Goals

Life goals are something that people set themselves and work hard to achieve. These goals
could be something you personally want to achieve in your career, such as working your way up
in a company to end up in a well paid job that you are happy in. Life goals can also be personal,
where people set themselves the goal of buying a house, getting married and having a family. A
further type of goal is an academic one. This could be the wish to gain a college degree or a
Masters. Life goals are personal to the individual who sets them; one person might see climbing
the career ladder as more important than starting a family and getting married.

There is a debate as to whether people should actually set themselves life goals. Some people
may find that the process has a positive effect on them as it provides something to work
towards. However how would an individual feel if they didn’t reach their goal? Would it make
them feel like a failure, even if they had a number of other achievements under their belt that
they never put on their life goal list? This poses the question whether life goals impact a person
positively or negatively. Is setting goals a way to motivate a person, or a way to make them feel
worthless if the goals are not met?

One problem with life goals is that when unrealistic ones are set, it can lead to self-esteem
issues, depression and a feeling of failure. In order to overcome this it is important that realistic
and obtainable goals are set. While it is good to dream big, it is necessary to realistically
consider exactly how possible the goal will be. For example, saving up for a once in a life time
holiday or to go traveling is much more realistic than purchasing a million dollar mansion in
Beverly Hills.

There is a difference between goals and pipe dreams, something that many of us forget. A life
spent chasing pipe dreams and not focusing on what is actually possible could lead to a lifetime
of feeling disappointed and unfulfilled. Life goals should be something that could be on the
cards for you when you work hard and study hard.

It has to be said that life goals do give you clarity on your end vision and where you see yourself
in the future. Bill Copeland once said, “If you don’t have a goal in life, you are spending your life
running around and not achieving anything for yourself”. This basically means that you are busy
doing but not working towards anything and building the future the way that you see it and want
it. Setting goals helps you to channel your energy and time on the things that are important to
you, making you live more consciously.

Setting life goals can be very beneficial to some people and help them to set the future how they
want it. Unrealistic life goals however pose a problem. When goals are set that are unobtainable
with the amount of time and skill you have then they can leave you feeling worthless. To avoid
this people must learn the difference

Discussion questions

1) What are your biggest goals in life? How do you plan to achieve them?
2) Why do you think it's important for people to have goals?
3) Do you have any goals that you think are unrealistic?
4) Share about a goal that you have achieved for yourself in the past?
5) What would your life look like if you achieved all of your goals?