Basic Concept #33: Define Your Goals. What Do You Want From It?

You’re frustrated with your job. The project isn’t going well. The relationship with your manager is strained. The team dynamics are toxic. Something needs to change.

So you start taking action. You have difficult conversations. You propose solutions. You push for improvements. You escalate issues. You work harder, longer, with more intensity.

But six months later, you’re still frustrated. Maybe more frustrated. Because you’ve been busy solving problems without first asking the crucial question: What do you actually want from this situation?

I learned this lesson during a particularly miserable period when everything at work felt broken. My team was dysfunctional, my manager was micromanaging, and our processes were inefficient. I threw myself into fixing everything. I scheduled team meetings to address communication issues. I documented better workflows. I had direct conversations with my manager about boundaries. I stayed late to clean up the chaos others created.

For months, I was the person trying to solve every problem I could see. I felt productive, righteous even. I was clearly working harder than anyone else to make things better.

But nothing really improved. Team meetings became complaint sessions. New processes got ignored. My manager kept micromanaging. And I was exhausted from fighting battles that never seemed to end.

That’s when a trusted colleague asked me a simple question: “What are you actually trying to achieve here? Are you trying to fix this team, or are you trying to build your career? Because those might require different strategies.”

It stopped me cold. I realized I’d never clearly defined what I wanted from the situation. I knew what was wrong, but I hadn’t defined what “right” would look like for me specifically.

Here’s the reality: if you don’t define your goals clearly, you’ll spend energy solving the wrong problems.

When something bothers us, our instinct is to act. To fix, to improve, to address, to change. Action feels productive. It feels like leadership. It feels like progress. But action without clear objectives is just motion. You might be working hard, but you might not be working toward anything meaningful.

Undefined goals lead to scattered effort, inconsistent choices, and solutions that don’t actually solve your real problem. Clear goals focus your energy, guide your decisions, and help you recognize success when you achieve it.

Most people can’t answer clearly what they want from their situation. They know what’s wrong, but they haven’t defined what “right” would look like for them specifically. They optimize for what they think they should want rather than what they actually want. They define success as the absence of current problems rather than the presence of what they genuinely desire.

Before you invest energy in changing any situation, get clear on this: What do you want from it? Not what should happen. Not what would be ideal. Not what other people want. What do YOU want?

If you don’t know what you’re trying to achieve, you’ll never know if you’re succeeding. And you’ll waste tremendous energy solving problems that don’t actually matter to your real objectives.