In life we make aims, which give us a direction, and without them we are disoriented, without knowing where to go. For example, we may want to study or to live in a certain place. In order to attain these aims it is necessary to make an effort and, perhaps, we must make some sacrifices as well.

   Somehow, aims in the work are similar to life aims in that effort and sacrifice are needed, but differ in the fact that a work aim follows a different direction to that of life and, in a way, they are against life. For example, as a life aim we may want a particular job because we think it will bring us the success and the recognition that we have always wanted. This kind of aim nourishes the personality which is oriented towards life, whereas the work aim has to do with making personality passive, a servant rather than a master.

   One of the aims of this work is to change our level of being and in order to attain this, the first aim is to work with self-knowledge. Without self-knowledge we cannot make aims about ourselves in relation to changing our being. Real self-knowledge is different from the images and pictures we have about the kind of people we are and what we think we are able to do. This self-knowledge can only be attained with intense self-observation. This means that we must watch how we speak, act, when we have negative emotions, when and what we are more identified with, when we lie and what our particular form of imagination is like. We really must watch the things that keeps us asleep and prevents us from awakening.

   Only when we have observed ourselves, observed things working in our being, can we make a personal aim work against what we have seen in ourselves. For example, you notice that you often become negative when the train is delayed and an unstoppable inner dialogue begins about how inefficient the transport system is, etc., and as a result you lose energy. A personal aim would be to separate yourself internally from it and not to put the feeling of "I" in it. From a life perspective we may not see any reason to resist this kind of negative emotion and may feel totally justified about it, but from a Work perspective we are trying to awaken and, therefore, we are trying to avoid poisoning ourselves with this kind of emotion.

   Aim is on different scales:

   Aim is on different scales. On a very big scale aim is to awaken from the dream, to attain inner liberation, to become conscious. Nevertheless, many small aims are necessary to reach the greatest aim. For example, on the side of knowledge, personal aim means familiarizing yourself with the ideas of the Work, only through new knowledge can we begin to think in a new way. By thinking in a new way we can see what doesn´t work in us from the perspective of the Work and from this we can make a work aim. On the side of being, personal aim means self-observation according to the knowledge of the Work and to apply it to ourselves.

   Aims of being:

   Here are some suggestions of aim:

   Anything anti-mechanical is a temporary aim and can help us to awaken. Efforts made when we are tired are useful, if you yourself make them, not otherwise. Resisting wrong talking, negative talking, scandal, gossiping which destroys the force of the work in you. It is a form of lying and lying can destroy the essence itself. Try to notice what you say, if not at the time, then afterwards.

   Find out what helps you and what stops you in working. Notice what you regard as a nuisance and become passive for a while. Notice your inner doubts and try occasionally to respond to them with clarity from the Work's ideas. Observe your boredom and your tendency to speak of your life as something heavy and sad. When you are alone, do not let yourself think you are very lonely and disconnected from the Work. People allow themselves to change too much when they are alone.

   Regarding making aim about negative emotions, remember that emotions are faster than thoughts. You may not be able to check them at first, but you can remember them afterwards and realize what had happened. This makes it possible to recognize them beforehand.

   Remember that the development of all centers is an aim. This means that you must overcome ignorance and get to know as many possible branches of knowledge and study them because each one develops some particular part of center. If you do this in light of the meaning of the Work, understanding why it is necessary, it will help you to awaken. But if you do it from a life point of view, in order to be superior to other people, to out-rival others, it will be useless.

   From where the internal objective comes:

   Aim can come from a correct or incorrect place in us. Aim can be correct and to come from an incorrect place, or vice versa.

   When aim comes from small parts of centers, where there is little or no attention or when it is dispersed, it comes from a wrong place. It must come from higher parts of centers where the quality of attention is different. There are three centers: intellectual, emotional and instinctive-moving and each center has three parts corresponding to the individual centers themselves: intellectual part, emotional part and instinctive-moving part. In the moving parts there exist this scattered attention that wanders from thing to thing, for example what you have read in the newspapers, conversations you have heard which come and go. We cannot make aims from these parts because aim must not come and go. The ideas of the Work are too great for small parts of centers to understand them, so it is necessary to use higher parts of centers to understand this work.

   In order to get into higher parts of centers, that is to say become more conscious, attention is necessary which requires effort. In these higher parts we can observe several things together and not only one at the time, therefore they can be used to observe ourselves. Self-observation enables us to become more conscious and from this, aim becomes clearer. Thus, to make aim through mechanical or moving parts of centers is useless and it is important to know where we make our aim from. Nevertheless, we cannot suddenly make aim permanent, for example suddenly we decide not to be negative again just because we have heard that it is the thing to do if we want to follow this work, because we will not understand anything about our aim.

   Superficial Aim and real aim:

   When we make an aim we often do not take into consideration how difficult it will be to keep it in view of the different events that may happen to us. We expect we will be able to walk in a straight line and reach our goal. Therefore, when our aim is superficial and made in a moment of enthusiasm, it is usually useless and leads us nowhere.

   What is a superficial aim? It is one that is turned towards external life and which has some personal advantage behind it, for example merit, praise from other people, to be better considered, etc. So if we make an aim from personality to obtain some advantage, we will not be making it from our real side. For this reason, real aim must be something that almost cannot be put into words and which you know it will take time. In this way, we will not become disappointed whenever we move away from it or it seems to us that we are going in a different direction from what we intended. The most important thing with real aim is that it cannot be reached directly but it is like a boat at sea which has to find its way and depends on the wind and the tides to reach its goal.

   So to begin to have a real aim we must have made aims to know that we cannot keep them so we can see the force of resistance. Real aim comes from an emotional perception of something that does not go well in us and we wish to change eventually and can only arise from long self-observation and valuation of the Work. It depends on certain integrity of feeling that persists in spite of downfalls and as result we need a lot of patience with real aim.