Goals, and Professional Writing

26 April, 2025

Last year, I went to Japan.

It was a wonderful place, sure, but I think we've all heard that at this point. And in any case, that's not what I'm here to talk about. I went to Japan because it was one of my goals; to go to another country by myself, for the first time. And goals are a very powerful thing.

There's a concept called self-actualisation. I'm not a psychologist, so I'll be butchering this definition, but the idea is that self-actualisation is the realisation of one's own potential, or the quote "What a man can be, he must be." How much you choose to believe the concept is up to you, but I think it touches on a valuable idea that can be really helpful for the right type of person.

In general, I think modern society places far too much importance on the idea of doing stuff, and doing stuff fast, without thinking about whether you're doing stuff in the right way, or even for the right reason. We care more about the speed of the sprint than the direction of the marathon, so to speak. And because of that, many people feel lost, and that they're wasting their energy on things that aren't important, that they don't care about. Surrounded by Setbacks is a good book about this, and so is Atomic Habits , both of which explain this concept better than I can. But then again, who can be bothered to read in this day and age? We're too busy going fast, irrespective of where we're actually going.

Which is where goals come in. I believe setting goals, particularly ones at the very edge of what you can accomplish, are the crux of self-actualisation, and finding purpose in what you do. If you want to do something, you need to know what you're capable of, and goals are a way to test and understand your capabilities, and often push you to improve them a little as you go. When I made that goal to go to Japan, it was because I wanted to prove to myself that I could travel alone. And now that I've been, I know that in the future, I can travel alone as part of my other goals.

Because goals also build on top of each other. A small goal is a foundation for a big goal. Proving to yourself that you can travel on your own allows you to then push yourself to travel elsewhere, or more often, or as part of a business trip. Accomplished goals are proof of your abilities, while failed goals are a reminder of where to strive for next.

The trick, as I suggested above, is to aim for just above what you know you're capable of achieving. If you aim too low, accomplishing it doesn't feel like much of anything, but if you aim too high, you'll be crushed under the weight of difficulty. In fact, a good university will probably have already done this with their assignments and tests, which are just their way of setting goals for their students. The best way to force learning is to make your students aim for just above what they're capable of, keep it tantalisingly out of reach, and let ambition take care of the rest. In this case, you need to be your own teacher, and keep your goals tantalisingly out of your own reach. It just makes it that much sweeter when you accomplish them.

So, what are my goals? I have a lot, and that's a topic for another blog post. But the relevant one here and now is that I want to be a professional author. Yep, sounds crazy, doesn't it? "One in a million writers become authors!" You might be thinking. Sure, if you took a random million people off the street, maybe one of them will be a successful author. But what if you picked a million people who also read at least one book a month? A million people who read at least one book a month, and also writes at least one book a year? A million people who read one book a month, write one book a year, and writes at least a thousand words every day? I'd argue that from a million of those, a decent chunk of them will be authors, and suddently, the goal of being a professional author doesn't seem quite as impossible, or quite as daunting.

It even applies to this blog post. If you told me to, I don't know, start a blogging business and be as successful as Mark Manson doing it, I'd laugh at you and tell you to mind your own business. But who knows, maybe if I do these blog posts for long enough, I'll be curious what more lies just outside the edge of my capabilities, and maybe ambition will carry me then, as well.

I didn't decide to become a professional author out of nowhere. First, I just wanted to write more often. Then, I wanted to read more often as well, just one book a month. Then, building on that, I wanted to write at least one novel a year. And finally, building on that, I wanted to write at least a thousand words a day. If you asked me to write a thousand words a day when I first started, I would have give up after the first day, assuming I even got past that first day. But by creating smaller goals, each at the edge of what I knew I was capable of, building on what I've accomplished before, I was able to get to that point.

And if it works for me, I'm pretty sure it'll work for you as well. Give it a try! Couldn't hurt, right?