Society
has always taught us to
never give up and pursue the goal. Naturally, the virtue of not giving up is
seen to be highly desirable in our society. I agree that all the people that
achieved great feats in the world knew how to maintain their will power and
keep pursuing the objectives. However, in my opinion, abandoning the previous
goal can be beneficial and effective sometimes. The reasons are that it is
beneficial to one’s mental health and that it can broaden one’s sight that had
been blinded by the original goal.
To start with, when you meet
limitations that is hard to overcome, it is
healthier for your own mental health to give up. If you keep working for your
goal that is vertically impossible to achieve, you will get a lot of stress.
Eventually, you might experience mental breakdown. According to a study done by
University of Toronto, people experience the happiest feeling when they are satisfied
with their status quo. The researchers divided the subjects into two groups.
One group displayed high level of self-contentment and the other group was the
opposite. Then, the researchers rated the happiness experienced by the subjects
from 1 to 10 by implementing surveys and interviews. The average rate of
happiness for the group that had expressed high level of self-contentment was
8, while the other group’s average rate was 2. As such, giving up on your goal and being satisfied with the current situation can make your life happy
and fulfilling.
On top of that, being free from
the preoccupation with your goal can
expand your perspectives. You can look around yourself to find a more adequate
path that may get you even better results. For instance, when I was in high
school years, I desperately wanted to go to Seoul University. Studying hard for
three years, I failed to get the scores that are needed to satisfy the
requirements
for that school. Undaunted, I applied for the Yonsei university, which
eventually turned out to be the best decision I have made so far. At Yonsei, I
could attend an exchange program that was fully supported by school
scholarship. It was a unique program that only Yonsei had. In this program, I
went to Canada for 1 year and this became an
important turning point in my life that navigated me to study English hard. Thinking
back, this opportunity would never have been achieved had I gone to Seoul
University. Seoul university didn’t have the fully sponsored exchange program,
nor did I have the economic capacity to go to Canada on my own.
Hence, throwing away the obsession toward your goal can get you realize a wide
range of other options that are in front of you.
To sum up, abandoning the
goal can allow you to retain your mental health and to expand your horizon. As
bad as it may seem, giving in to the reality can make you satisfied with yourself
and it may sometimes bring in better consequences that were not even expected.
In this regard, giving up can be
beneficial and effective.