Goals are the outward manifestation of our inward meaning-making system.  They are expressions of our own sense of personal significance.  They are signposts of personal development.  What we are wanting and desiring is directly linked to how we are "making meaning."  Structures of reasoning, that are more highly developed expressions of consciousness, emerge as we are specific and intentional about our lives- at least they emerge much more quickly.  Every want and desire, every goal, fits a transition, a movement from a stage or a settling in to a new one.  It can also represent the deepening of a present one.  It is this business of desiring and attaching that moves us on and allows the developmental structures of reasoning to unfold.  The most exciting structures of reasoning aren't even possible until after 45 or 50.

The Developmental Stages after 50 are not yet understood or really delineated.  But they have to do with broadening or perception.  We are designed to get the bigger picture in such a way that the depth at which we experience and appreciate life is greater, more expansive and more satisfying.  Life is simply just richer because of our history and our story.  The great gift of aging is that it lets us apprehend life at a deeper level of appreciation and awe.  Getting the bigger picture, which is really akin to wisdom, is the source of a great deal of peace and inner contentment and the key to a capacity to more greatly enjoy one's own life.

 The extent of suffering and decline in the aging process is really a battle against greater and greater aliveness and a "sell out" to some idea that age means decline.  How many of the maladies in the second half of life are simply energy and aliveness that has nowhere to go except to create some illness or difficulty rather than continuing to grow?

What is giving you your meaning?  What is the source of your sense of personal significance?