I'm sorry for keeping this thread alive but wanted to share some feelings. Everyone continues to ask how it feels to have finally been awarded my Black Belt and to be honest if feels kinda, Meh. I felt the same way after I finished my 20 years and retired from the Navy. Same when I finished my Bachelor. When I won Gold Master Worlds in 2016, 2020 and Silver in 2022. Now this. Don't get me wrong, lots of people gave me props but I was like, "Thanks".
So I asked the All Knowing Oracle, Google, and a pretty good article in Inc Magazine came up:
Why You Might Feel Empty After Reaching a Huge Goal (and How to Move On) That blue feeling you get after achievement is actually pretty normal (and fixable).
I've been trying to figure out why I gain little pleasure from my accomplishments. Not sure if its part of my ADD or that I've didn't really receive much encouragement from my parents. Every achievement was met with "that's nice but you're supposed to work hard". Add in the belief to "Stay humble" so I down play my accomplishments so I don't look like a douche. My fraternal brother is terrible at that, every accomplishment even those that are not his, he tries to find a thread where he might have had something to do with it and lets you know about it. It lights my ass.
Anyway, am I alone? How do you handle reaching your goals? Am I overthinking this?
Principle of life my friend. Nothing new under the son.
John 4 13
13Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,
14but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
I like what Chuck Smith says:
Jesus said to the woman, "If you're going to drink of this water, you're going to thirst again." That can be said of every physical experience that you might possess or seek or find.
There are always those who feel, "If I could just..." and you fill in the blank. "...then I would be happy and satisfied." What's in your blank? "If I just had blank, I would be satisfied and happy!" It seems that man is always setting out a goal or a thing whereby he feels that, "If I could just achieve, if I could just attain, if I could just have, then I would be satisfied. I wouldn't be thirsty any more!" Jesus said, "Not so! You drink of this water and you will thirst again."
Now, you ought to be able to prove that in your own mind, because surely in times past, you have set those temporary goals that you felt, "If I could just have a new bicycle I wouldn't want anything again as long as I live." I know there was a time when I lusted after a bicycle. And I thought, "If I could just have that bicycle, oh, I would just be so happy. I would never want anything again as long as I lived." And, I got that bicycle. But it wasn't long before..."If I just had a speedometer on this bicycle, I wouldn't want anything again, you know." And then, "If I just had a headlight with a generator, oh, I would never want anything again." So, there have been those intermediate goals that I have achieved and attained, but you know what? I thirsted again. They didn't fully satisfy me. As Jesus said, "Drink of this water, you're going to thirst again." And it has been true in my life, as I have achieved those goals, those intermediate goals that I had established, and I thought, "Oh, if I could just have," and I then had, but it didn't satisfy. I thirsted again. But Jesus said, "If you drink of the water that I give, you'll never thirst again. It'll be like a well just springing up inside of you."
....with all that said, congratulations on the black belt. It's a goal I too would like to obtain but in the end, it means nothing. We'll be dead soon. In 2 generations We'll be most likely forgotten by even our own family.
Read the book of ecclesiasties sometime and his adventure through life. He'd accomplish these goals- tons of women, tons of money , rich ... had it all. But was still missing something. And that he was pursuing life outside of God's will.
