What is “lack of progress”?

Question from the Internet:

“What is the main cause of achieving no progress?”

First of all, in order to measure progress, we need a strong, constantly kept and strengthened final goal or purpose we can measure ourselves.

Most people or even nations do not have such an overall goal or purpose. So we have no idea if we are progressing towards something or not.

I remember the Communist times; in the Communist Block, we used to have 5 or even 10-year plans. But even those plans were mainly about economic targets. And it is the same as any plans or forecasts today; they are based on economic growth, GDP figures, stock exchange figures or other measures that relate to building, producing and consuming something.

And since none of these has anything to do with “life” itself or our actual purpose, we cannot say anything about progress in life. Still, most people have a sense of growing emptiness and frustration — regardless of their economic, health or security status.

This growing sense of emptiness, the feeling that we are not progressing, comes from a so far dormant internal desire that keeps searching for and pushing towards our Human purpose in life.

And as long as we ignore this inner need and growing desire for purpose in life and try to substitute this purpose with any other monetary, physical pleasures or gains, we become increasingly unfulfilled and desperate. Nothing can quench that inner emptiness that relates to the missing overall purpose and direction in life, not even drugs and 24/7 circus and bread entertainment.

We all feel sick and angry as we have no idea what it means to be a “Human being”, and we have no idea why we were born and why we should get out of bed in the morning.