Ideals and Happiness

Working towards a higher goal provides direction and impetus, setting us up on the path of happiness, facilitating the steps we take. Ideals come in many shapes and colors and include: becoming a compassionate self, a non-dual self, a tranquil self, a real self, a true self, a good person, a master, a light, or love. Without aspiring to an ideal we are tempted to fall back onto unconscious, primitive goals to secure our survival such as gaining relative advantages with power, money, security and comfort.
And yet, and yet.
If we put ourselves under pressure with our ideal, it no longer serves our happiness, but begins to stand in the way. Guilt and shame are common responses. But there are even worse responses, such as self-deception and outward lies. Some solve the tension between real self and ideal self by pretending to have arrived at the ideal. At this point we better say: "Hokus-pokus," because perfect human beings do not exist, a fact that should be perfectly alright with us.
No being is perfect and will ever be. Only Being is, and, luckily, we are part of that.