Warning signs: Indicators of goalodicy

Abstract

In the midst of pursuing your goal, it becomes difficult to think about why you are pursuing the goal—your initial motivation and why achieving the goal has become so important. You don’t have time to think about the past; you can only focus your attention on what it will take to reach the goal. The goal you have set, summiting Everest, is simple and clear. No one will doubt that you have reached the summit. In fact, at home and now here on the isolated mountain, there is little doubt; everyone seems to think that you will achieve the goal. Indeed, you have had to counsel those who fail to see your progress to this point as anything less than spectacular. You counsel them that they fail to see your strength and they fail to recognize your progress up the mountain so far. In fact, their negativity only makes the goal more clear. Any obstacles that may rest between you and reaching the summit seem small in comparison to the ecstasy you will experience once the summit is achieved.