To reach a purported destination.
A child finally revving her engines to catch up to a world which had sped away a long time ago. A fledgling unknowing of how to do things on her own. A puppetĀ despite not knowingĀ how to dream and yet,Ā givingĀ the perfect performance.
In our lives, weāve all acted as puppets, manoeuvred by someone else pulling our strings. It may sound undesirable but it was an undemanding role to slip into.Ā One that I played, played well. It was a carefree life, without the silhouettes of consequences of choices hounding me. It was a smooth show,Ā I moved as directed. It was an easy show,Ā I didnāt have to make choices. My moves contingent on the puppeteersā will. But the thing about puppets, like me; is when the strings are cut, we donāt know how to move on our own.
I lived an iridescent life as a puppet but, as it turns out, people get wetĀ evenĀ when thereĀ areĀ rainbowsĀ and sunshine.
The realisation hit me when I first had to set a goal. Having never learned how far I could run or how high I could fly, I let my imagination take over my goals without a tether holding me down. It was an unfortunate realisation that the tether wouldnāt have been of use. Since I never made it off the ground. What they deemed āunrealisticā was what IĀ wishedĀ to accomplish, and what theyĀ namedĀ ārealisticā,Ā I knew I couldnāt do forever.
āYou wonāt reach anywhere if you donāt know where youāre goingā was the singular thing that made me accept my place on the ground.
The entire goal-setting ordeal was complicated since the world and I never found a common ground. Was it that important of a deal that every āHow to win in lifeā video I watched was built around attaining goals? How every other blogger said that a dream motivated them to get out of bed. Was setting goals really necessary? I mean, I had enough motivation to get out of bed without knowing what Iād spend the entire day working towards. Wasnāt it enough to just follow the flow? To live an unburdened life. Wasnāt that the life everyone yearned for? The happy ending in movies?
I carefully picked the silver linings and reassured myself that the lack of the overwhelming weight that would otherwise be put on my shoulders was worth it. The thought ofĀ āfreestyling lifeāĀ initially scared me. Then I looked around and saw people who didnāt know what they wanted to be, either. All of them moving forward with no idea of what awaited them.Ā I felt a lot less alone.
Weāre often pressured into having plans for what we want our life to be. Weāre strangled into defining our entire lifespan as one singular goal, with only one tag to bind our lives to. The prospect is scary. The goal is ours to set, but the fear that we might set the wrong one and live our entire life in regret makes us not make goals at all.
I believed for the longest time that goals were not for me. That I could escape its clutches and live a life without its presence. After all, not limiting yourself to goals meant youād learn more along the way. Youād go to territories that you otherwise wouldnāt have. It made sense. Not having a destination in mind didnāt mean you wouldnāt get anywhere. It meant you could venture into fresh paths with the freedom to choose.
I assured people -who were as clueless as I was- that it was okay to not have dreams; led them to believe that a life without a dream was nothing, if not ordinary.Ā Comparable to living with dreams.
But life is filled with irony. I had the harsh realisation that the hypocrite in me made itĀ my goalĀ to assure people they could live without one for themselves.Ā
I readily abandoned all that I had advocated for.
But the irony was a blessing, one that allowed me to understand goals better. Goals arenāt as polar asĀ you have themĀ orĀ you donāt. Goals are a part of life. And like everything else, you donāt have to rush to set one for yourself. Every goal is a milestone in your life. The milestone to whatever path you steer yourself into. All you have to do is look up and pull the strings from below. Each step at a pace you set for yourself. Until the puppet is the puppet master themselves.
