We Got It All Wrong. Why Keeping Your Eye On The Prize Is A Mistake

Most of us were taught from the time we were little that we should "keep our eye on the prize." We should focus on what we want to achieve and not deviate or falter on the path to that achievement.

The people who tell us this are well-intended, and there's nothing intrinsically wrong with the statement.

However, we, in the modern Western world seem to have taken it too much to heart.

We are focused on the prize at the expense of everything else.

We are suffering from mass myopia.

It's great to have goals, hopes, dreams, and desires. But when we solely focus only on the prize, we miss out on so much of the other stuff.

The good stuff.

The little threads of the tapestry of our life that make it rich, textured and whole.

We mistakenly often see the stuff that comes before the prize as simply a means to an end. We don't appreciate it, we rush through it, or we look at is the obstacle in the way of what we really want.

The other problem of focusing on the prize is that prize never seems to be enough once we land it.

We are so busy chasing and moving towards something, we don't realize what we are really seeking is contentment and peace. We think the "prize" will bring us this. Never acknowledging that these things are available to us in any given moment.

Attaining our goal may bring us brief satisfaction and even moments of happiness. These moments, however, are generally short lived.

There is always a better job, a newer car, a bigger tax bracket.

The dangling carrot we are chasing is elusive, always just out of reach.

We are a society of rarely present, overworked, dissatisfied people, plugging away for the hopes of ‘someday.’

‘Someday’ is also elusive. There is really only ever ‘now.’ That far off day in the future will be now to us at some point too.

Our life stories are made up of a succession of ‘nows’ and a myriad of tiny little mosaic moments. These small parts shouldn't just be appreciated in retrospect, when the dis-tance of time lets us appreciate the whole view.

2020 really was aptly named. For many it was the beginning of the realization that their world and life view was myopic. "The Great Resignation" showed us that a lot of people are waking up, and deciding to cash in banking on the future, in exchange for fully ap-preciating the present, even if it isn't perfect. This carried through into 2021.

In a time of chaos many found clarity. We learned that the ends don't justify the means. The means are ends in and of themselves.

We just need to take the blinders off. We just need to see what has always been right in front of us.