As a therapist, I often hear some variation of the phrase “Once I achieve (x), I will finally feel happy” or “Once I am able to balance things, everything will fall into place.” I often hear this idea of being perpetually behind or always a few steps away from feeling finally settled. The interesting thing is, I often have clients feel like they finally achieve those things or check off the boxes and somehow they still don’t feel the relief or happiness they were expecting.