Achievement is not the end goal of life

We have been conditioned in this since we were little. It is difficult for us to break free from this mental attitude, so marked in Western culture. We consider ourselves smart only if we have goals and are capable of achieving them. Even better if in doing so we can demonstrate that we are better than someone else.

But is it really so important to continuously compete and achieve one goal after another to demonstrate your skills and abilities? Is it so important to exhibit your skills to those around you, to gain visibility and economic and social recognition? In reality, this usually only rewards those who love competition. Most of the others end up anxious and depressed.

This mechanism works well in keeping you constantly busy doing more, spending more, working more, committing more and feeling more inadequate and wrong if you do not manifest this drive. We exist in a constant state of comparison with others, and in the frustration of never living up to social expectations.

What if the true value of existence was to gain experience, no matter where you come from? Perhaps you get to the end, or perhaps only halfway along the path, maybe just a few steps after the start, because you sense that this is not your path. The important thing is that in that stretch of the path you have understood and learned something you did not know before. In this, you are experimenting to understand, to learn, to refine your preferences, to find different solutions, to decide whether or not it is worth spending your energy and precious time of your life right there…

I have recently been dealing with young boys and girls who are struggling to understand which direction to take. They feel dismayed and wrong because they feel the weight of this social expectation that asks them to know where to go and move towards goals they cannot even imagine. I do not believe they are a lost generation. I am convinced they are a generation of disruption. They push us to ask ourselves if all our doing and achieving, without really understanding where our true value is best invested, is really the final goal of life, or if instead we are deceiving ourselves.

We chase happiness like a carrot dangling in front of us. We briefly touch it with each goal achieved and then it moves a little further ahead. Yet true happiness comes precisely from satisfaction in the present, from feeling good about who you are and what you are experiencing every day. And this happiness is independent of goals; it is pure pleasure in life, appreciation, gratitude for the very experience of being where you are.

For me, achieving a result is no longer the final goal of life. The goal is to have fun and be passionate about my days while I experiment with my skills, my knowledge, abilities and talents in what I choose to do.

Learning to know yourself deeply is essential to being able to shift this attitude. Because only when you understand who you are and what has value for you are you able to stop worrying about being left behind or being judged negatively in a social context that continues to be guided by the paradigm of success and fame.

And this is also the contribution I am bringing to the lives of these beautiful and confused young people: helping them see themselves and understand where their inner fire lies. It is quite clear that, for them, striving for a result does not have the same appeal it had for our generation. It gives me great joy to see them light up when they understand that it is not necessary to adopt a mental attitude that depresses them. They can imagine and choose another path. Perhaps less obvious but much more exciting and respectful of their precious hearts.