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Judgment Day has been with him all his life, even in the womb. His mother's anxious counting of the day -- not until her due date -- but the days she had left to prepare her son for the end of the world.
Needless to say, it hadn't been a normal childhood.
At some point he stops believing they can stop Skynet, stop Judgment Day. He starts to believe in the Skynet myth -- it evolves, it wants to survive, so it finds a way. It always finds a way.
From that point on, it's about mitigating losses. It's not about how many people he can save, it's about how much suffering he might prevent.
John thinks it might be easier that way. No savior or messiah, he'll do his part, just like the rest of them.
It doesn't stop the dreams.
They fight and they hide, preparing always for the next battle.
One day there will be no reason to hide, only a reason to keep fighting. He will be alone, his mother, who was so good at surviving, survives no more. Everyone -- everything -- else becomes a paradox in that instant. He'll be out of time, his future stretched before him .
And on that day -- Judgment Day -- he won't be John Baum, or any of the other Johns he's ever been. On that day, he'll finally be John Connor, leader of the human resistance.
And no savior, he.