Pursue a goal not because you should pursue goals, but because the pursuit of the goal will make you happier. I specifically did not say because the goal will make you happier, but because the pursuit of that goal will make you happier. I do not mean to say that you should decide if you like what that pursuit is, but that you should like pursuing a goal simply to engage in pursuit accompanied by periodic accomplishment. Too often we get caught up in whether we like what we are doing, whether we want to be doing it, whether we should be doing it, and whether the goal is something we want/should be pursuing. All of this value-placing diminishes the important of fully engaging in pursuit. A life without full engagement is something that should be mourned. It is the loss of self-realization and a loss of a life, in many respects.
Very often, this goal needs to be nothing more than a cone or marker on the path to something else. It is a marker to help motivate you on the road of life. Engage in goals for the satisfaction of pursuing a goal, not even for the goal in and of itself. Any thought beyond the goal, especially in the moment of necessary action can lead to the kind of wavering that prevents you from engaging in the pursuit, as you deliberate, doubt, pull-out hair, or otherwise mire in the soup of self-doubt. Don't allow self-doubt each time you are at the point of deciding whether or not to do the activity in pursuit of a goal. Goals are meant to stimulate us to engage in the pursuit, not mire us in the chaos of wavering and self-doubt.
However, even though reflection and self-doubt are essential to making "right decisions," constant deliberation in the moment of pursuit will lead to the pandering away of precious time needed to engage in pursuit. Often, in order to escape the chaos of self-doubt and indecision, it is important for you to realize that the goal itself is not important, merely the fact that you can actually engage in actions that motivate you, encourage your deepest focus, and fully engage the mind. Focus on one thing, no matter what the goal, it is crucial to developing the sense of identity, purpose, confidence, and complete engagement necessary to make us feel important and create meaning in our lives. To not pursue something, anything, well and deeply is to live a life unwrapped or un-lived and to never identify anything and to never know ourselves at all. One must engage deeply in something to experience the flow, the continuity, the core of our potential. What is potential? It is who were are at our greatest most extracted self. To deny ourselves the experience of the most concentrated, extracted self is to never see our potential at all. It is not just that we see part of it, or live life half-way, it is that we never experience realized-self. We are always un-realized until we can decide to and actually engage in something that utilizes our full potential.
Too often we feel that deliberation on its own, indecision, or rationalized-actions are sufficient to pass for self-realization, only to pine over lost time and lack of success, love, money or whatever it may be weeks, months or years later. In reality, this angst over lack of things like success, love, money and the like is really lack of the complete attention or full-engagement of the self in the pursuit of a goal. True accomplishment of these things is important, but more often, lack of full-engagement is the real loss. To realize oneself is to fully engage in pursuit of something.
The identifying markers of love, money and success are just markers to gauge our own levels of accomplishment of self-realization or the fully engaged life. It is important to note that the actual accomplishment of those markers is not important, but that they act only as the measuring tape we've applied to assess whether we are involved in full engagement. More often than not, those markers fail to stimulate us into action and instead act as the pot-holes on the path to full engagement, as we fall in them repeatedly by questioning whether we should be engaging in pursuit. This results in a lot of sprained ankles. No wonder we have not gone very far. Sprained ankles are serious things, and can set back the pursuit of goals for weeks, months or even lifetimes.
So, make note of this, and when your measuring tape is no longer accurate, identify it, attach a note to it reminding yourself that it's broken and riddled with self-doubt. Leave it behind so that you don't use it again. Improper measuring tools will only prevent you from pursuit of full-ambition/ self-realization. Throw out the measuring tape. Pursue something for the sake of pursuit and throw out all the deliberation and goal-valuation that clouds pure focus. Only then will you know self-realization. Only then should you (if ever) attach the sticker of success, happiness, or "best-life." It is always and only a valuation or sticker that can (and very often should) be removed later as life changes. Anything more than that, and you have already lost yourself. Engage fully in something. Pursue the goal. Now.
When full engagement is missing, don't think about the goal itself. Just use the goal as a notch in the tree, a cone on the path to success. Full engagement must come before using the measuring tape and attaching stickers determining worth or value-oriented labels. Any more deliberation than this is not worth your breath (nor your life.)
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