📘 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.