If you aim your aircraft precisely at your eastern destination, the wind will constantly push you southward, causing you to miss your target and land somewhere unintended.

Pilots have a technique for this. They must account for the wind; they need to aim north of their actual destination. By setting their course slightly "off," towards a point higher than the intended airfield, the wind counteracts their trajectory, guiding them precisely where they wanted to go all along. If they only aimed directly at the target, they would inevitably fall short.

Seeing the Potential Within

This principle holds a powerful truth for understanding people. As Viktor Frankl might suggest, viewing people simply "as they are" might inadvertently hold them back, perhaps even making them less than they could be. But what happens if we dare to see more?

There's wisdom in the idea of overestimating people, not in a naive sense, but by recognizing their potential for growth, meaning, and purpose. It echoes the sentiment expressed beautifully by the writer Goethe: "If we treat an individual as he is, we make him worse than he is. If we treat him as if he were what he ought to be, we help him become what he is capable of becoming." Frankl himself considered this a guiding maxim for any therapeutic endeavor.

When we look at someone, especially a young person searching for direction, or even someone struggling – perhaps labeled a delinquent or battling addiction – and we fail to acknowledge their inherent desire for meaning, we risk reinforcing their struggles. We might increase their sense of disappointment or cynicism.

However, if we choose to see differently, if we acknowledge even the smallest "spark" – that flicker of a search for meaning that exists within almost everyone – something remarkable can happen. By recognizing and validating that potential, we actively help bring it forth. We encourage them to become the person they truly can be. We must, in a way, be idealists in our view of others, because only then do we become true realists about the depth of human potential.

References:

• Frankl, V. E. (1985). Man's Search for Meaning. Washington Square Press.
  This foundational work introduces logotherapy and emphasizes the primary human drive to find meaning, even in the most challenging circumstances. The second part, "Logotherapy in a Nutshell," directly addresses the concepts of the will to meaning and finding purpose, which underpin the article's core message about looking beyond superficial goals. (Focus particularly on Part II).