“Before you attain it, it’s something wonderful. After you attain it, it’s nothing special.”*
It’s in our natural human capacity to overvalue things that are outside of our control and things that we don’t own yet, giving them more significance than they’re originally valued at.
More often than not we set goals thinking they’ll change our lives when we reach them. But in reality, reaching these goals will have minimal impact in the grand scheme of our life. And they will often feel nothing special because our ideas and expectations were a few degrees above the feeling of being there and having attained the goal.
The climax lasts shorter than expected, leaving us dissatisfied, and often wanting more. That’s the reason we continually set more and higher goals because the journey is more interesting, yet we care more about the climax.
It’s also in our nature to be greedy, to always want more, to think the grass is always greener on the other side; and never be satisfied and rarely be content with what we have.
*Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
Richard Chan 