The Three Identical Answers

Interacting with our teenage nephews and nieces, I asked them, “What is your dream?”
“To become an engineer.”

“What is your aim?”
“To become an engineer.”

“What is your goal?”
“To become an engineer.“

In some cases, engineer was replaced by doctor. That was when I realised how profoundly times had changed. In our childhood, we never even thought about our future aspirations. Planning them was a far cry. Today’s generation, by contrast, has something to think about – even if that thinking is often limited to medicine and engineering, and largely dictated by parental pressure.

The Words of a Great Dreamer

“Dream, dream, dream. Dreams transform into thoughts, and thoughts result in action. You have to dream before your dreams can come true. Great dreams of great dreamers are always transcended.” These are the words of Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam—a great dreamer, and a man who proved that dreams can indeed reshape nations.

Figuratively, a dream can be defined as an idea or hope that seems impractical or unlikely to be realised given the current state of the world. But that does not mean, in any way, that such dreams have never been realised. On the contrary, history is written by those who dared to dream the impossible and then set about making it possible.

Dreams Without Boundaries

Dreams are boundless, limitless, and timeless. They are dictated only by the power of the dreamer’s imagination. Let your dreams float into infinity – they will germinate new ideas and visions.

I do not wish to quantify your dreams, but consider a student dreaming of finding a cure for cancer. Many of us have entertained such a thought while reading about the suffering of cancer patients or watching someone close battle the disease. From such a dream evolves an aim that is achievable and real-time. In this case, the aim would be to pursue a medical career – though it must be noted that some of the world’s greatest discoveries have been made by people not remotely connected to the subject they revolutionised.

From that aim, goals are born. For a high school student, the immediate goals would be to graduate with the requisite marks and to pass the necessary entrance examinations.

Single-Minded Devotion

To succeed in your aim, you must cultivate single-minded devotion. It is like a football match: you aim to win, and to succeed in that aim, you must score goals.

One must revisit aims and goals regularly- weekly, monthly, quarterly, or half-yearly – with a view to redefining them, raising the bars, changing them if necessary, and sometimes even discarding them entirely to find new ones. You may lose interest in your aims and goals if they no longer challenge you or excite you. That is not failure; that is growth.

Parental Pressure and Passion

Sometimes you may have thought of an aim, but the goals you set may not be what you truly want to achieve. In such cases, you are forcing yourself to settle for what you think you can get, rather than reaching for what your passions demand. This is often due to parental and environmental pressures – the ubiquitous expectation that you must become either a doctor or an engineer, no more and no less.

To make your aims more challenging and genuinely interesting, set an aim that is big, impressive – one that thinking about it scares you a little, that seems almost impossible, yet has the potential to transform your life if you manage to achieve it. Keeping this in mind, raise the bar for your goals little by little. Keep raising it until you reach an aim you never thought possible. By tapping into your creativity and resourcefulness, you will amaze yourself with the results.

Breaking Down the Goals

Once you have set your goals, break them into smaller, time-bound objectives. Evaluate your progress daily or weekly. Avoid distractions. Prioritise these smaller goals. But this does not mean you should not indulge in other activities. All work and no play will always make Jack a dull boy.

Believing in Yourself

You must believe in yourself. Reassure yourself that you can achieve the goals you have set, especially when the going gets tough. While undergoing training at the Military Academy, I often reassured myself with this thought: about fifteen thousand officers have successfully completed this training before me. I am in no way less than them.

Your goals must be like the shoes your parents bought while you were growing up – always a size bigger. It allows your feet to grow. Similarly, the goals you set must be a bit bigger than that you can achieve. Setting goals that are a size bigger – often called stretch goals or BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) – is essential for personal and professional development. It helps to:-

• Force Innovation: When a goal is easily attainable, you rely on current habits. When it is just out of reach, you are forced to change your methods, learn new skills, and think differently.
• Redefines What is Possible: If you aim for 100% and hit 80%, you are still far ahead of where you would have been if you only aimed for 60% and hit it.
• Overcomes Complacency: It prevents you from settling for mediocrity simply because you have reached a comfort zone. 

As the adage goes: If your dreams don’t scare you, they are too small.” Keep growing into that bigger size!

Kevin’s Story: A Different Path

Our nephew Kevin, who lives in the United States, took up the pre-medical course in high school. Most children at that stage do not even have a faint idea about their passions or abilities. His parents, Anu and Johnson, were in for a surprise when Kevin, in Grade 12, declared that he did not wish to pursue a career in medicine. He wanted to take up animation and graphic designing instead.

To their credit, his parents were supportive. They accepted Kevin’s new aim and advised him to begin the admission process – there was only one university offering the specific course he wanted, and admission was highly competitive.

At the high school graduation ceremony, Anu and Johnson received another surprise: Kevin was adjudged the best student in animation and graphic designing. He went on to graduate in computer animation from the Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta. Today, he works as a gaming designer with a leading gaming company.

Final Words

Dream unlimited. Define your aim. Set your goals. Achieve them.

Success and happiness will surely follow – not because the path is straight, but because you had the courage to walk it on your own terms.