If this internal musing resonates with you, then you are probably like the rest of the human beings here on this marble we call Earth. For each of us, it is probably safe to say that there has been at least one point in our lives when we arrived at a place we had once envisioned, only to realize that it didn't come with the feelings of satisfaction we had associated with reaching that destination. Many of us have spent days, hours, months or years striving to achieve or discover some far off objective and with it, all of the rewards we perceived to be connected with said milestone. How disappointing it can be, consequently, to find ourselves crossing the finish line and be met with the gut feeling that we have further yet to go to find fulfillment.
It is no surprise that we experience this wave of anticlimax, if we really think about it. Life can be pretty challenging at times and, in order to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and stay the course, we often have to set our "eyes on the prize" in order to stay motivated and inspired to do the work. When the alarm goes off at 5:30 a.m. and we desperately want to blow off our workout, for example, we focus on the image of ourselves as a more slim and trim version in order to drag ourselves out of bed. When we are cramming until midnight instead of hanging out with our friends, we envision ourselves with our degree and in a better career. When we are single, we stave off disappointment by dreaming of what life will be like we we are in love...when we are suffering adversity, we fantasize about calmer conditions to quiet our fears...when we dislike our environment, we take mental journeys to more pleasant surroundings.
Where we make our mistake all too often, however, is putting too much of our stock in that image in our mind's eye, in that moment of arrival. By doing so, we consciously or subconsciously begin to identify all we do as some type of sacrifice or investment toward reaching that moment, and the longer the list of sacrifices or investments we make, the more difficult it is to consider whether the original dream we cast is still right for us. In other words, the very thing we are working toward may have long ago become an outmoded piece of our happiness formula, yet we have a hard time reworking our vision when we have accumulated so much toward that particular path. We can't bring ourselves to not see the investment as "wasted time". We may work our tails off for years to get a certain promotion, only to find that we don't want it when it comes, but do we take it anyway because we have worked so hard to get it? Everything in this world changes, as do our wants and needs. If we can have the courage to be honest with ourselves about what we truly desire, and give ourselves permission to amend our course accordingly, we can find a life that is genuinely fulfilling.
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