GOALS BEFORE 30

Excuse my fascination with goals, but apart from the fact that I was brought up with goals, it really ensures that things get going and more importantly, get done.

From the day you are born until you come out to work -- which could be between 18 to 23 (or 30 for some people who prefer to study longer) -- almost all your goals are set by somebody that is not you. How many A's to get, distinctions to obtain, ambitions to follow... it's all dictated by your parents, teachers, guardians, even your peers. Until you come out to work, everyone is pretty much following a scale that is set by society. The rest just follows.

So what happens when you come out to work? Many lose their way in the first few years of their working life. It's not to say that they cannot find their way around -- not that kind of loss although it does happen in no-GPS occasions -- but they lose sight of what really matters in their life. For instance, some work and take out the 'play' in life. They stay in the office for 12 to 15 hours, are rarely seen out under the sun and attend office parties that they can't really say no to. 

But I digressed.

Back to the point of this post, yes, what are the goals that one would hope to achieve by 30? Frankly, I wouldn't know because everyone has their own list of things to do before they die: travel, have property and assets, marry, start a family, have their own business, start their own centre, have a gallery named after themselves, get a PhD, fly a plane, find the Loch Ness Monsters etc. 

It doesn't really matter which is it, there is not right or wrong, but at the very least, you have to achieve some goals before a certain time. Else, you will feel it in the next class reunion. It's not shameful to bow to peer pressure, in fact, there seems to be a biological need to feel the pressure or to stand up to it by competing against the rest. How else can you explain how much you hate Carrie's new handbag or killer pumps?

My goals were really set by the time I was 16. Achieving them is in a whole new category but still, I am lucky that I have pretty much most of them covered: Get married and have lovely family and children (1 down, 1 more to go), have a car, get a nice house, a stable career (which I am putting on hold for the time being), a Master's (going for it, hence the pit stop for the career; may consider a PhD if the bill fits but it's not a goal set in stone) and being free from financial despair (after paying for a wedding, an album, a house and everything in it, a kid, a Master's) with plenty of save-save-savings and a walking, talking ATM machine to fall back on (I got two, tee hee hee).

Problem now is, figuring out a new set of goals to achieve before I'm 40. O_o"