Why most People Fail in their Goals || AP Neem candies
Acharya Prashant: If I am incomplete, then sitting where I am, what would be the quality of my actions, thoughts, and imagination? They, too, would be of an incomplete nature.
So, incompleteness is projecting more incompleteness for itself and then trying with all its might to reach more incompleteness. How will that help?
Let’s take the extreme and crass example of a drunkard. It’s an extreme example. I understand. So, just stay with it.
If one is drunk and one is thinking of improvement in his drunken state. (When you are drunk, you think of a lot of things that you usually don’t think of). If one is drunk and one is thinking of improvement and one is thinking of improvement precisely because one is drunk, then what would be the quality of that dream or vision? I have already declared myself as lacking poor or deficient. And if I am lacking or poor or deficient, how will I dream of a total and complete and whole future?
My vision, too, would just be a polished version of who I already am. And I am, in my own estimation, not good enough. My dreams would only be a refined version of my current state. They will not be able to take me beyond myself. And that is why dreamers keep failing. And that is why the progress that dreams give us is only cosmetic. Yes, something changes but only on the surface. Real change never comes.
When you make a goal for yourself, pay attention to the state of the goal-setter as well.
If you are afraid, what would be the quality of your goal? Please? The goal would contain a lot of fear. And you set a lot of goals when you are afraid. In fact, the more afraid you are, the more you want to reach the next goal. Because you will not be comfortable with your current state, you would want to quickly shift to the other state of the goal.
You would say, “I don’t like this state. I am afraid. I am afraid, so that's my goal.” But because you are setting that goal in your current state, that goal would have all the elements of fear, but hidden. And because they would be hidden, you would be tricked into thinking that your dreams or imaginations will take you away from fear. That can’t happen!
Which means very interestingly that goal-setting or dreaming or visualizing defeats its own purpose. The moment you visualize you have certified that you are not worthy of visualizing. Because you visualize only when you are not alright with yourself. And if you are not alright with yourself, then this is not the right time to visualize.
Dreaming defeats the dreamer. Dreaming defeats the very purpose of dreaming. One, therefore, has to simply open her eyes to the fact of today, the fact of living, the fact of how one is operating through the 24-hour cycle. That probably may help really.
Full article link: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/articles/why-does-one-crave-to-become-better-1_ae1a46f
