Along this sojourn of life, I have come to contemplate the importance having goals and the purpose they serve in guiding us as travellers on life’s uncertain roads.

Robert Frost best captured the nature of life in his literary masterpiece, “The Road Not Taken.”

“I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”

– Robert Frost

The road we take has immense bearing on the outcome of our existence, it can make all the difference to whether we end our time in peace or regrets.

Frost, describes the roads in front of him, their characteristics, as a means to choose the path to take. Similarly, I feel that the goals we set for ourselves server as signposts to direct the path of life we end up taking.

Therefore, we must choose wisely what we plan.. lest, our goals take us down a road of despair.

From personal experience, the goals I set helped me get to where I am today. It is advisable though, once a set of goals are articulated to resist the urge to tweak and change the goalposts.

Socrates was a great philosopher, despite being emperor of Rome, he realised the folly of not being content with the goals he set.

“He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.” 

– Socrates

Human desire has no end.. the more we achieve, the more we long for more. It reaches a point where people choose a new direction each day and embark on a mission. All the while, they have just been travelling the same distance each day, just down a different path… Never to reach a state of contentment.

Each one of us has a choice to make, to say I chose to be content! Failure to do so will result in a chasing after the wind.. A futile toilsome task that ultimately shepherds the conclusion that life has been meaningless.