It is assumed that the objective of having an 'aim' is about clearly identifying what it is you want to achieve. The almost infinite array of planning design and implementation strategies - such as KPIs, milestones, contingencies, outcomes and outputs - all attest to the processes of aim identification and the means of achieving it.
However, the hidden or real objective of having an aim is about acquiring the necessary 'energy' to achieve it. Without the requisite quality and quantity of energy ('passion' or 'drive') to see the aim come to fruition, it simply evaporates into wishful thinking. But where does this energy come from, and how do we access it?
Most aims in life die a quick death.
Time, as we perceive it, does not exist. It is born in a higher dimension. It is the force of creation. Time is fluid.
The degree in which we are able to formulate an aim based on understanding, validated through the action of experience, and felt through conviction, enables a part of our consciousness to access an equal degree of potential energy from the future - the 'reservoir of possibilities'.
The 'past' has already actualized (lost most of its possibilities), though is still accessible to our consciousness through memory. But memories can only feed us to a limited degree before it exhausts itself.
The 'present' is the juxtaposition of potentiality and actuality. We have a choice between allowing the energy of the future to actualize in predictable habits or consciously engage it to sustain possibilities. Here lies our true purpose that can express itself in so many different ways.
The possibilities of the present are always perishing to the past, and in constant need of replenishment from the future.
Aims are like little steppingstones, helping to access the necessary energy from the future to draw us upward and inward. Those who have no aim naturally become lost, paralyzed to the outside, as they cease to have access to the very energy that makes the present moment 'alive'.
When an aim is 'temporally' close and connected to the body, the energy is easier to access because of its force and immediacy, but also dissipates as soon as the task is accomplished.
For example, when the body is thirsty, it instinctively taps into the energy of the future to ensure that it supplies and arouses all one's attention and action into finding water. When thirst is quenched, the energy that fuels this action subsides almost immediately.
When an aim is temporally distant and connected to the intellect, the energy is much more difficult to access if it is not anchored to the body and tethered to the feelings.
For example, the aim of completing a course of formal education requires a a sufficiently strong conviction to provide the energy to make constant efforts to complete the studies no matter what the difficulties. 'Renewal' of conviction to sustain the disciplined efforts to achieve a long term aim requires a special form of joyful suffering.
Spiritual work - or really spiritual engineering - is a work of progressively accessing the future to power the present and revitalize the past.