It seems to me that a short definition of mental health is the ability to achieve chosen tasks that take time. Mental health is goal achievement, and goal achievement is mental health.
Morality, in turn, is nothing but goal achievement applied to how our behavior correllates to our chosen principles. It is doing the things we think should be done (charity, fighting for what is right, being responsible), and not doing the things we think we ought not to do, even when they are more convenient than hewing to our moral beliefs. Example would include lying, cheating, and stealing.
In the spirit of openness, it is truly stunning to me how rapidly I personally get distracted from chosen tasks. If it involves writing of some sort, it will usually get done. If it is work-related or family-related, it will get done. My friends can rely on me.
But I can’t rely on myself. I am better than most, but how is it that someone–in some cases, this is me–could join a gym or Weight Watchers, or buy a set of motivational CD’s, or vow to take up a musical instrument and not even last a MONTH? Or even a WEEK?
Who are we when we are that disorganized? Who am I when I am that disorganized?
I had asked the question a week or something ago about where we rest. It seems to me we “rest”, seemingly paradoxically, in goal achievement. In creating and accomplishing goals, we determine for ourselves and others who we ARE. And Being, in what amounts to an existential ontology, is where we rest. Becoming approximates Essence. I came up with that a while ago, and think it is clever. Perhaps I am wrong.
Net, net: I can’t speak from personal experience of complete personal congruence of thought, word and action. They are often at odds with one another. Yet this seems to me the path forward.
I have been making some progress in this of late, which is encouraging.