📘 Part 3: Goal setting and achievement

This episode's vocabulary

Concrete (adj.) - clear and certain, or real and existing in a form that can be seen or felt.

To wind up (phrasal verb) - to come to be in a particular situation or condition, esp. a bad one.

To stagnate (verb) - to stay the same and not grow or develop.

SMART (adj.) - Specific, Measurable, Agreed (or Achievable), Realistic, and Time-Bound (or Timed): a phrase to say that the aims of a company, employee, etc. should be stated in relation to these things.

Demoralized (adj.) - having lost your confidence, enthusiasm, and hope.

Detrimental (adj.) - causing harm or damage.

Ultimate (adj.) - most important, highest, last, or final.

Long-term (adj.) - continuing a long time into the future.

Short-term (adj.) - lasting a short time.

Susceptible (adj.) - easily influenced or harmed by something.

To ramp something up (phrasal verb) - to increase the speed, power, or cost of something.

By and large (idiom) - when everything about a situation is considered together.

Miniature (adj.) - used to describe something that is a very small copy of an object.

To go on one's merry way (phrase) - to leave a place.

Strife (noun) - violent or angry disagreement.

Questions and Answers

M: Why do you think it's important for people to have goals?

R: Well, you need something to aim for in life, don't you? Otherwise, what's the point? If you don't have something concrete to guide you, then you just wind up stagnating or worse, going backwards.

M: What kinds of goals are not realistic?

R: I mean, we have this SMART acronym for goals. So any goal that couldn't be described by those adjectives might not be very realistic. So something like just saying you want to be an astronaut is not going to be enough. You need to know what kind and when and the steps to get there, etc.

M: What can happen if goals are unrealistic?

R: Well, probably, people could become demoralized, not see the point in trying or carrying on with things. If they're working in a team, that might actually be detrimental to the team as a whole too, rather than just one person, since the ill feeling will inevitably spread.

M: What's the difference between a long-term and a short-term goal?

R: I suppose the time taken to achieve them. And the long-term one might be the ultimate goal, but the short-term goal might be something like a step towards making it there. For example, if you want to be stronger, that could be the long-term goal. But making sure you go to the gym a fixed number of times each week would be a series of short-term ones.

M: Do you believe that young people face more pressure nowadays to achieve certain goals?

R: I think anyone susceptible to feeling pressure to do things will feel it but others will not. I'm not sure that's a generational thing. I mean, people say there's more competition nowadays. But I think that's always been the case. Maybe the goals have changed, though, which could ramp up the pressure in different ways. So that's something to consider.

M: What kind of goals do young people often have?

R: The same ones they have always had, by and large. So to be miniature versions of their parents only bigger and better and never admitting that they are similar. They want to have families, but not ones like the ones they came from, for example.

M: What role do you think technology plays in helping people achieve their goals?

R: I mean, it makes it much easier. If your goal is to make a film, you can do that with the phone in your pocket. Whereas before you needed a whole crew to do it. Aside from easing the process, I'm not sure what else I can say, really.

M: And can technology prevent people from achieving their goals?

R: Well, it could, if they become addicted to it for whatever reason and become distracted from achieving the goal, then yes, but I think that's to do with addiction more than the technology itself.

M: Should parents set goals for the children or should children be allowed to set their own goals?

R: Oh, well, I imagine parents have goals for their children, whether they want them or not. They can't help imagining what the life they might create might achieve. However, whether they should make those goals, the most expressed thing or the most clearly stated thing, as always depends on the culture and the context. I mean, in some cases, it might be fine to let kids go on their merry way and do what they like. But in others like in the case of a severe or just general severe shortage and social strife, you're going to want people with a very specific set of skills.

Discussion

M: Hey! So goals. What verbs do we use with goals? So we set goals, we achieve goals.

R: You reach your goal, you attain the goal.

M: What about achievements?

R: The same thing, actually. Oh, except you don't achieve your achievements, that might be a bit silly.

M: You need something to aim for in life. So we aim for something. And here, the proposition is kind of at the end, you need something to aim for. Otherwise, what's the point? And here Rory uses a rhetorical question effectively. So you need something to aim for in life, don't you? Or it goes like, don't you?

R: You need something to aim for in life, don't you? Otherwise, what's the point?

M: Yeah, it's kind of like it's not a question. So don't you? Because like you know yes, it is true. So you're not asking a question. But it is a question, technically. If you don't have something concrete to guide you. Concrete? Like specific things to guide you. Yeah?

R: But that's just something that you can actually reach. Like you can, you can talk about it and say. It's not something abstract, that just exists in the ether. You actually have something that will get you, you know, you can see it and touch it. Something concrete.

M: Yeah. Then you end up stagnating or you wind up, stagnating. So end up doing something or wind up doing something. So you kind of like. You finish your life. Stagnating. Stagnating? Not developing. Actually stagnate is a negative verb and a negative idea, to stay the same, not grow or develop. Like his music career stagnated. So kind of didn't grow. So if people don't have goals, they could end up stagnating or going backwards. So backwards, not like forwards. But just going back to where they started. Goals could be realistic and unrealistic. And the SMART acronym stands for what?

R: Oh, specific, measurable, achievable, I think it's relevant and time-bound. Or realistic and time-bound.

M: So any goal could be described by these adjectives. Then you can give an example. For example, if a person says that they want to be an astronaut, well, this could be unrealistic for them personally.

R: Well, it might be if you just say I want to be an astronaut, like how are you gonna get there, you don't just say you're an astronaut, and you're an astronaut, you have to have a plan.

