It’s an interesting aspect of our self-development culture. It seems to establish a focus on the desire to “be good” or to be perceived accordingly.

As if that could be an objective. And as if one wasn’t good enough.

The challenge with the objective “be good” is the fact that it is an abstract idea. Whenever an idea remains abstract, it will lack an idea of how the concrete application will look like in specific situations. It will also have to deal with the lack of shared understanding of what “be good” means to those involved.

Whatever it is that may lead an individual to see himself as not good enough, the idea of transforming oneself into someone who “is good” is also the entrance to a rabbit hole. It is an endless quest as there will always be something else that isn’t there yet or that someone may still disapprove of.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to be good. But to make it an actionable objective it helps to define what the idea of “good” applies to.