Given that lengthy lists are unachievable, they need to be slimmed down to a manageable and realistic size.
I was reading Ted Turner’s biography yesterday and this advice by his father stood out to me:
[Turner’s father] was having a really tough time reevaluating things and coming up with a plan for the rest of his life. He then told me something I've never forgotten. He said, "Son, you be sure to set your goals so high that you can't possibly accomplish them in one lifetime. That way you'll always have something ahead of you. I made the mistake of setting my goals too low and now I'm having a hard time coming up with new ones.”
His father ended up dying early and right in the midst of trying to sell his company out of fear, which the son Ted Turner wanted to run.
I think his father was basically right in that you shouldn’t set limits on your goals, as you just might achieve them all and not know what to do with yourself. Getting stuck in a local maximum is a very real risk for most people.
It’s better to adopt a mindset that accepts the fact that you won’t quite get everything you want, but what you do get will be vastly more than if you had just settled and “sacrificed for”, to use the author’s term. It’s more of a process-oriented outlook than a goal-achievement one.
I have to agree, I don't fulfill my dreams anymore (since they were pretty abstract to begin with), but rather have goals and just tick them. Of course I'll never cover all of them, if one does you just need to find an additional passion or dive deeper into existing one.
Couldn't do last week Tour du Mont Blanc bivouacking due to mild Morton's neuroma developing in my foot few weekends ago, so moving it to sometime next year. Even though I trained for it for past 6 months, the goal is not going away, just postponed (2nd time, first time broke 3 bones in my foot, I am no stranger to similar disappointments). Working on other goals in the meantime, adding/removing them continuously (finish getting motorbike license, progressing on paragliding, improving my french, kids & family etc).
Also, being parent and raising kids, there is endless stream of goals for solid 2 decades (and then some more) if you want to tell yourself you are a good parent and not end up with deep regrets and whys later. With a right mindset, you see goals everywhere just waiting for your interest, and end up realizing life is damn too short.
For me it is not 'a plan for the rest of my life', I really don't feel I need it, I'm currently content with what i have, what i _can_ do or buy, my job, my family situation, community service, etc.
Still, I seem/appear to have an untamable drive to do things that seem to spur from the creative side of my brain. It seems to be an incessant stream of thoughts, that I want to explore by mostly creating, fixing or optimizing.
I see that in my (in-law) family, most people are a lot less like that. As an example, if something is broken, the first reaction is a tendency for replacing it or having someone else fix it. If they want something, they buy; it doesn't come in their mind to create or derive it. If they don't have the money, they complain.
For some reason I am less like that, and I am really amazed by how some people try the easy way out by default, while fixing or creating seems to be so much more fulfilling.
I notice I am drifting, the Tldr is, a big 'plan for life' is not needed if you have some creativity and are open to looking around and finding opportunities for small fulfilling goals.
Completing goal isn't the objective. The objective is to get as far down the path as you can. It doesn't matter if you don't complete it. What matters is that you got as far as you can.
If you're not enjoying the process then it feels like treadmill that you want to get off. If you are enjoying it then it feels like an exhilarating, wild ride...
This is only the case if you're the sort of person who is unsatisfied or anxious while there are goals you haven't yet fulfilled. A mentality of "my life will begin once I've achieved X" which is a terrible way to go through life. Otherwise what is wrong with having an endless series of goals to work towards?
I don’t think it’s about being unsatisfied or unhappy with your current achievements, more just cultivating a mentality that there’s always something new to build and look forward to.
Given that lengthy lists are unachievable, they need to be slimmed down to a manageable and realistic size.
I was reading Ted Turner’s biography yesterday and this advice by his father stood out to me:
[Turner’s father] was having a really tough time reevaluating things and coming up with a plan for the rest of his life. He then told me something I've never forgotten. He said, "Son, you be sure to set your goals so high that you can't possibly accomplish them in one lifetime. That way you'll always have something ahead of you. I made the mistake of setting my goals too low and now I'm having a hard time coming up with new ones.”
His father ended up dying early and right in the midst of trying to sell his company out of fear, which the son Ted Turner wanted to run.
I think his father was basically right in that you shouldn’t set limits on your goals, as you just might achieve them all and not know what to do with yourself. Getting stuck in a local maximum is a very real risk for most people.
It’s better to adopt a mindset that accepts the fact that you won’t quite get everything you want, but what you do get will be vastly more than if you had just settled and “sacrificed for”, to use the author’s term. It’s more of a process-oriented outlook than a goal-achievement one.