If I aspire to earn more, I may achieve that goal—but often at the cost of longer hours, higher stress, and steep learning curves. Is that bad? Not necessarily. It’s simply the price we pay for chasing wealth, though success is never guaranteed.
Every gain comes with a cost. Sometimes the returns don’t arrive in our lifetime—our children inherit the fruits of our work, or the weight of our choices.
Perhaps wisdom lies not in perfecting the path to our goals, but in understanding why we pursue them in the first place. To ask, again and again, what truly drives us until we reach the bottom of it. Then refine our goals to match who we really are.
Our true goals are often free from cultural and political conditioning. Living in a developed, liberal nation, for instance, doesn’t mean our purpose should default to boosting GDP by earning and spending more.
If we’re paying the price for our ambitions, let’s make sure the goals we choose are worthy of our time on this planet—and not waste its scarce resources chasing illusions.
