To begin, we need to realize as the Alter Rebbe says, we are three independent souls:
We have the soul of life, the animal soul, which seeks pleasure and recoils from pain.
We have the Divine soul – truth be told I don’t properly understand it – but it seems this is our noble side – unlike animals which are purely selfish instincts.
We also have a uniquely independent mind, capable of observing – hence unlike an animal that reacts only towards pleasure and recoils from pain, a human is also curious, enjoys learning new things and is always observing from an objective standpoint.
Now obviously we are all three!
The goal is to harness the animal through using the observer into acting on our Divine soul’s virtues.