Is is better to have neither dreams nor aspirations, or to have them yet lack the ability to realize them?

[i_a_m_i]

Dreams and aspirations can give meaning to one's life. They are something to strive after, which exist far in front of you, and so you must run towards them and grab if you want to obtain them. Dreams and aspirations can also cause great suffering. If you spend your whole life running towards your dream or aspiration, only to fall short, that may be agonizing.

I am not sure whether I have dreams or aspirations. I do have feelings that come and go. Occasionally, I will desire to be intelligent and competent, e.g., an engineer able to solve all relevant problems presented to him, but I think that is neither a dream nor an aspiration.

If I do have a dream, it is to do correct things. Some actions are correct. For example, when you are playing a platformer, and you are on a platform adjacent to another platform seperated by a gap, and, with proper timing, you move the joystick to one direction while pressing the jump button, and you land on the other platform. Throughout my life, I have often done incorrect things. Sometimes, it is by accident, or the result of ignorance. Sometimes, it is out of neccessity, or the result of someone's urging. I don't like to do incorrect things, but I still do them, so they are probably unavoidable. My dream, then, would be to do the minimum possible number of incorrect things. But given my body's structure, I will always perform a lot of incorrect actions, so my dream and reality are incompatible.

 

[Lord Byron]

It is better to have dreams and aspirations. For although failing to reach them and the pain that causes is part of life, striving to realise them IS life.

Without them there is nothing to do but LDAR.

 

[Dr. Rothschild]

The latter, I’d say

 

[Deleted member 14577]

It's better to have them and lack ability. Making dreams and aspirations a reality is the easiest way for a man to ensure his long term happiness and even without the ability to achieve them you will still have a picture in you mind of what could make you happy, nobody has an ability without working for it (some more, some less). Goals are based in dreams and aspirations and setting goals and achieving them is necessary for personal development and inner peace. Life without dreams and aspirations is a directionless one, a long period of numbness until you die and even the numbness goes away.

You used the platformer example, imagine a platformer that just consists of platform after platform and none of them lead you anywhere, you just jump and jump and jump without ever getting any satisfaction, it is pointless and grueling. That's how I envision life without dreams and aspirations.

 

[Mainländer]

Dreams and aspirations are good if they're realistically easy to be achieved if you put effort or, if you're a delusional type, if they're actually impossible.

If they're kinda possible but you fail you'll feel like shit.

Not having goals at all is tough. It looks like men kinda need them on the long run. Even if they're small stuff.