
“It must be borne in mind that the tragedy of life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.”
This quote, by Benjamin E. Mays, reminds us that having goals puts us at risk of disappointment, because we may not reach all of them. So we might be tempted to not have any goals at all. If there’s nothing we’re trying to reach, then we’d never have to feel like we’ve fallen short of anything, right?
But while we may avoid feeling disappointed, we miss out on the sense of purpose and direction that goals bring. We also miss out on opportunities to learn from where we fell short of our goals.



