Want

In #1 you no longer want it. You used to want to achieve something but not anymore.

In #2 you still want to achieve sth.


The second one sounds better to me. I mean, if you no longer want it then why achieve it?

The first one sets the time of establishing what the person wants in the past. He still may want it, but when the goal was established in the past, that was what was wanted then.

In practice, unless the desires have changed significantly, there's not much difference.

However, the weirdness comes from "what you've done" (which sounds like whatever it is is now in the past) and "if

Hi GG,

I think that it would be better to say:

Even if you cannot achieve everything that you (originally) wanted, you will learn many things from what you've done (so far).

Does that 'everything' save the sentence to you? I also can think of adding 'originally' in order to hang this want somewhere in time. Also 'so far' at the end would clarify the meaning.

Hi Michal,

I don't need the "originally" stated - it's implicit to me.

Adding "so far" does put the sentence in the mid-stream of starting and finishing, but it's not clear to me the original author intended it that way, instead of simply making a mistake in tense.

GG,
About #1, isn't this interpretation possible?
(1)Even if you cannot achieve what you wanted, you will learn many things from what you've done.
?You had a dream. And now you find that you cannot achieve it. But even if so, you've done many things to achieve it. You will learn something important from your experience, what you've done.

Well, maybe. But it blocks off any possibility that I will EVER achieve what I wanted.

But why is my learning in the future, when the experience of doing whatever I've done is in the past?

Do you usually learn something much later than the time you perform the act?

These two make sense to me:

You didn't achieve what you wanted, but you did learn things from what

Grammar GeekWell, maybe. But it blocks off any possibility that I will EVER achieve what I wanted.
Isn't that kind of blocking off practically possible?

Grammar GeekBut why is my learning in the future, when the experience of doing whatever I've done is in the past?
Do you usually learn something much later than the time you perform the act

The realization that you learned something may come later, but the learning took place already. Or you require more context to make what you did in the past have relevence to the current situation to learn something.

The original simply doesn't read naturally. It requires too many "well, it could mean this" to make the sentence plausible.

I don't really have anything else to add

Grammar Geek...more context to make what you did in the past have relevence to the current situation to learn something.

Although you said you didn't have anything to add, allow me to ask this final question. 
Do you mean that with such context, #1 sounds OK?

Hi guys,
1)Even if you cannot achieve what you wanted, you will learn many things from what you've done.

I share the reservations already expressed about this sentence. It seems to require a bit too much mental effort from the reader.

Very broadly speaking, in English the onus is considered to be on the writer to make it as easy as possible for the reader to un