What is more valuable? The quest or the achieving of the goal at the end?

Question

I asked this question of my students the other day and would like to ask what others think, in order to give my students a better understanding of public thought.

Answer 1

The quest. A philosophy of "process over outcome" fuels growth, understanding and power.

E.g.. I wouldn't want a million dollars in my pocket; I would rather want to go through the process of acquring the knowledge to obtain a million dollars. So that if it ever went away, I have a clue on how to reproduce the results.

And, when one goes through the process and falls short of the goal, he is at least equipped with more experience next time.

Answer 2

The goal sustains the quest. If there was no seeking, desire, longing or yearning for the goal, there wouldn't be a quest. The quest may have its rewards but never anything like reaching and achieving the goal.
The goal may change through the passage of the quest but in the end, we want the end result for it is what validates us, validates the quest and the whole damn thing.

Answer 3

Both are of equal vaule usually, but the goal can be especially important and valuable, particularly so if the intentions behind achieving the goal are pure and noble.

When you live by the moment you will see that the quest is neverending, and the goals are only temporary marker points.

When you die what will matter most is your contribution to mankind; how much did you help other people?

Answer 4

Ye olde journey or destination question, eh?

I've always felt that people have a very hard time distinguishing between the two. Every goal we ever have in life always leads us to new expectations and new objectives, so if we reach a destination and find another desire to pursue, wasn't that destination just a checkpoint on a greater journey? Moreso, how can we tell when we reach the final destination if time is infinite and if we never know when out final moment of existence is?

Still, assuming that we live in accordance with one finite timeline and one journey in mind, I say the destination is more valuable. Although the journey provides us with experience, the destination presents and reminds us of the experience in a way that allows us to learn from it. Without accomplishing the goal meant to be fulfilled, all of the experience goes to waste since it is never really appreciated. That is why we question our own vanity when we are afraid of failure - if our invested efforts never come to frutition, then what was the point of trying to begin with?

I'm not saying here that we can't learn from failure, but we can almost always learn more from success. It's more valuable to know entirely how a series of actions or possibilities can operate in an optimal fashion than to only be partially informed. After all, what could does it do to send your car to a car mechanic that doesn't know how EVERY component or part functions correctly?

Answer 5

I believe the quest is more important. No one ever got anywhere important or achieved anything great if the journey was not long, and often is, the hardest part of achieving the goal. You get no sense of satisfaction from achieving the goal if the journey was truly not hard.

Answer 6

Both. The quest, for the effort it implies; the goal, for it means you will start a new quest. It's a vicious never-ending circle in human beings: the quest for progress (material or not) is always present.

Answer 7

The quest is more valuable. Once you reach your goal, it is time to apply what you learned along the way and it may or may not have anything to do with the goal you strove so hard for.

Answer 8

The quest will potentially teach us more if only we keep our eyes open. Upon reaching a goal, it should simply reiterate the lessons learned yet perhaps not realized along the path, with a truly worthy goal only serving to pose yet another, deeper question.

Answer 9

A quest is simply a series of smaller goals, targeted at attaining yet another goal. If your goal is to make a million dollars, then a "smaller" goal would be to learn how to do it. Flip side, if the goal is to learn how to make a million dollars, the "smaller" goal would be to make a million dollars.

And any goal achieved has it's own intrinsic value. So to answer your question, it depends on the intrinsic value of each intermediate goal.

Answer 10

For me, it's the quest. Though it's the reward at the end that you're longing for, it's your journey, your adventure to have it, that teaches you certain lessons in life, that makes the act of reaching your goal sweeter, more satisfactory.