To achieve a goal, or not to achieve a goal? That is the question.

Two frames of mind:

A) Set a goal, plan for it, achieve the necessary results and obtain the goal.

B) Set the goal, work hard, gather resources to obtain the goal but walk away from it.

Both, in a sense, are you achieving the goal - one offers a tangible reality that you can experience and be content with, the other, the satisfaction of being able to achieve/possess it but the openness to aim for something new.

I don’t think either is right as, in A, the goal is experienced and understood - we learn more about what it is, or isn’t, to have achieved the goal and can reset our compass by moving on, maintaining it, or, setting a further goal. B keeps a fire in your belly - you did all of the hard work but the goal never owns you. You said no so, in a way, you achieved the desired outcome but didn’t require what stood on the other side of all of the sacrifice and effort.

Which stream of thought do you fall on?