Many people eventually discover this. In fact, study ‘celebrities’ through history and we discover the most wealthy/famous people are sometimes the least happy, nothing really moves their soul.
We experience it as well in less degrees- The next promotion does not fully satisfy. The next accomplishment fades quickly. The next milestone creates excitement for a little while… and then life settles back into normal again.
There is nothing wrong with goals. I believe in goals. I have spent much of my life setting them.
As a football coach there were always goals in front of us:
Team football goals are kind of like a pyramid- We used to start with Undefeated, 7 wins, make playoffs, win playoff games, state championship… something like that….. we call them 'Achievements'.
But over time I began noticing that achievement by itself was never enough.
When we won the state championship in 1998 (going 15-0!), the excitement was incredible. But before long, the attention shifted toward the next one. We won again in 1999, but strangely it did not feel quite the same. Then we went several years before winning another.
So were those years failures? Of course not.
That forced me to start thinking differently about success and achievement.
Achievement involves accomplishing goals.
Success is deeper and asks different questions:
Did we become tougher?
Did we learn to sacrifice for one another?
Did leaders lead?
Did players grow in discipline, perseverance, and character?
Did we become the kind of team we hoped to become?
Those questions mattered more and more to me over time.
Because you can achieve a great deal and still miss what matters most.
And you can also fall short of visible achievement while still succeeding deeply.
Os Guinness helped sharpen this idea for me in ‘The Call’.
One of the reasons that book impacted me so much is because it pushed beyond career success, accomplishment, and recognition. Guinness kept bringing the reader back to calling.
Not simply:
What are you accomplishing?
But:
What are you aiming your life toward?
Literature is full of reminders that achievement alone cannot satisfy the human heart.
Pip finally gets his new clothes in Great Expectations and still feels restless.
Gatsby builds his dream only to discover that it dissolves into what Fitzgerald called “foul dust.”
Guy de Maupassant wrote:
“I have coveted everything and taken pleasure in nothing.”
I think most adults eventually encounter some version of that realization.
Without an ultimate “why,” life becomes reactive.
We chase deadlines….pressure….recognition… approval…We chase the next accomplishment.
And somewhere along the way we can lose sight of purpose.
Ephesians 4 warns about people being “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind.”
A life without a clear aim eventually gets pulled in a hundred different directions.
That is why this June tune-up may help- it gives us a rare opportunity to slow down long enough to think about bigger things.
Maybe don’t write goals this month…. How about 1 word like my boss, Gus Martin does each year? Not just plans…. How about direction?
What kind of person am I becoming?
What actually brings peace and contentment?
Am I living intentionally or simply reacting?
What matters most?
Alex de Tocqueville once wrote:
“The final aim of life is placed beyond life.”
For the Christian believer, that changes everything.
If our ultimate aim is tied only to earthly success, recognition, comfort, or accomplishment, disappointment eventually catches us.
But if our lives are rooted in Christ and shaped by His calling, even ordinary work carries meaning.
That does not eliminate ambition. It reorders it. If we have an ‘ultimate why’ keeping the compass on true north- then the things in our lives become tools instead of masters. We limit the trap of making ‘good things’ into “God-things”. The ancient sin of idolatry.
Achievement becomes part of the journey instead of the definition of our worth.
And calling steadies us when achievement comes… and when it does not.
So perhaps today is a good day to step back and ask a bigger question:
What is my ultimate why?
One last note- I think I have become a really good coach in preparing ‘spotlight athletes’ from letting pressure moments hinder their performance- I talk to them about how they are not VALIDATED by their performance- they are already validated as a man created in God’s image- this frees them up- best chance of making the play is that you don’t HAVE to make it- free to fail means even free-er to make.
The Ultimate Truth behind the Ultimate Why? God loves you and He demonstrates His love towards us - that though we are sinners… He died for us. (Romans 5:8)
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