Be The Author Of Your Goals

One of the main things that I want to dedicate this essay to is the importance of consciously having goals, what effects that has on your life, and what effects the absence of it has on your life.

There are a bunch of self-help books, resources, and videos, each one saying that a different thing is the most important part of improving your life. They say that courage, agency, motivation, consistency, creativity, or whatever it is, are the skills or processes that matter most. But any one of these virtues or skills is not that valuable and might not compound to something as big as you believe without a very conscious, specific set of goals in different verticals of life that you want to achieve.

I've understood this from reflections on my personal life. I've been trying to learn different skills and do whatever was necessary, but somehow I didn't get the results I was promised I would get if I was creative, consistent, et cetera. It was only later that I realized I had subconscious goals that I was trying to pursue with all these different skills and processes in my life. The problem was that I didn't assess what I actually wanted, or not only what I wanted, but what would benefit me in the long term.

This is another thing that most people usually confuse: do what you want in life. Do what you feel passionate about. But maybe it's not only about being passionate about stuff. It's also about thinking rationally about what is good for you in the long term. Of course, choosing to do something that you are passionate about is also quite good for you in the long term. But the overall idea might not be as trivial as you think.

So let me backtrack. We've gone through people saying a bunch of different things online that you should do. I'm saying that those are legit, but before you do any of them, make sure that you have your goals straight, conscious, and thought through. Because if you don't, all of these skills probably won't compound in your life as much as you think they would, and they won't give you that much good.

When setting goals, I shared my own experience about not having all of my goals consciously thought through and reassessed. I think I had some goals that might have been caused by traumas in my childhood and, I don't know, in my past life. But now that I am gradually transitioning to these new goals, I'm finding it much easier. For my kind of personality, if I want something, I will obsess over it and make it my life's goal to do it. It makes it much easier for me to make hard decisions regarding my health and my life. Maybe not in all aspects, but at least in some of them.

Having goals that you sat down, wrote down, thought through, and imagined yourself pursuing is very important. Imagine that you will be in a certain context in five years if you pursue these goals, and that you like these goals. These things are important to fulfill your life, to have some fun every day, and to have a reason to wake up every day. I think that is one of the most important things.

So don't forget to reassess your goals. Make sure that you are the author of your goals, and make sure that you do everything to pursue those goals. Thank you.