Realistic Goals Vs Ambitious goals

A career is only successful if it is planned well. Planning in your career would obviously start with setting goals and targets and then running for it. But it is here that almost all planning fails and most of the plans just don’t take off at all.
I have never heard of any person setting off on a trip without knowing where to go. Similarly you need to know where you want to go to in your career. But the confusion is in the kind of goals that one should set for himself. Should you set a realistic goal or, an ambitioous goal?

Realistic Goals:-
There are quite a few who profess setting realistic goals. If I ask you to set a realistic goal, the responses that I get from each of you would be different. Some would be a starter in his career and would want to play safe. He would be of the opinion that since he is in the pre-mature stage of his career he would set a goal that he thinks can be achieved. There would be some others who would be veterans in their career but they too would want to set a goal that they think they will be a able to achieve in the set time frame. It is human pyschology to play safe. I am not one of those genuises who would be just in deciding what my achievable goal would be. Hence everytime I set a goal it is bound to be something less that what I can achieve, so that I do not miss it and I am encouraged to run after my next goal.

Advantage –
You would not be de-motivated because you would for sure achieve your goals.
You won’t give up at the beginning itself just because you lost your first race.

Disadvantage –
In this highly competitive world, you might just be too much behind your competitors who are setting aggressive goals and are consequently achieving more than what you have achieved.
Your realistic goals would actually be unrealistic, because you would have a tendency to play safe.

Ambitious goals:-
I have always preferred setting an ambitious goal for my self and I would always profess the same. The reason is quite simple – “Aim for the stars, even if you don’t achieve it you will have the satisfaction that you have at least touched the sky”.
My potential might not be to touch the sky, but because I kept on trying to touch the stars, I was able to touch the sky. If I had aimed to touch teh sky, I would probably not even have crossed the earth’s atmosphere.
Setting ambitious targets have always helped me to stretch myself and stretching has helped me achieve more than what I could have achieved, had I set a realistic goal.
But the key here is to stay motivated even if you fail. There is also a tendency to set an ambitious goal and just stop trying to achieve it, because you know that you have set a difficult to achieve goal and that you might not be able to make it.

Advantage –
You would always stay ahead of your competition because you would achieve more in less time.
Ideal for people who look for fast-track career growths.

Disadvantage –
Tendency of giving up even before trying.
You might get de-motivated if you are not able to achieve your goals.

Having said this, I would also say that, it entirely depends upon you frame of mind and will-power, as to what kind of goals you should set for yourself.