Setting Realistic Goals

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"You must do what you feel is right, of course."

- "Ben" Obi-Wan Kenobi

Developing the habit of setting and achieving realistic goals is important to any career for a number of reasons, not the least of which is boosting confidence. Breaking down large goals into manageable steps offers a roadmap to your dreams. Making your goals realistic and attainable make yours dreams more accessible and increases your chances of realizing them. There are no guarantees, which makes every advantage you can get all the more valuable.

Setting goals helps us track our progress through life. It forces one to identify desired acheivements and analyze them beyond simple dreaming. Realistic goals help define exactly what we want to do and gives us landmarks to show us how far we've come. Incremental goals help break down a large, overwhelming idea into manageable chunks. Our goals become an algorithm or formula driving our activities.

Goals founded in the real world helps us maintain momentum and perspective during good and bad times. Failures will occur, and being able to look back on your track record of success can give you the strength to keep moving forward. Realistic goals also help prevent you from slacking when things seem to be going your way. Rather than coasting on past success you are driven to acheive more and continue on your defined path.

Choose your goals carefully. Put real thought into what you want to accomplish, when and why. Lofty goals are not to be discouraged, but carefully consider if the goal you think you have is something you actually want. It's easy to say you want to be a world-class director, or a rock star, but those acheivements come with prices as well as perks. Directors are responsible for multi-million dollar pojects, they have a lot of pressure and stress, and not a lot of time for socializing. The dream of being a famous director often doesn't include the nights with only 3 hours of sleep and the deluge of questions that must be answered, correctly, every day. I would wager that there are more people who are capable of being directors than actually want to be directors.

Similar consideration must be given to the idea of fame. There are many glamorous, public perks that go along with fame. There's also a high price to be paid. Activities taken for granted by most people become impossible for those with certain levels of fame. Going to the grocery store, walking down the street, shopping at a mall - these become spectacles if you have a recognizable face. Meeting and making new friends can become exceedingly difficult. There is always the prospect that your new 'buddy' is only looking to take advantage of your position and generosity. Fame can be as costly as wealth in the amount of trust one can extend. Fame combined with wealth can drive people to insanity. Wealth can be lost easily, fame is more difficult to return.