Sometimes the natural progression of life scares me. You look back on how things used to be and compare them to the way things are now and find that everything is different...
I am a person who started out with a lot of goals in life. We all know that goals provide motivation and oftentimes help to create a sense of purpose. Without goals, we often feel like we're wandering aimlessly without any direction. What I've noticed, however, is that sometimes achieving a goal can cause problems. For one thing, a lot of us see the accomplishment of a long-desired goal as a turning point in our lives. We think that things will be different (i.e., better) after we, for example, finish school, get married, or get a promotion. Once we reach these goals, however, we become disappointed when they do not bring about the drastic changes in our lives that we thought they would.
Also, there are times when achieving a goal leaves you feeling strangely empty after the initial excitement wears off. The goal that was providing you with a sense of direction and around which you organized your life is gone, leaving a vast and empty space behind. For a time you feel lost and your life lacks structure. I know I struggled with this for quite some time. After college the goals I set for myself were more abstract (e.g., "Be good at my job," "Maintain close relationships with my family," etc.). While they provide me with a template for how to live my life they don't offer a clear course of action the way my previous goals did (e.g., "Earn a bachelor's degree, then earn a master's degree, etc.). That's when I started working on learning to just be satisfied with the way things are.
The train ride of life. It isn't always about the destination. Much of the time it is about the ride.
ReplyDeleteBobby