Continuing from my last post, what is an appropriate goal? Before jumping directly to an answer, take a step back to think about the goals you have set in your life thus far. Do they consist of easy tasks, hard tasks, beneficial ones or simple ones? If they are a mixture of all of these then go one step further, how have these task helped you to excel in life? Now I know this is a lot to ask but trust me, the answers will not just surprise you but take you through your life or at least portions of it.

That said, I’d like to answer the initial question from my own experience briefly.

Throughout my years in boarding school (last 4 years of school before university) all of my teachers expressed the need for goals. They claimed that creating goals help to keep us on the right path. Moreover, goals allowed them to better educate us for life outside of a structured school environment. Yet, I never figured out how they could better educate us. They already had a syllabus as well as a list of requirements that we must learn. Since I am a very analytical person, always questioning if my goals were fit for the current path was necessary. The answer was always the same, If you believe it you can achieve it, even though this did not fully answer my question. Just because I set a goal to be an astronaut and believe as hard as I can, it will come true. A very unrealistic notion if you ask me, there is much more than belief which, is qualifications in conjunction with the ability to meet them. Therefore, asking questions, researching and analyzing became integral for me since they provide proof of possibility.

Now I know this seems overwhelming, especially since it means spending a lot of time preparing instead of just acting. Furthermore, a time-consuming system to set goals but it is not. The system is quite simple to me since I have defined an appropriate goal by three criteria.

What is an Appropriate Goal

The first criterion is why. Why is this something I’d like to achieve? The answer could be as simple as, I want to or as complex as this will lay down the foundation for my future. My preference is to have a complex answer to keeping motivation high. Furthermore, from experience, people naturally want to do everything, especially when it involves tasks, which do not require a lot of thinking or effort. Therefore, these tasks have to be rummaged through to find ones that require more brainpower.

Feasibility is the second on the list to avoid unrealistic tasks. There are a lot of possibilities that can be achieved through hard work. Yet, understanding the reality of investing days, months, years in a task is crucial.

Lastly, figuring how to get the task done is by far the most difficult of the three criteria because it requires us to be action-oriented. It is easy to mentally map something out but then acting upon it is a whole new ball game. Thus, it is necessary to layout mini-tasks to complete the larger one. This does not mean breaking down a daily goal into a series of hourly ones but rather weekly goals into daily ones, weekly into monthly, so on so forth

That said, using these three in combination is how I justify my goals or for this post label them as appropriate. A system created to make sure I am always moving forward.

What’s The Point

I am in not trying to say that you should have goals or follow my criteria, Instead, I am trying to use it as a starting point. For those of you who want to hold themselves accountable. Moreover, a new tool to add in your toolbox for future reference.

I know that having weekly goals is a good way to keep moving forward. Instead of monthly and yearly goals that cause us to wait until the end to begin them. I know we tell ourselves the previous statement isn’t true but deep down we know otherwise. Particularly when life starts snowballing and slowing down is not an option. Tasks begin to pile up, social engagements become abundant and the tough situations like life goals get sidelined.

There are a few ways to reel us back, during these times but I find that having a system is simple and very effective. Generating a weekly set of goals is my go-to one. Others prefer daily social media blackouts, work only afternoons or shifting between distractions and actions. What you chose does not matter as long as it helps get you where you want to be.

As always, Hope you learned something from this post and are eager for more! Like, Share, Bookmark and get ready for more weekly content.