I have been setting goals for the year for nearly twenty years. But this has been a failed process.

Looking back, I was setting the goals from a workplace context. I was not setting a vision for my life. In that sense, the goals were not my goals.

They were the goals of my company influencing my life. They were owning my life. I was mentally a slave to my workplace or company.

Twenty years down the road, I am still moving from job to job and going through the same cycle in a different company.

This sounds dramatic and pessimistic. But why do we do what we do? Why do we set goals for a year?

Is it to hit goals or to feel good? Or to get to somewhere? And what is that somewhere? Is it just the next station of life or are we chasing a valued destination?

Influence of the workplace in your life

The problem is you are influenced by what you consume in your personal and professional life. And you spend a lot of time at work which influences your life.

It programs your subconscious and conscious mind.

And if you work in a highly engaged workplace with long hours, the chance of your work determining your life and goals is a big possibility.

Who gets the major benefit of you hitting the goal

Let us assume your life goal is to be a director of your company or any company. If you have to work 12 hours a day for 15 years to be a director, who is benefitting from all that work?

Yes, you will get a higher salary, but aren’t they gaining all the upside of your work? Did you set that goal or did your company influence you to set that?

I once saved my company millions of dollars by finding a better workflow. I only got an eight percent salary increase after doing all the work.

I have no problem with goals influenced by the workplace. I had these goals and still have these goals.

But I am starting to question these goals more and more in my mind.

Are you chasing a goal or status

Let us say you achieve your goal and become a director. If you get made redundant, you don’t have anything to show except for a title.

Yes, you can become a director in another company. But you are just a higher-paid employee with a laurel on your head.

It is a hamster wheel that we are running continuously but not progressing well enough.

Imagine your life freely

The way I see it now is you have to design your life the way you imagine it. Those imaginations will determine your goals.

If you live in a big city, imagine living in a seaside town, working remotely, walking on the beach every morning, and watching the sunrise.

Or imagine living in a mountain where you could see the vastness from your window. Let the imagination flow and come up with what looks like an ideal life for you.

You have to be clear about why you want them, who influenced them, and how. Then you set your goal for the year that takes you one step towards that ideal life.

The yearly goal is not a goal in itself. It is a pathway to your destination. That destination has to be imagined in detail so that it can pull you from bed every morning.

That place has to contain everything that someone wants in life. It has to have all the elements of a holiday retreat. It has to have personal, professional, and spiritual elements.

The last thing you want in your life is someone telling you what to do directly or indirectly.

Downsides of not looking inside of yourself

I see too many people in the workplace who have done exactly what their boss wanted and have become something that I don’t want to be.

They never ventured outside of that company and tried things that could make them better. They are living in a bubble where they only know what the company taught them.

Job security has turned them into pigeons in a cage to some extent. There is great stability in working in the same company for thirty years.

I don’t deny that.

But do we want that stability that takes away the enjoyment of the highs of life? And the thrill of climbing up from the low points?

Why do you ride on a rollercoaster? So that you can enjoy the highs and lows. It is the excitement of adrenaline.

If life is devoid of that kind of excitement, it kills the joy of life.

And if you are working hard for a pat on the back from your boss or owner, then external validation is determining your life.

You must look inside your soul to find out what you want in life.

My process to determine the goal for life and the year

So my process to set goals is as below:

1. Design your dream life in ten to twenty years as the end of a train journey. This is your vision for life.

2. Write down as much detail as possible

3. Break that down to train stoppages

4. Now break that down to this year’s goal

5. Do this every year

The end destination of the train journey can change and that is OK.

That is life.

My destination or vision changed multiple times.

The worst thing is to not have a destination in mind and then you are just getting pushed by people around you or the society to reach their dream retreat.