I love myself some goal chasing as a sport just as much anyone - however, to be clear, goal chasing almost never gets you anything you really want.
You think you're going to be happier when you get "there". However, IF you get a bump in your happiness from reaching that big goal ( and you might not), it rarely lasts more than a few days.
You can literally chase a goal for years and finally nail it down - you get the degree, the man, the hundred-and-thirty-pound body, only to realize you're still fucking stressed and unsatisfied a week later. It happens all the time. No one wants to believe it, but it's true.
If you want to goal-chase just for the fun of having something to do, great - do it. However, thinking that pursuing and reaching goals will make you a different person is the kind of thinkiing that leads to a lot of disappointment and missed moments.
Goal chasing might make a good hobby, but doing it as a life strategy is an endless and frustrating pursuit because your brain will always move the finish line on you. Your brain will keep you on the hedonic treadmill until the day you die if you let it.
Rather than squandering all or frankly any of your resources, time, money, or energy on getting somewhere else, you might want to consider investing everything you've got in what and who you are right now - sink deeper into this beautiful moment and make peace with what is. This is where the magic is, no matter how much they try to convince you otherwise.
There is no working hard enough,
pushing through it enough,
enduring enough to be happy - that thinking, while it feels important, is like ruminating on vapor.
It keeps you from inhabiting your life.
It keeps you thinking someday things will be better than they are today, and chances of that being true are marginal at best.
What if you just decided to be here now and beautify the day, week, month, and life you are having?
What if you took out the good china and used today?
What if you took care of the body you have now as if she were the body you've always wanted?
What if you took in the moments you have right now as if you knew the real secret? These moments won't last forever, and when they are gone, you will miss them as if they are everything.
What would your life look like if you quit striving and clawing for it to be different?
What would it look like to pour your energy into the present instead of squandering it on a future that keeps moving just out of reach?
Look, throw everything you've got at making today everything it can be. If you do that consistently enough, chances are the future you are stalking will unfold as hoped with a lot less effort. Investing in the now is like sorcery.
Throwing yourself at a future you're trying to create by chasing goals that make you feel not quite good enough as you are now only breeds mental and emotional unease—and eventually, dis-ease.
A beautiful now is probably the best medicine for most of what's ailing you.
Make today beautiful.
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