Targets: Do We Need Them?

Life is meaningful when it has a purpose. Any Life becomes useful after satisfying the need of self or others. Human life is precious because of the superior power of reasoning. Constructive application of this power benefits all the inhabitants of the Earth while its negative use spells doom for everybody, including the self.

Our surrounding nature provides vital air, water, land, sunshine and vegetation for sustaining life. One creature feeds on another to become the food of third species. Fish that feed on worms serves as the dish of big fish, Kingfisher and Humans. So there is a purpose for everything in the Universe.

To achieve the purpose of each life, there is an aim or target. An Eagle doesn’t simply hover around in the high sky. It searches the prey as the target to satisfy its appetite. Once this is over, it stops flying and takes respite until the hunger strikes it again. In order to win the election, political parties resort to casting the votes of even the dead persons.

Parents desire to make their wards as doctors or engineers’ ignoring the latter’s interests and attitudes. Consequently, they spend huge money and seek the influence of bigwigs to secure admission in reputed colleges. Naturally, those graduating from such education set the target of recovering their money quickly. Doctors perform avoidable surgeries to achieve their targets. Vasectomy was done even in aged people just to show the family planning targets are reached. Business firms set an unreasonable target to squeeze the employees.

Any natural resource cannot be used indiscriminately for the sake of accumulating wealth by us.  Fishing is banned in the coastal areas during a specific period in a year so that the breeding of fishes remains unaffected. Forests and mountains can be encroached to a certain extent for increasing the food and housing stocks to meet the growing world population; because, any irrational and excessive exploitation will endanger the life of other creatures and our future generations.

In the modern world, ethos and pathos are ignored by the citizens to satisfy their selfish motives. Everyone targets to make faster bucks without hard-work and patience. Even nations give scant regard for moral values while scrambling for the scarce resources like fossil fuels and minerals.

Targets put unwanted pressure on any person who will otherwise perform better if given a free hand. Sachin Tendulkar of India is the only cricketer in the world to score a century of century runs in that game. He once said, “I have never thought where I will go, or forced any targets on myself.”