If you're not imbued with a vision -- of anything -- you're not really alive. Could only be finding a really good cup of coffee....

To me, an ideal is a standard you strive for. Problem is that when you reach it you can stop there or move the goalpost.

If you stop, you've only achieved the minimum possible. I know of one 'catter who stopped for years and is RIGHT NOW moving forward again, going through hell to regain what was lost.

The standard has been moved, the ideal is changed.

Stopping means dying.