Goals! Oh dear.

Two months ago, I essentially said, screw goals, I'm gonna wander. But lately, I've come to the conclusion that goals are rather important.

For example... I wanted to take some classes to fill in some skill gaps but got rather carried away with all the freakishly cool things to learn. Like futures studies! But in the end, it had to be dropped and filed away under "cool things to learn about someday" because meandering there stretched my energy a bit too thinly across too many arenas.

But, back to goals specifically.

The problem for me is that "goals" sounds far too fixated and impermeable. It's like saying, THIS is where I WILL be in x years and I will ZOOM into TIGHT focus towards this SINGULAR ambition. My space-loving soul cringes and wriggles to find a more flexible way to roam.

So the best compromise seems to be to reframe my whole perception of goals. It doesn't have to be a singular goal. Or if it does need to be one goal, it doesn't have to get there NOW. I'm fully allowed to wittle them into focus slowly. And, most importantly, these goals can change. They can be scrapped completely in light of new discoveries. They can be modified according to how the path pans out. They can grow, live and, if need be, pass away.

Chris Guillebeau over at The Art of Non-Conformity (a blog with great posts and a splendidly artistic header) had this to say:

But most of us are not Tigers or Serenas yet. Not all of us know what we want to do; not everyone is single-minded towards the pursuit of only one goal. Some of us have more than one passion.

So that’s the idea: why not try it all? Have your cake and eat it too.

I’ve written about living a renaissance life a few times before—see here and here, for example—but this is a different approach. Try this, for example:

Higher Education: sign up for the maximum number of credits. You can drop any classes that aren’t a good fit, but maybe you just have a busy semester of learning. Why not?

Business: Have four ideas and aren’t sure which to pursue? Launch all four. Stick with the one or two that gains traction in the marketplace. Don’t worry about the others.

So, for now, my goals consist of going into 3D animation in the entertainment or education areas, being a graphic designer or publication designer, and moving to China to learn Chinese.

Are they related? Not in the slightest. At least, not as far as my mind can see right now.

It's a bit like being a double major in art and physics at the same time. Are they related? If you're looking at the path to get a physics major and looking at the path to get an art major... not in the slightest. No overlap at all. Except in my own learning, problem-solving, and creativity, where I've found plenty of overlap in the process.

Are the paths to 3D animation, graphic design and China related? Not really.

But I'm going to try the paths to all three out and see where it takes me. If one gains prominence either in my own desire or in outside traction, then I'll travel down that path.

And the most important thing to note here is that going down any one of these paths doesn't mean that the other paths are automatically excluded for the rest of my life. Aren't we constantly told that the days of one single career are over?

In the end, it's a combination of goals and wandering.

The goals help focus the wandering.

Or maybe it's that the wandering that helps give the goals life and focus.

Your thoughts?