Praxeological Self-help: Goal Setting





Praxeology, i.e. the study of human action offers as much self-help as any best seller on the market. Praxeology forces man to examine himself and his actions. If forces him to study his means as well as his ends and more importantly to distinguish his means from his ends. Individuals too often are unwilling to engage in the self-criticism of their means. They either become offended by criticizing passages and ignore them, or immediately outsource such criticism to someone else in their lives, never actually internalizing the message toward self improvement.


But what truly can be gained by distinguishing means from ends? The answer to this question has both an obvious and a not-so-obvious element. Mises says


"To express wishes and hopes and to announce planned action may be

forms of action in so far as they aim in themselves at the realization of a

certain purpose. But they must not be confused with the actions to which

they refer. They are not identical with the actions they announce, recommend,

or reject."--Human Action Scholars Edition p36.






Maybe an example would serve. If a man says that his goal is to one day have one million dollars, what has he actually relayed? His goals? His wishes? His desires or self-ambitions? Maybe. We truly don't know what another's goals, wishes, desires or self-ambitions are. But what we do know is that this individual preferred relaying this message to you over preferring not to. We know, by definition, that preferences are revealed by actions and this man prefers telling us that "his goal is to one day have one million dollars". We truly know nothing more. It could be that this man just likes talking about nonsensical things; or things that he never actually plans to pursue. Maybe he enjoys idle chatter. Maybe he enjoys the responses he receives. Maybe such pipe-dreams are therapeutic mechanisms, like that of the overweight person who in-defiantly waits for next Monday. We don't know!






We only know what a man truly prefers by his actions, and the only action our subject has engaged in is the action of telling us his goal is to one day have one million dollars. How often do we see this? Take a moment to reflect how many individuals in our lives (including ourselves) who have demonstrated their preference for talking about what actions they prefer as opposed to those who have demonstrated their wishes via their actions.






Thus, foremost, the study of human action forces us to place our actions under microscope. We can no longer judge our desires and goals separate from the realm of our actions. There may be many internal reasons which motivate a man to act, but it is precisely his actions, as such, that, in collequal speech, make him a man; and it is his actions, as such, that must be studied.






"The field of our science is human action, not the psychological events which result in an action. The theme of psychology is the internal events that result or can result in a definite action. The theme of praxeology is action as such."--Human Action Scholars Edition page 36.










Action is about choice. Each action involves both a taking and a giving. The giving is simply what we call the opportunity cost of the taking, the foregone decision that accompanies each choice. Even with the last breath of a mans body he must choose; even if such a choice is to reflect upon the bad times of ones life as opposed to the good. In life we must choose and with each choice we act. With this in mind, let us return to our scenario involving the man who claims that his goal is to one day have one million dollars. To analyze the value of this statement we must ask what was the individuals opportunity cost of making it? What has he actually foregone in order to make this statement? As we expected, not much. Much of our talk is cheap. In the language of economists we might say that such talk of future action (like our opinions) are cheap signals. They are cheap because they don't involve the renunciation of anything valuable. We may may decelerations willingly without no regard to their outcome.






One day I'm going to loose weight, one day I'm going to write a book, one day...






Let us contrast this idle speech to the man who wakes early an exercises, who foregos the fires for the salad, who sets aside 30 minutes to write.






Too often an individual believes they are working toward a goal only later to realize that they are just as far from their goal as when they started. In our attempt to curve spending we rush to the bookstore to buy a personal finance book. In our attempt to loose weight we open a gym membership. In an attempt to increase our knowledge, we browse amazon. But none of actions are actions toward our original goal and this realization is precisely what Mises means when he says






"What counts is a man’s total behavior, and not his talk about planned but not realized acts."Human Action Scholars Edition page






Where does this leave us? What are the right actions? What are the actions that we should take toward are ends? It is this question I believe to be the first step toward the realization of our goals and it is this question which I have little to offer the reader. The reader must ask themselves what is actionable? What is immediately within their reach? What means within your lives can you immediately manipulate toward your stated goals.Where in your day do you have idle time? Where in your diet can you cut calories? Where in your budget can you cut spending? Make it a habit of asking yourself, are you engaging in the action of 'talking about action', or are you actually acting?