M: When people have unrealistic goals, they can become demoralized. So demoralized? Like demotivated.

R: Lose the will to keep going. Yeah.

M: Losing confidence and enthusiasm. For example, they lost this football match, and they were tired and demoralized. And unrealistic goals. When people have unrealistic goals, they may not see the point in trying or carrying on with things. So carry on with things? Like, continue living your life.

R: But this use of the word see is like to understand things not like physically seeing with the eyes, "See the point" means to understand the reason why you're doing something.

M: If something is detrimental to something, this is bad, like negative.

R: Is it part of a conditional? Ooh...

M: Ooh... If people are working in a team, that might be detrimental. Yeah, we're very careful. Might be, could be. I don't know. Might be. And if a person is working in a team, this ill feeling could spread inside within this team. This ill feeling of the goal that I haven't achieved, could spread to other team members. This is detrimental to the team. Bad for the team. Goals could be long-term or short-term.

R: Yes. So long-term goals are things... I mean the difference between these should be obvious. I don't know why there's a question about it. You know, it's time. A long-term goal is something that's in the far future and a short-term goal is in the near future.

M: Yeah. And then you can give an example. You see? So our answer is pretty much structured like an essay. The direct answer to the question. And then we go into details, examples, like specific details. For example, if you want to be stronger, like physically stronger.

R: Yeah.

M: Yeah, I want to have a beautiful body. Yeah, like no fat at all. So this is a long-term goal.

R: You'd probably want to have a little bit of fun or you'll die.

M: A little bit. Just a little bit of fat. Like good fat. Yeah? But not kind of like in places where it shouldn't be. Going to the gym is short-term. Like every week I go to the gym, and like kind of next week I'll go to the gym on this and that day. Yeah? So kind of like a series of short-term goals.

R: Yeah.

M: Well, taking IELTS could be a long-term goal.

R: But having English classes with Rory is a short-term goal.

M: What is susceptible?

R: Well, susceptible is likely to do something. Usually, something negative. Susceptible to feeling pressure, susceptible to disease. But similar to vulnerable. Well, we're all susceptible to binge-watching things on Netflix, for example.

M: And you can say that children are more susceptible to peer pressure, for example. So they are likely to be affected by pressure. And here, like young people could be susceptible to feeling pressure to do things. To do certain things, like to achieve more, and to become overachievers. When people like achieve too much.

R: Well, that's true of anybody. That's not just young people, that's everyone.

M: And young people may face a lot of competition. So they compete who is better, who is the best. But maybe the goals have changed. And young people have changed. And then you said ramp up the pressure.

R: Yes. So if you have a ridiculously high goal to meet, or a ridiculously complex goal to meet, the pressure could be ramped up. But that just means it increases a lot.

M: Yeah, if a business ramps up its activity, it increases this activity. So kind of the company wanted to ramp up production. So to increase their production. Or kind of to stay competitive, they'll have to ramp up product development. It also kind of increases the speed, power or cost of something. What else can we ramp up?

R: Ramp up the volume? In terms of making something louder.

M: And in our context about young people and achieving goals, how else can we use it?

R: I don't think so. I think it's just the pressure that we can talk about being ramped up.

M: Here you can say the same goals. So the same ones. "Ones" refers to goals.

R: Substitution.

M: Yeah. Substitution.

R: Oh, it's advanced. Nice

M: To be miniature versions of their parents. So if something is miniature, it's like mini, mini-me. A tiny me. A mini version of parents. Actually, C2.

R: Oh, nice.

M: I know.

R: Look at me using all the words.

M: Miniature furniture. Like some small furniture. Also, kind of like a small painting, a small person. I'm quite miniature like I'm small.

R: A mini person. Mini Maria.

M: And a typical goal that children might have, that young people might have is to be better versions of their parents. So to have families, but not like their family, for example.

R: Yeah, I think that's what most young people want.

M: Also, you can speak about like setting up their own business. Kind of get a good education. Having a family is better than their parents.

R: Yeah. That's all got bigger and better, though.

M: Yeah, to be bigger and better than their parents. Technology makes achieving our goals much easier. And then we give an example. If your goal is to make a film, you can do it with your phone in your pocket. Hey! Yeah. Can you imagine? Actually, you can make a film.

R: You can. People have.

M: Yeah, wow. Amazing. Parents set goals for their children or children should have their own goals.

R: That's a tale as old as time.

M: Yeah.

R: But here we have some good collocations. Severe shortage. Social strife. So that's for describing bad times. And if there are bad times in your country, then your parents might have goals for you, like, becoming a doctor and helping people. And I went back to the very beginning. It depends as always on the culture and context. Everything does.

M: Yeah, any question could be answered with this phrase.

R: It really can. It depends on the culture and the context.

M: Okay, could you explain what social strife is?

R: Social strife is like... It could be rioting, looting, poverty, civil war, all kinds of things.

M: Yeah, like strife, violence or angry disagreement. Okay? Violent actions. Usually, we talk about political strife, and financial strife. And here, Rory used it in the context of like what? In case of social strife, what happens?

R: Yeah, like in cases of severe shortage and social strife, some parents will have particular goals, like making sure that their children survive, basically. And it's difficult to ensure this happens if you let your children do what they want.

M: Yeah. In other situations, it's better to let kids, and children go on their merry way, to let them go on their merry way. To let them do what they want. Hey, dear listener! Thank you so much for listening! And we'll get back to you in our next super episode! Okay? Bye!

R: Bye!

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