Human beings have a natural affinity for success. We strive to achieve new goals in life and improve ourselves with each passing day. Moreover, we make different plans and set goals and targets for ourselves to be able to make things happen. Setting goals and targets is pivotal to achieving something worthwhile, and make the best use of our resources. However, we often trap ourselves in unrealistic goals and suffer in the long run.
Human beings are the most enchanting creation of almighty. Their ability to set goals, make decisions in life, their fortitude and mental acuity ensure their acme in the hierarchy of creatures. However, not every human being becomes successful in this world because of various natural as well as artificial reasons. Designing unrealistic goals becomes one such reason. Before I discourage setting up unrealistic goals, let me define an unrealistic goal.
A goal may be regarded as unrealistic when we don’t have enough resources, time, ability or knowledge at our disposal to achieve it. This definition holds good for both individual as well as organizational goals. An unrealistic goal is more likely to bring disappointments and frustration in the individual who tries to achieve it.
How would unrealistic goals make us suffer in the long run? You may ask. Let me answer this riddle in a more detail.
Unrealistic goals become our bane in life in the following ways :-
- Unrealistic goals and productivity: Verily, when a human being wishes to complete numerous tasks or sets goals without full consideration of the facts, he ends up doing nothing. His productivity goes down and he starts cramming his heart with rue, self-doubt and dissatisfaction. Don’t you see some people asking for the moon and then cursing their understanding when they get to know the truth of this world?
- Unrealistic goals and stress: Development of stress after formulating any goal is absolutely physiological because it fills us with requisite motivation and makes us work in an effective way. However, the stress one develops after designing unrealistic goals is noxious and absolutely detrimental. It makes us overthink and jittery. When overstressed, we become less productive and vulnerable to different mental ailments. Hence, it is necessary to take this thing into consideration before designing goals and targets.
- Unrealistic goals and mental health: Setting unrealistic goals sets individuals up for disappointments, frustration, anxiety and other psychiatric issues. Unrealistic goals can make a person feel dejected and unimportant when he /she fails to attain them. Failure is verily a pill hard to swallow for any human being. So when he fails to attain his goals, he loses interest in life and develops symptoms of atelophobia.
- Complacency: People who fail to achieve their goals in life have a hard time living peacefully and developing that true complacency in life. Unrealistic goals make people dissatisfied with themselves and their acumen. They develop self-doubts and curse their existence.
- Self-discovery and self-awareness: People who formulate unrealistic goals scarcely discover their true selves. They fail to bring forth their peculiar abilities and take irrational view of this world. With the result they fail to develop significant self-awareness and end up losing themselves to the repercussions of their quixotic plans and targets.
People of the current epoch wish to free themselves of all the problems they face. They imagine themselves breathing in a cozy, problem-free world, and delude themselves by formulating such quixotic goals. Be assured that you can not ever rid yourself of all the problems you suffer. Some may disappear with time but others would undoubtedly take the charge. Well, a human being without hitches and sufferings is an arrant myth. Yes, You will not be able to heal your all wounds up, some would definitely remain fresh and kicking. So obliterate the plans or ideas from your mind that promise you a problem free world because that is the most wicked and bootless ever goal set by people of this day and age.
Tailpiece:
So to sum up, unrealistic goals reap nothing except disappointments, frustration, anxiety, atelophobia, disruption in self – esteem, distortion in self-concept and unwanted stress. We need to reintrospect and figure out if we have designed unrealistic goals in life and should try our level best to relinquish them.
Tasaduq Maqbool Bhat is a student at South Campus, University of Kashmir