Seeking the Right Goal

An incongruous goal in a system I would like to expose comes from the practical execution of my noxious weed spraying business.  I have become dissatisfied with the goal of my business being to eliminate as many noxious weeds as possible.  I have come to realize a more significant and appropriate goal for my desire for eradication of noxious weeds should be coupled more strongly with or replaced by a desire for a more healthy ecosystem.  I would say this has been my broader, ultimate goal all along and I have been achieving good results with my more narrow, current goal but the ultimate goal of bringing better health and balance to the ecosystems I have been working on is not necessarily being met.

When I achieve a huge reduction in the amount of noxious weeds present, my work and inferior goal appears to have been met.  I can then focus on another area of the property or another property entirely to concentrate on another infestation of weeds.  It will only be a matter of time until I need to return to the original site to focus on a new infestation that inevitably started as soon as I had met my first goal because of my focus on only one part of the system.  My effort is increasing with disproportional results.  There is a huge delay in the ultimate return of the weeds to the level it was before, but nevertheless it is inevitable.  This is the part where I seem to be chasing my tail and the part where I now realize "something stupid is happening" because it's my rule.  My inferior goal is not in line with my ultimate goal.  My ultimate goal should pick up where my inferior goal left off but due to capital expenditures, time and management restraints, and the proposition of even greater expense to the customer which I am hesitant to portray, I am in a reinforcing feedback loop that is ultimately deteriorating the soil with toxic chemicals.  My intervention as balancing feedback related to the inferior goal does work in a small time scale.  But when I attempt to shed the bounded rationality of a few years to a broader, longer termed vision, I can see the ultimate goal of a lasting reduction of weeds and a healthier ecosystem as an indicator of compliance is not working.  My inferior goal measures something successful and incremental toward the ultimate goal but I now believe it does not measure what is most important toward the real welfare of the system.  Enhancing the health of the ecosystem with some of Merril's compost and reseeding with appropriate native grasses would be minimally necessary for the overall health of the ecosystem.

I am in no way oblivious to the idea that the chemicals I use are somewhat damaging to the microbial makeup of the soil.  I pay a lot of extra money to use the least toxic chemicals available and truly feel I am doing a good thing for the environment until I analyze the long term effects of my efforts.  It is this point at which I see incompatibility with my ultimate goal of a healthier ecosystem.  Something has to be done to enhance the ability of the eco"system" to help itself fend off a future invasion of noxious weeds after I have greatly reduced the competition of the noxious weeds recently present.  It is this discrepancy that has become increasingly clear to me and one I am not comfortable with.  I am providing the services I intend and I am very good at what I do, but I feel if I supplant my inferior goal with my ultimate goal I will be forced to adjust the procedures of my business to incorporate the other parts of an Integrated Pest Management system in which improving the overall health of the ecosystem is addressed through a use of diverse tools.  In this case, progress toward the new goal could be measured by a very long observation of the return of weeds and measuring hallmarks of a healthy ecosystem like diversity and soil health (measured through soil samples).  The biggest change I would expect to see would be a reduced and resistant return to a large noxious weed infestation.

I am very willing and eager to do this but without access to many other necessary components of the much larger business this would entail such as property on which to keep the equipment, I am prepared to abandon my current business and seek something more in line with my personal paradigm.  There are other reasons I am ready for a change but this is definitely part of my waning interests.  The influence of this sustainability program has also inspired me so much and I am increasingly hopeful to begin a more fulfilling career that will facilitate the paradigm shift we need to live in harmony with the planet.  I desire my goal to make money to be in alignment with my goal for a sustainable planet which is a another example that could be analyzed in this context of seeking the wrong goal.