Giving up goals has taught me this | Artful Balance

When it comes to creativity, productivity, and goals, timing is important, and I need to seize the potential inherent in each day, even if that means letting old goals -- the holders of prior identities -- die.

An example of an old goal this is the role of running in my life. I have been running for fourteen years now. For eight of those years, I was running competitively. Once I was no longer running for times, I mainly did it to keep up my physique. A part of my runner's identity was always having a certain body type: lean, kind of slender, and a nice ass.

Now I want to become a doctor. But does having a certain physique make me a better doctor? No, it does not, and this is precisely why many doctors don't have a physique they've worked on: because they've spent their time preparing to become a doctor instead. So it is now in order that I reconsider running's role in my life -- should I reduce the amount spent on it, eliminate it, consider other forms of exercise? -- to make room for becoming a doctor, lest I lose time that could have been spent on bettering my doctoring on running.

In picking up new endeavors, which is an integral part of growth, (and to not grow growthward is to possibly grow mentally ill), I will have to face the decision to let other parts of me -- cherished parts -- die. This is part of the processes called adjustment, adapting, assimilation. They all entail changing.

To quickly act on reassessments of what are one's priorities and how much room one has in life is the sometimes scary, painful, and uncertain essence of growth.