Biding one's time

One's goals cannot be accomplished in an instant. They must be pursued with patience, building up from a base that for a long time little resembles what it is meant to become. It is pointless, if not impossible, to try to do this long work without break. During the necessary lulls, it makes sense to seek distraction. But if the goal is so distant as to be out of sight, how to recognize the line between seeking a distraction from the pursuit of it and trying to fill up one's time while, in reality, the goal grows no closer? At some point, it is difficult to dispel the fear that one is biding one's time in a hollow life that is not destined to become full. At that point, what is one to do? Continue on, now distracting oneself from that fear as well? But if not that, what, as long as one remains convinced that one's is fundamentally the right one?