People set goals and make plans to arrive at a future point called “progress.” But will it be progress? How can we be so sure?

Some goals—even good ones—overstay their welcome.

Have you noticed that goals have an irreproachable and unimpeachable status? You want to run an ultramarathon? People will applaud your determination. Run for city office? You have their support. Sell your home and move into the back of a van? Cool, essentialism is in. Nobody will question your goals.

But it’s worth asking where goals come from in the first place. Every goal is embedded within a system.

Mimetic desire is the unwritten, unacknowledged system behind visible goals.

The more we bring that system to light, the less likely it is that we’ll pick and pursue the wrong goals.

In my book Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life, I write in detail about this powerful force that explains so much in our lives.