Life Goals

Have you ever had an interview for a job or seen one on TV? Almost every time, you’ll hear the question “where do you see yourself in 10 years?” What is the point of this question? This question is meant to get an idea about the person’s life goals – what they want to have happen in their life and what is important for them.

Life goals actually include lots of different things: career goals (what ideas you have about what you want to do for work), educational goals (how much schooling are you likely to pursue) economic goals (how important or what are your ideas about how important earning money is for you and how much you feel you want to earn), family goals (things like relationships and having children), even geographic goals (where do you think you want to live as an adult?).

Think about where you expect you will be in your life in 10 or 25 years. You probably can come up with some ideas. Do you see how the different parts of this puzzle actually fit together in several ways? If you hope to be a lawyer, you cannot at the same time realistically imagine that you will finish your schooling after high school. It is unlikely you’ll be able to reach a goal of being a famous singer if you are tone deaf and can’t carry a tune. As we grow up, hopefully our life goals become more closely connected to our real abilities and circumstances.

Why is it important to have life goals?
Imagine someone who had nothing that they felt was important for them; nothing to pursue and nothing to do. What would lead you to get out of bed in the morning and study or go to work? Just like in a football or soccer game, these goals give us a series of lines to work towards – they motivate us to accomplish things that matter to us. Without a goal we would just stand around in the field of life not knowing which way to go. We can have short term goals like doing well on a test or taking a trip, medium term goals like graduating high school or college, or finding a life partner, and longer term goals like having an interesting and rewarding career.

So, try to be aware of your goals and keep evaluating and refining them as you grow and learn more –they will help direct you through your life!