What do we mean by Success – Blog 12: Goal-Setting?

Setting goals and milestones is a part of life that comes naturally to so many. Goal-setting allows us to plan the different paths and routes that we want to explore in life, so the question rises, can we use them to determine whether or not we are successful? That’s what we’ll be looking at in today’s “What do we mean by Success?” blog!

Hello and Welcome to Sweeney’s Blogs!

Today’s blog is the twelfth blog in the “What do we mean by Success?” series and is all about whether we can use goal-setting as a measure of one’s success or not in life. People set goals and milestones for a vast number of things they do in life and the size of the goal can vary greatly, from things like climbing a mountain to simply having breakfast each day.

Goal-setting is where we make a plan/ a guide for how we are going to complete something in life. If I said that I was aiming to publish this blog on Monday 20th July then that would be a goal, it is something to work towards. One of the most interesting things about goal-setting to me is that the actual goal can vary dramatically, similar to how I mentioned in the introduction to this blog.

Whether I said that I was planning on running a marathon or even going for a quick walk, they are both goals that I would have in life. Granted I would need to plan and practice a lot more to run a marathon compared to simply going for a walk, but they are both still goals, nonetheless.

So, can we use the goals we set in life as a determiner of success? Would that be a fair measure of life?

This question is quite a hard one to answer in my opinion, as it greatly varies from person to person. When people set goals, some only do really big goals/milestones, others do a collection of small goals for the day/week/year and some do a combination of the two. So, would there be a way to compare the success of setting large goals to setting several smaller goals? What do you think?

If I had a goal to climb Mount Kilimanjaro and then a friend of mine had a goal to catch up with some old friends from school, who would be more successful? Can we even justly compare the two? Would I be more successful technically? As I had the more ambitious goal? Or would he be for having a more realistic one?

What if I had a friend who set 10 small goals and then I decided to set 2 big goals for myself, who would be the more ‘successful’ of us? Would it be possible to compare us? Would it depend on the goal, and the possibility of actually completing it or not?

Throughout school you are taught that when you are making goals, they should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely), does that play a part in our question? If a goal that we set is not SMART or seen as possible by others, whereas we see it as a possibility, does that differ the success of the goal in the long run?

If we were to determine success based off of the goals that we set, we would have to bring in factors such as the size of the goal, the number of goals and the possibility of completing the goals. It is all well and good having 30 really good large goals but if we make them so hard that we can never actually complete them, then is it worth it?

I do not always like to use SMART when making goals, but it can be a very useful starting point. If your goal is not achievable then can we say it is a goal? Or does it fall under a different category like a dream?

I love writing blogs for this series as it does all come down to your personal view of what success is. When I plan the blogs for the series, I simply look at what people think success is and form questions and topics off of that, it is quite a fun way to flip the coin on some simple beliefs and questions that we have in life.

Remember there is no right or wrong answer to the questions that I ask in this series, I am merely opening the doors to your imagination and letting you do the rest, Success has a different definition from person to person, if you disagree with me that is completely fine, if you agree, then great!

Personally I do not think that we can measure our success off of the goals that we set in life. I think that goal-setting plays a part, but does not tell the full story. To me, success is an amalgamation of a number of different factors. Success means something different to everybody so what does it mean to you? What is your view on success?

That’s all I want to talk about in today’s blog! Thank you all for reading! What do you think? Are you still enjoying the series? Is there anything else you would like me to cover in the series? What kind of other blogs are you looking for too? Are there any particular topics that you would like me to take a look at? Let me know and I will see what I can do!

Thank you all for reading and I hope you have a great day!