Missing Our Target and Losing Focus — Sinful Behaviour?

I’m not a religious person but I’m certain that organised religions bring a great deal of joy and comfort to those who follow them. In my darker times I’ve wondered if life might have been easier had I possessed a little faith.

Some of the greatest atrocities and the vilest of behaviors are committed under the banner of religion too of course, but for that’s how life goes — no single force is universally good or bad.

Religious or not there’s much about our lives, our conventions, customs and the things that we do and say that have been shaped by religion and spirituality. One of the most striking is its influence over language and the origin of words.

For instance, who’d have thought that losing sight of our goals could be described as sinful?

The original sin?

It was a podcast discussion between Jordan B. Peterson and Jocko Willink, exploring the idea of focus that introduced me to this fascinating idea — that the ancient origin of the word ‘sin’ isn’t what I’d originally thought.

To sin evokes ideas of straying from the path and violating a moral code set out by religious doctrine. Sinful actions, behaviours, utterances and thoughts seem by definition impure and imperfect in some way, as though they should prompt the sinner to feel guilty, compelling them to seek penance;

Violence and aggression towards others
Adultery and immoral conduct
Profanity and blasphemy
Murder

That sort of thing.

Even as a non-religious person I’m pretty anti-murder, for sure. But subconsciously I’ve compiled my own list of sins that informs my words, deeds and actions as I proceed through life too. Many of these probably conform to the principles of many religions — others just seem like good common sense.

To be disloyal or deceitful
To lose my patience or rise to anger
To be disrespectful of myself or of others
To give less than 100% effort to someone or something that deserves it
To waste my time or the time of others

All these feature on my personal list of sins. I feel guilty when I commit them, and feel compelled to make amends and redress the balance when I do.

A moving target

Jordan Peterson’s proposition was that when we are seeking clarity regarding our life’s purpose and figuring out what to do, it’s a constant process of refining our aim and zooming in on a goal. We may be blessed with initial inspiration — an idea about what we want to be when we grow up.

Even if we’re blessed with this as a starting point, most of us still have to go through a lengthy process of constantly readjusting our aim and our actions to bring it to life and to continue the process of discovery.

We may set out on the path to becoming a paid writer (for example). Our intent is to make a few dollars by putting our thoughts on the page and then publishing them to the world. Only by writing, editing and publishing, gradually refining our skills and figuring out what works and what doesn’t, can we eventually reach a level of comfort and success.

Throughout that process we need constantly to be testing, reorienting and refocusing as we identify the successful and effective steps on the path to where we want to get to.

That process of constant refocusing is essential in all aspects of life. The world around us is always changing just as we ourselves are changing. The work we’ve put in to get to where we are today won’t necessarily take us where we want to go tomorrow. It’s not as simple as doing the same over and over again.

We need to adjust.
Recalibrate.
Zoom out to check that we’re still heading in the right direction
Zoom back in again on a new interim target that will take us forwards

It’s the same as a hunter watching their prey through the scope on their rifle — if they don’t adjust their sights and follow the target before pulling the trigger, then they’ll miss.

There’s no point firing at the point where the prey was when you first spotted it, and still expecting to hit.

Hamartia

To lose focus, failing to recalibrate and being unwilling to adapt is (it would seem) sinful. Peterson, an academic scholar and undeniably a person of some genius (regardless of whether you agree with the principles that he teaches) was keen to share this definition in that podcast.

He pointed out that one of the origins of the word ‘sin’ is ascribed to the Ancient Greek word ‘Hamartia’ — a term meaning to ‘miss the mark’ when throwing a spear. It is described in this essay as the most common occurrence in the New Testament in the noun form, for ‘sin’.

In this context, when we miss the mark through our own actions — whether that mark is a target behaviour or a specific intended outcome, then we have sinned.

If our intention was to treat our partner with kindness and affection but instead we were selfish, aggressive or apathetic towards them — we sinned.

If our goal was to write a high quality and well-researched article but instead we blew it off in favour of doom-scrolling through social media for hours on end — we sinned.

It might seem like an over-reaction to label such failures as sinful by the religious definition, but for some reason I like the association. It seems fitting. It denotes that part of the failure was down to us. It reaffirms the idea of personal accountability and ownership. It reminds us that we control our own destiny.

The other notable parallel is in the emotional reactions commonly evoked by sinning — they seem much the same as are associated with the conventional religious definition.

If I don’t achieve a goal as a result of my own failure because I didn’t put in the work or gave it a half-hearted effort, then I’ve sinned and I feel guilty. It doesn’t feel good, for sure. I know that I’m the one at fault.

Maintain focus and adjust when necessary

Hitting the target and getting the results we want demands that we focus, adjust and adapt. We may not consider it sinful if we fail, but I think there’s something to be said for keeping this definition in mind. It reminds us that success and hitting the target are at least partially in our control.

If it reminds us that it’s essential to keep adjusting our aim, revisiting our goals, recalibrating and reassessing, then that’s got to be helpful — right?

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This post was previously published on Medium.

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