The following question and answer comes from my book Success for Life: Answers to the 77 Questions College Students Ask. If you like what you read here, you can pick up your copy to read all of this helpful advice.
When I attain my goals that I have right now, will I feel like I have completed something? Or will I feel that I now need another set of high goals to keep going?
You will probably feel a high degree of exultation, but you should also want to build in another set of goals. I believe that goal setting never really ends, unless you want to admit that you’ve finally arrived. Yet, if you’ve been paying attention, you realize that truly successful people are constantly refocusing on the moment and never stop dreaming. So the only way you’ll stop goal setting is when you are dead.
However, notice something else—the goals themselves are NOT the motivation; the dream of a successful life is the motivation. And that dream is not connected to power, money or fame, but deeper, more spiritual things as we have already discussed. Understanding that you were created with skills, talents and abilities and that God wants you to live those out boldly is empowering.
With that reality, I will want to keep going because I am attuned to myself and my place in the world, and as I do that I happily keep setting new goals in line with my dreams. Just tonight, I saw the opposite in a young man with seemingly little ambition, a dead-end job and few prospects. In other words, he sadly seems lost and already dead to life. What a tragedy!
Never allow life to bring you down to the point where you quit fighting or quit dreaming. Certainly you may adjust your dreams. That is a different issue altogether. In fact, it is important to periodically review what you have as your dreams, passions and goals. As you do that, you may determine that where you are currently in life is precisely where you wished. You are happy. You are content. Now you dream new dreams based off of the life you currently have. Why? Because there is always a new thing or new person to invest in, a new goal (perhaps a deeper goal based on your current success) to shoot for.