March 26, 2022

Whenever we talk about success, we talk about goals. The setting of goals is the most common advice given by our teachers, elders, and friends. You would have heard that a life without an aim is just like a ship sailing without a destination. Without goals, life hits you in an unexpected way! You can’t even fail without having any goal, you will fail only if you don’t get to where you had wanted to go. Our life also requires a direction, in the same manner, a traveler needs a map to decide how to reach his destination. Some people set their goals early in their lives whereas some find them pretty late in their lives. We need a goal in life as it gives us a starting point as well as the destination. A psychological study says when you don’t have a goal, you become anxious, uncomfortable and, our mind thinks about it which means our mind is designed to have some goals. A whole lot of people work very hard, still, they are not successful, why? Your life can be drastically changed if you have a list of goals. Life is a big journey if you don’t have specifications, you won’t reach anywhere. WHAT SHOULD BE THE CRITERIA TO CHOOSE YOUR GOAL? Is your life precious to you, if it is precious to you what are you going to do with your life, where are you going to invest your life into? Something that concerns, isn’t? A whole lot of people are deciding what to do depending upon what they will get out of it, will I get this type of lifestyle, money. This is what they are thinking, which is a wrong way to approach because you’ll have everything but you’ll have nothing at the end of your life. Look, you must not be driven by your age group, your parents, and teachers, without any kind of influence look at it what is it that you want to invest your life into, what is it that will be truly worthwhile today and will be worthwhile after 30 years or so. If you are not devoted to what you are doing, you will never do anything in your life. So, see if today you invest your life in something and after some years when you will look back to it, will you be proud of it? What do you think? So, this should be the basis of your goal, but what more should be added other than this? Your goal should be‐ Motivating‐ It should motivate you so that you may sustain your journey. Specific‐ This means it should be clearly defined. Realistic‐ It should be what you can achieve as per your potential, don’t set your goals very high. Measurable‐ There should be a scoreboard so that you may see where you are. Challenging‐ Your goal should be realistic but challenging so that it may push you to extend your capabilities, otherwise it will be boring and you will quit. Time bounded‐ If you set a time limit for your goal, it will be more effective and achievable as it gives a sense of urgency. Don’t forget to evaluate yourself, track yourself so that you can get a line of sight‐ where you were and where are you right now. This will help in adjusting your goal difficulty whenever necessary. For example‐ If it is taking very long to achieve your target then you can simply break it into small achievable chunks. IS IT GOOD IF YOU DON’T HAVE A GOAL IN LIFE? You guys are dedicated to whatever you think is the current goal of your life right now. It may be that the goal that you have set right now will not even be relevant to you in 4 years or in your near future, isn’t it? So, you are wasting your life as you are going in a direction which may not mean a damn to you tomorrow. It is possible unless and until you freeze yourself and you don’t grow yourself then the same thing will mean something to you. Otherwise, if you are exploring and growing what means a lot to you today may not mean anything in a little bit of time. So, you must leave all these. Whatever is your area of engagement, you involve yourself in that if you do best with what is happening today, tomorrow will be better. How deeply you guys are engaged today with your present would determine the quality of life that you will lead tomorrow, isn’t? If you don’t engage yourself today, either you succeed in life or not, you will be miserable. You must become process‐oriented instead of being goal‐oriented, if you are devoted to the process, obviously no one can stop you from achieving your goal. For example‐ let’s say India want to win the cricket match against Pakistan, the Indian team need to hit the ball, isn’t? If the Indian team hits the ball well, they may win. If they say I want to win, they are fooling themselves. The scenario is you want to achieve the goal without going through the process, but the life doesn’t work like that. The consequence is not your business but the process involved is your concern. If you are doing right thing with present, consequence will come. Getting engaged with the consequences will make you miserable doesn’t matter you are successful or not. So, you can say sometimes not having a goal is also worth while. CONCLUSION: You must have a list of goals to be successful but it should be flexible because nothing in this world remains the same for very long, otherwise, it will be boring and you will quit the game. Sometimes having a goal is not good as well, if you are evolving and growing, what means a lot to you today may not mean anything in 2 years or so, your goal will be variable. So, in