Today I was listening to someone speak about setting goals. He was going on and on about how important it is to have goals to help us achieve the things we want in life.This got me thinking about the past, the present and the future.
What is the past? The past is a memory. Memories reside where? In our heads. The past is a collection of memories that reside in our heads.
What is the present? The present is Now. Always Now. It’s always the Present. It’s never NOT the present.
What is the future? The future is an imagination, a fantasy of what’s to come. As such, the future too, is in our heads.
Fantasy: An imagined event or sequence of mental images, such as a daydream, usually fulfilling a wish or psychological need.
Viewed this way, what are goals?
Goals are little fantasies about the future.
So, by this reckoning, the speaker was advocating the creation of mini-fantasies as a means to help us achieve the things we want in life.
Now, I’ve set goals. I sometimes write them down. It has sometimes seemed that goals have helped to direct me. I’m not knocking them.
But once you see them for what they are - little fantasies - the whole routine of “setting goals to help you get what you want” seems kind of goofy.