They say you think up the most random and interesting thoughts during showers. While I was taking a shower and scribbling random Chinese characters on my glass door, I drew a 目(which means eyes, but not literally). Somehow that got me to thinking of all the Chinese drama I’ve seen and it was common for many to use the phrase muk cin (mu qian in Mandarin) which from context I gather to mean, in front of us (usually referring to decisions leading to different paths). For some reason I had always associated that as 木前, which would translate to in front of wood. That never did make much sense to me. Haven’t really thought about it in a long time, but some how things clicked and I realized the actual phrase should be 目前 which would mean in front of our eyes. Now it makes a lot more sense.
I guess the best translation I can come up with in English is: from what I can see
Interesting… 目的 also uses 目. 目的 translates to goal/destination. I wonder how those 2 characters came about to mean that…
Update: Upon further consideration, I think I figured out why 目的 came to mean objective/goal. 目的 literally translates to eye’s (possessive form of eye). I guess what you have your eyes set on is your objective. (-_^x)