I dislike the term, but something like goals are useful to have and I enjoy them. But to me, they are more like visions of how I would want things to be. While clearly defined goals can be helpful when dealing with other people who frequently move goalposts, for my personal “goals” I find that those narrowly defined milestones are not helpful for motivation, nor a particularly good proxy for what’s really important.
Weirdly, I’ve been way, way more consistent with my somewhat loose “vision” than I ever saw in corporate life, where goals would change frequently depending on popular buzzwords, reorgs, new grand poobah hires, etc. That’s made me think of goals more as a coping mechanism for a jittery “inner compass” or lack of direction. But of course, all of these terms have different connotations for different people.
Thst is why I used metaphorical language here. Goals sound very well defined like something from a business plan. And granted, sometimes it is nice to have well defined goals, e.g. when you are in a group or some other situation where having a bit more objectively formulated expectations help.
Life coaches would tell you you should not only formulate goals, but also say within which time you want to get there.
As you I found this can kill all joy. A vague vision is sometimes better as it can be adjusted to life circumstances. E.g. if you're a musician of course your vision is to make good music of a certain style, but as you are one part of a band within a uncertain environment anything more precise than a vague "move the band forward" would need to be overhauled every other month.
Weirdly, I’ve been way, way more consistent with my somewhat loose “vision” than I ever saw in corporate life, where goals would change frequently depending on popular buzzwords, reorgs, new grand poobah hires, etc. That’s made me think of goals more as a coping mechanism for a jittery “inner compass” or lack of direction. But of course, all of these terms have different connotations for different people.