I do not have any Goals in Professional Career !! And I am happy !!

Right from the childhood we have been taught to have some definite "Goals" in life. There is a good old saying as well that Man without a goal shall perish !!

Same continues in our professional life as well. At every moment of career, we are asked to run behind the set defined goals in order to achieve any success in terms of promotion, appraisals, hikes etc. During every quarterly or annual meeting we are assigned some fixed set of goals and our performance is measured against those goals. Some of the common questions which are asked is "Where do you want yourself after 5 years from now", "Which career path you want to progress towards (Man management or Technical leadership)". On top of that there would be additional directions to keep the goals "Quantifiable" so that management can judge and provide some kind of rating of numbers to your achievements.

I believe setting goals is a thing of the future. By setting goals you are trying to control the things that you don't have any control. Who knows what changes your life has preserved for you. In such a dynamic IT world, even the biggest market players are not guaranteed to have the safe future. Setting goals means you are creating boundary around you to be limited by defined goals.

I have been asked this particular question few times i.e. What is the goal or next step in your career. I keep answering that I do not have any goals. Most of the people don't take it well and it start creating an impression that I am uncertain about my own life. I do give very honest answer which i really feel as well -> "Goal in my career is that every morning I should feel motivated to go to office. And I should feel proud of what I am doing in office."

So I guess my question again is what is living in the present if the essence of the "present" is the goals set in future. As long as you are doing your work with full integrity, honesty and with one focus in mind that you would give your best to every task then all the things will automatically fall in place. You need not set any goals for the future, instead Goals will be set by others for you. Goals will be achieved as the side product of you doing your job.

To summarize in my Opinion - Setting Goals is not mandatory but a cliche !! Rather do your task with full sincerity and consider goal as side product of your smart work.