So, what is life about?

Some say targets give life a meaning.

Could be. After all, targets give something to work for, the feeling of moving forwards, and in a best case, the sense of self-improvement and finally sense of achievement and hopefully satisfaction.

Targets give focus and context for every day -decisions. If you have set targets and mirror every day choices constantly to those it is easy to choose between reading or sports, meeting new people or old friends, sleeping or facebook – and I don’t say which one is better!

It is just good to realize all have the same 24 hours, seven days per week. Some say they are busy, but often it tells actually much more about their priorization than about the actual business.

Know your values

To set targets you have to know your values. Or in a longer, more serious sense somehow, what do you think life is about and what you want out of it. If you say nothing, well… You do not even want to try to make the world a better place? If you are totally lost (I don’t judge, neither did I always know where I was going) you can try to figure out your views and values with the following questionnare:

What you wanted to do when you were 8-years old?

What do you think you are good at and what do you enjoy doing?

What have other said you are good at?

What things in life are important for you?

What motivates you?

If you would just live for a year, what would you do?

What would you like your grandchildren to think about you?

Personally, I have a bit… Double-faced attitude to targets. I have had some, I had hit those I had seriously wanted, sometimes I have given up a target because I have noticed it is not worth reaching, and… I can also relate to the quote by Joseph Campbell:

We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.

It does not mean that targets would be useless. But, sometimes it is good to be eyes open, because Neil Amstrong would have never becomen an astronaut if he would have been obsessed becoming a doctor. Or something.