I lower my sights. My plan has been to orient myself to the highest good I can conceive of. For years, for me, that was “Help humanity survive WW3”.

But then I realized the practice is different. The highest good that I can conceive of is actually much lower, and it’s like “I have $5k buffer and am developing friendships with my neighbors”.

I realized that if I couldn’t visualize the scenario, concretely, then it was beyond “the highest good I can conceive of”.

So when I lower my sights to something my imagination can actually see, it’s at least meaningful enough to get me moving. It’s like the gravitational field strength equation: a smaller mass can have more gravitational effect just by being closer. That’s why we fall toward Earth and not toward the Sun, which is far bigger. Earth’s gravity is dominant because it’s close.

For me, the stuff I can visualize is closer than the stuff I can just say.

Also, the feeling of superficiality hurts less than the feeling of having given up. So even if I keep moving and it feels fake, that still hurts less than sitting there having given up.