The Silence Between My Goals Was the Loudest Part

I’ve always been a goal-setter.

Vision boards, color-coded planners, motivational podcasts — I lived for them. There was something exhilarating about deciding on a destination and mapping the exact steps to get there.

For years, my life was one long to-do list. I’d chase a goal, check it off, and immediately set the next one. Degrees, job promotions, personal milestones — I lined them up like dominoes and knocked them down, one after the other.

And yet, no matter how many goals I reached, I never quite felt… satisfied. I didn’t understand why.

It wasn’t until life slowed me down — against my will — that I realized the problem wasn’t my goals. It was the silence between them.

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When the noise stopped

A few years ago, I achieved something I had worked toward for months. I expected to feel unstoppable. Instead, a week later, I felt restless. There was no next step yet, no fresh challenge to throw myself into. I was floating in the “in-between” space — that strange pause after one chapter closes and before the next begins.

At first, I tried to fill the silence. I started researching new goals, rearranging my plans, even creating tasks just so I could check them off. But the quiet kept seeping through.

It made me uncomfortable. It felt like a waste of time. I told myself I was losing momentum, that I had to “stay productive.” But the truth was, I didn’t know how to simply be.

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The uncomfortable truth about “in-between” moments

We don’t talk enough about what it feels like when nothing major is happening. Social media is full of highlight reels — big wins, exciting announcements, new adventures. No one posts about the quiet stretches where you’re not actively building, achieving, or celebrating.

And yet, those stretches are where most of life actually happens.

In my silence, I started noticing things I’d overlooked while chasing my next goal. The way the morning sun hit my kitchen counter. The smell of fresh coffee. The sound of rain on my windows. Conversations with friends that went nowhere “productive” but left me feeling lighter.

The quiet wasn’t empty. It was full — just not in the way I was used to measuring.

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What the silence taught me

The more I sat in that in-between space, the more I realized I had been rushing from goal to goal because I was afraid of stopping. Afraid that if I paused, I’d lose my worth. Afraid of seeing who I was without the constant validation of achievement.

But the silence stripped those fears bare.

It taught me that my life is not only defined by the mountains I climb, but also by the valleys I walk through slowly. That who I am between my goals is just as important — maybe more so — than who I am when I cross a finish line.

It gave me room to breathe, to reflect, to notice what I truly wanted before running toward something new. It reminded me that growth doesn’t always look like motion. Sometimes it looks like stillness.

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Learning to live in the spaces between

Now, I still set goals. I still love working toward something. But I no longer panic when I find myself in that quiet space after the finish line and before the starting gun.

I linger there.

I take walks without tracking my steps.

I write in my journal with no purpose other than to get my thoughts out.

I make dinner slowly, without rushing to the next thing.

I’ve learned that these pauses are not delays in my life — they are my life. The silence between my goals is where I reconnect with myself, where I make space for new ideas to form, where I remember that joy doesn’t have to be earned.

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Moral of the Story:

Life isn’t just about the goals you reach — it’s also about the person you become in the spaces between them. The quiet moments are not wasted time; they are where you gather strength, clarity, and joy for what’s next. Don’t rush through them.

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Thank you for reading...

Regards: Fazal Hadi