When missiles fly and air raid sirens go off three times a day, planning feels naive. But if we don't plan our own lives, someone else will plan them for us.
Is it even worth setting goals for 2024?
Some people would say that when missiles are flying and the air raid siren goes off three or four times a day, planning anything feels naive. You just want to hold it together emotionally.
Personally, I believe it is far easier to live and to carry hardship when we have at least some picture of the future. It can be a dim and modest one, but if there is a vision of our life for the years ahead, it helps us here and now.
A person is defined by their future, not by their past.
Many people plan nothing and set no goals because they don’t want to face disappointment when something falls through. What’s the point of writing anything down, they say, if reality will turn out different anyway?
But if we don’t plan our own lives, someone else will plan them for us.
I, for instance, took very little interest in politics before 2020, so I’m not surprised now that my country is being torn apart by corruption, incompetent decisions from those in power, and an external aggressor in the form of Russia.
So in those areas of life we let drift, we shouldn’t be surprised when someone else makes decisions for us that we won’t like.
When we set our own goals, it’s very unlikely that everything will go smoothly and easily. But when we have some next steps written down, even just on paper, then when things go off plan we at least roughly understand where we were supposed to end up. We have some vector of movement.
Deadlines, conditions, people, resources and much else can change. But when you understand where you’re heading, you keep getting closer to the goal, however slowly.
And when we move forward, we feel progress. And the feeling of progress always brings happiness.
A vision of a different future also helps carry the hardship and loss we face right now.
So, are you going to set any goals for 2024?
Want to go deeper?
Reading helps, but what changes a life is specific steps, not reading. Fifty minutes of conversation is usually enough to see which steps are yours.
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