Chasing the Horizon: When Success Still Feels Hollow

I used to believe peace lived just beyond the next milestone.

If I could land the promotion, deliver the big project, earn the recognition, then the ache inside me would finally quiet down. Every rung on the ladder felt like a step closer to relief.

And for a moment, after each win, there was a rush. The inbox full of congratulations. The nods of approval. The sense that maybe this time I had proven myself enough to exhale.

But the relief never lasted. The horizon always stretched further. Instead of feeling settled, I felt emptier. The cycle repeated: achieve, arrive, feel the high, and then crash into the same hollow place.

That is the trap of chasing the horizon. Success looks solid from a distance, but when you reach it, the ground feels shaky.

The Hunger Beneath Achievement

Here is what no one tells you: achievement can feed the ego while starving the soul.

On the outside, it looks like drive. On the inside, it often feels like depletion.

The hunger beneath achievement is not for the title or the award. It is for wholeness. But because we were raised to equate worth with output, we keep running after the next external marker.