Belated happy new year! I hope the first few days of 2023 have been treating you well thus far.

If you're the kind to set New Year's resolutions or some other form of goals, you might have heard that setting goals according to the "SMART" framework increases your chances of accomplishing them.

SMART Goals are goals that are

• Specific
• Measurable
• Actionable
• Relevant
• Time-bound (with a deadline).

Some self-help gurus out there also emphasize the importance of attaching a purpose—a "why"—to your goals.

Following this framework and advice, the goals I set as a 17-year-old student went something like this:

I want to maintain a perfect GPA (Specific + Measurable)

until I graduate from high school (Time-bound)

so that academics will not become an issue for university admissions (Relevant)

I will accomplish this by aiming for the best scores (>90%) for every assignment, quiz, and exam, and putting in the effort necessary to get there (Actionable).

The Problem

While the "why" behind these goals clarified why I must accomplish them, they were too short-sighted and shallow.

If you'd asked 17-year-old me why I wanted to go to university, I'd reply:

to get a higher-paying job, whether locally or overseas

(but why did I want a higher-paying job? 17-year-old me didn't have an immediate answer for that)

As a result, my goals became boxes to check off.

I had brief moments of satisfaction whenever I accomplished a goal.

But "What now?" feelings of emptiness quickly followed.

My achievements in high school had no meaning, apart from setting me up to be a "good" candidate for university admissions.

When I graduated, I swore to myself that I never want to feel those feelings of emptiness again.

The Solution

While my peers moved on to university immediately after high school, I took a gap year to:

1. Earn some money for university
2. Reflect on the kind of university (and post-university) experience I wanted

This helped me dive deeper into the "why" behind my goals.

It's your turn! Question your goals and your "why" rigorously:

• Are they motivated by what you really want from life?
• Are they spawned from social, religious, or familial influences that you don't entirely resonate with?