A few thoughts I had on attaining goals; inspired by my friend, Amy B.
If you truly understand, and fully accept, that you are an idealistic person, it becomes increasingly easier to discern (and accept) when your ideal is unrealistic to the physical, emotional, and mental limitations surrounding its potential implementation. It doesn't mean that your ideal vision doesn't reflect "reality". It simply means that it is unlikely to manifest as a physical reality at this particular point in time.
It also doesn't mean that some aspect of it can't manifest physically now, or that it might not be a realistic vision for future manifestation, which is, in point of fact where its true value lies. But it does allow you to more realistically weigh the risks involved in making the attempt and to proceed, or not, with a more accurate assessment of what the actual physical outcomes are likely to be. This understanding, and acceptance, of the paradox between ideal vision and material limitations allows you to make more effective choices of how you spend your time and energy.
That being said, the true paradox is in those appropriate cases where, with full understanding of the limitations and the unlikelihood of manifestation, we nonetheless choose, with open eyes, to pursue the ideal as though there were no limitations. In those cases, even if we fail in attaining full manifestation of the ideal, as we most often do, we nonetheless often surprise ourselves with how much of it we are in fact able to manifest physically.
Of course, this is only truly possible in those cases where we are not attached to any specific outcome, and where we are fully prepared to accept complete failure. Only infinite patience brings immediate results.
But every significant accomplishment of mankind has begun with one or more idealistic visionaries whose ideal was completely unrealistic (from the perspective of the "current" physical reality) at the time of its imagining.
Therein lies the paradox, and the frustration,... as well as the joy, of living in a physical world, with imperfect people and circumstances.
