This is a difficult time for the idealist. People talk about the lack of moral direction in our society. Often what I see are idealists grappling with their high standards and finding it very difficult to navigate today’s difficult water rather than evil people out doing wrong. When high ideals come in conflict with untenable situations, people can feel disillusionment and anger. “How do I honor my values and my ideals while I get through these times?” is the theme. There are many ways to get through these challenges, but sometimes they are so overwhelming that people abandon what they espouse and look for short cuts. Sometimes people say, “I will just borrow a little money from the company to help me through this spot” and the seeds of ongoing fraud are born. Sometimes a person says “let me just take a little of this drug or alcohol to ease the pain” and an addiction problem is born.
I find that it’s better to look at ideals as guiding lights rather than targets to be hit. When an ideal is a target to be hit, you either succeed or fail. When we feel we are failing it is easier to make excuses and do whatever we want. We were failing anyway — why not cut that corner or take that drink. But when we see our ideals as guiding lights, we attempt to allow them to guide our actions. We attempt to honor them as much we can. We realize that we can never hit perfection but that we can attempt to live life well. When we let our values guide us, we do not live in a succeed/ fail world and our ideals can lead us to take the best action rather than give up and do whatever we want.