Ambitious goals are useful as they illuminate a path that maximizes learning and enjoyment, not as ends in themselves

If you adopt this view it also makes it easier to be more flexible in changing the goal if something more interesting pops up. You don’t care as much about the actual end state; you care about what produces the most interesting path.

John Dewey in Democracy and Education would explain this as: Life, growth, and education are all continuous processes with no end. A particular end (goal) is useful as it affects how you order your present activity (means) towards it. Once an end or goal is reached, it becomes yet another means towards your next end/goal, as a continuous process does not have a rigid fixed end point.

A pithier way of formulating this… some ideas:

• Goals are useful directionally rather than as rigid fixed points
• Ends are ultimately means when they are reached
• “Journey not destination” is the same flavor but it doesn’t capture the full idea – having an exciting destination can make the journey more interesting