Nowadays, people tend to adopt an achievement-oriented mindset, thinking about their life as a task list they ought to complete. Thus, they ignore the beauty of everyday things surrounding them. For example, modern parents bring up their children nearly automatically instead of enjoying leisure time together. Yes, adults care about food, health, well-being, and academic performance, but how much do they have in common with the kids? How close are they to their children?

These questions occurred to the author during his last trip to Spain. He was spending time hiking with his friends in the local picturesque mountains. Then, he noticed that he kept missing his peers behind him. At first, he did not understand why. But then, it turned out that they were enjoying the magnifying sights instead of just going forward. He did not perceive the trip as an adorable evening with his close people but considered it an aim to achieve.

Both the author himself and we tend to miss out on all the "useless time" when we are not as productive as we want to see ourselves. A goal-directed mindset is to blame. That is such a pity! The time spent with family or walking up the hill is the lucky chance to make us happier. Who is guilty of making us that much keen on achievements? Maybe it’s the technical progress that forces us to become as effective as machines and gadgets. While attempting to achieve this goal, we forget they can complete the same work in a non-stop mode because they are created to do it.

But we are not machines! Unfortunately, the society still wants us to work in a robotic manner, and you can accidentally promote it. Have you ever praised your colleague who replies fast to all the messages? Probably, yes. However, if they had answered slower, their response might have had better quality.

Due to the surroundings, we stop ourselves from having even the slightest possible rest. Machines do not pause, so why should we? We think that it will worsen the quality and speed of our work. But we forget that life has more to offer us, like traveling or quality family time.