Ambitious Goals vs Realistic Goals

How to achieve more and keep going in the long term?

Many of us are interested in self-development and personal growth. And integral part of this process is setting goals as you cannot expect to come to the place where you want to be without planning to come there in the beginning of you journey. If you do not strive to be in this place you can come there only accidently. It means that we need to set goals for self-development and personal growth. And when it comes to setting goals, several important questions arise:

· Should we set ambitious or realistic goals?

· Which approach is better?

· How to achieve more and keep going in a long term?

Let us think what advantages and disadvantages each approach has and discuss which one is better for self-development and growth.

Ambitious goals

“Shooting for the stars” can be a good idea for setting goals and such approach have quite a few advantages.

· Firstly, ambitious goals give a powerful source of motivation and drive, helping individuals to go beyond their limits and achieve outstanding results. Impossibility of these goals fuels passion and determination, inspiring people to move forward even in the face of challenges. Such goals can be so big that any problems in comparison with them look small and easy.

· Secondly, this approach challenges people to push their limits, step out of their comfort zones, unleash their creativity, and develop new skills in order to achieve extraordinary results. The process of striving for ambitious goals often leads to personal breakthroughs, when people discover hidden talents and capabilities, they never knew they have.

· Thirdly, setting ambitious goals gives people an opportunity to achieve more than they expected realistically even if they fail to achieve the set goal itself. Because ambitious goal can be so big that achieving even 80% of this goal would be higher than realistic expectation.

· And last but not least by setting ambitious goals people can inspire and motivate others creating a ripple effect of ambition and growth. Their passion and determination serve as an example of possibility for those around them, encouraging others to raise the bar and strive for higher levels then they previously aimed.

Thus, it looks like ambitious goals can be good choice for driving high performance and achieving outstanding results.

However, there are several disadvantages of such approach as well.

· Firstly, ambitious goals can sometimes lead to unrealistic expectations which can cause frustration and disappointment when they are not met. When people are setting goals which are far beyond their current capabilities and available resources, they run a risk of failure which can dampen their morale and ruin further progress. Sometimes it can even lead to decrease in their confidence and lowering self-esteem. Especially if people failed in achieving several ambitious goals in a row. So, the result can be absolutely different and setting ambitious goals can lead to long term motivation reduction in some cases.

· The second point is that the pursuit of ambitious goals can cause overwhelming pressure. And because of it people can burn out or start sacrificing other area of their lives, such as relationships and well-being. So, in the end it can decrease overall happiness and be a reason of physical and mental exhaustion. Meaning that the cost of achieving some ambitious goals could be too high and it could be seen just in the end.

· The third point is setting ambitious goals has higher risk of failure which can influence confidence and have negative impact on further actions if not managed effectively. The fear of failure can be a root cause of giving up before starting, not using new approaches and not taking calculated risks.

· And the last point is about tunnel vision. Focusing solely on ambitious goals may cause people to overlook smaller achievements or neglect important aspects of life outside of their goals. The strive for greatness can create tunnel vision blinding individuals to the value of incremental progress and overall well-being that comes from balanced life.

So, there are quite a few disadvantages of setting ambitious goals as well. And they can turn most pluses of this approach to minuses.

Realistic goals

On the other hand realistic goals are grounded in practicality and attainability. They are based on precise assessment of one’s capabilities, resources and limitations. And once such assessment is done then step-by-step plan to achieve realistic goals can be created. This plan can be used for structured and manageable path to progress.

There are several advantages of such approach:

· Firstly, realistic goals enable people to set achievable milestones which can increase confidence and provide a sense of progress which is very important especially for long term goals. By breaking down bigger goals into smaller actionable steps people get more transparent roadmap to the success and keep motivation through a series of small gradual wins.

· Secondly, by setting realistic goals people can maintain sustainable pace of progress avoiding burnout and ensuring long-term growth. Also, such approach allows people to attend other areas of their lives while still achieving progress in moving to their goals which helps to have more balanced life and increase overall happiness.

· Thirdly, this approach helps people in building confidence and self-esteem when achieving realistic goals. Each accomplished milestone empowers people to take on more significant challenges in the future, also boosting their motivation to tackle more ambitious goals over time.

· Fourthly, realistic goals are flexible and adaptable. They give people an opportunity to adapt to changing circumstances and make adjustments where needed while still moving to their final objectives. The ability to assess and modify goals when needed helps to build resilience which allows individuals to navigate obstacles and use emerging opportunities.

Thus, realistic goals are quite good for maintaining motivation and ensuring long-term progress.

But this approach also has some disadvantages.

· The first point is that setting realistic goals has limited growth potential. It can limit people of achieving their full potential and uncovering hidden capabilities. Also strictly focusing only on what is attainable people can miss out on opportunities for significant breakthroughs.

· The second point is about complacency. When people are looking only for achieving realistic goals it becomes very comfortable for them and they start stopping themselves from stepping out of their comfort zone. So, in this case people begin to avoid taking any risks or exploring new areas which could potentially lead to transformative growth.

· Thirdly, this approach lacks innovation. Realistic goals focus on incremental progress which potentially inhibit creativity and innovation. If people know how to achieve their goals in the beginning of their journey there is no need for them to find creative solutions and other knowhows in order to move forward. Meaning that individuals can miss out on groundbreaking ideas and new approaches to problem-solving.

· And the last one is that over-reliance on realistic goals may result in people setting for mediocrity instead of going for extraordinary results. In this case people will never discover their full potential and will not achieve much better results than what they currently get. Basically, such approach of setting goals can be a “dream killer” for people who use it.

Thus, setting realistic goals is not a panacea for success and self-improvement. It has its own advantages and disadvantages.

My conclusion

Both approaches of setting goals can be useful and may work well for achieving great results. Which approach will be better strongly depending on personality of individual and situation as all people are different. The main thing to remember here is that it does not really matter which approach is used if it works for you.

For myself I developed an approach which is a mix of ambitious and realistic goals. Usually, I set big ambitious goals for long term perspective because they inspire and motivate me to develop, step out of my comfort zone and move forward. Such goals also give me an opportunity to deeply investigate different solutions and find unique, creative and not expected ways to achieve these objectives. Also, I set realistic goals for short term perspective and all the time looking for overachieving them at least by 10%. It helps me to see my progress and real achievements motivating me to keep going and making me confident that I can achieve even bigger and ambitious goals. Focusing on overachievement of such realistic goals also has positive impact on my inspiration and motivate me to find new creative ways of achieving my objectives.