Our lives consist of an abundance of decisions: The first thing we do is to choose our goals. As we discussed in the section on objectives in doing this we can also decide to take over the objectives of other people or help other people to achieve their own objectives. If we pursue several incompatible objectives they compete with each other when every decision is made. We therefore choose one of these incompatible objectives as a guideline for our decision. This means that we select an objective and then make the decision on the basis of this objective. When the next decision is made it is naturally possible to use another objective as the guideline. In any case it is always our own decision as to which objectives we strive towards.
For every objective towards which we wish to strive we can also choose how we would like to reach it. In making these plans we set intermediate goals and then select tasks, which should lead to the achievement of the goal if we carry them out effectively. If we don’t wish to make these decisions but would rather leave the planning to someone else, this is again still our own decision which we freely make.
If we ourselves set no goals, but simply solve tasks which have been transferred from other people then we automatically help those people to achieve those goals from which these tasks have arisen. By accepting these tasks we are effectively making a decision to support the corresponding goal. This is our own free will decision.
To help to understand this we could study once again the example with the three mountain peaks. Let’s assume that the climb up to each of the peaks from the village takes several weeks, so that it is first necessary to erect intermediate camps on the way to the peak and these must then be filled with food stocks. Let’s also assume that we wish to climb mountain A. When purchasing the necessary food in the village we meet another mountain climber. We get on well and he convinces us that it would be sensible to set up the intermediate camp together. We are very enthusiastic about this idea and we put our food stocks together with his. In our state of euphoria we forget that it is his intention to climb mountain C. We thus help him to erect the intermediate camp to climb mountain C and to carry up all the food to this camp. In all of this we are helping the other mountaineer to reach his goal. However we are visibly making ourselves more remote from our own goal (mountain A). No one had forced us to do this, we had simply decided to solve the tasks suggested by the other mountaineer.
The respecting of the basic rights of existence therefore means that each of us must make the correct decisions in our lives for ourselves personally. The correct decisions here are those which help us to develop further personally without at the same time restricting the rights of other beings on the earth.
With this approach it should also be clear that we cannot simply divide goals and tasks a priori into good and bad.
A «good» objective for us personally leads us to those tasks which help to train us in the capabilities and characteristics which we are still lacking, but which are required for the living of the basic rights of existence. These tasks should also however be dealt with in reality. It is only the way in which we personally deal with these tasks which – using the pyramid model – finally leads to another stone being built into our own pyramid – or to those building stones already added falling out again.
I can only develop further if I realize a task within the meaning of the basic rights of existence. This means that when solving the tasks I make the correct decisions each time.