Work to your Goals not Anyone Else's

Be yourself, advised Oscar Wilde, everyone else is already taken

The same should apply to what we do in life. If there is an authentic life to be lived, it has to come from setting goals that mean something.

If you're working to someone else's goals, that's not you.

Clearly, there are goals that we buy into, and there are always goals that are imposed on us, mainly through work, but also through family or wider societal influences. But, the fact that we work to these goals doesn't make them ours.

We can all carve out our own personal goals; things that mean something to us. It shouldn't matter what anyone else thinks of them. Your goals are yours, other people can get their own.

I don't think you need to be naturally goal oriented for this to matter. It isn't necessary to have a fully articulated goal in order to start working towards something worthwhile. Look to the things you do that create joy or a sense of achievement and they are the things that matter.

They are the things that goals can be wrapped around.

The annual cycle of goals and goal setting can be wearying, especially when they're not ours. I think it's possible to become less jaded about the idea and process of goal setting if you take the time to concentrate on purely personal things you want to do.

Have some things just for you. These are goals that you don’t have to achieve in order to get something from them. They can be goals that get you started. Things that inspire you to take a first step.

Start on something and you don’t know where it may lead to. Don’t start, and you know exactly where you’ll be.