He basically said that the worst thing you can do is continually set high goals for yourself. Because what happens?

(A) You fall short of them, and when that happens enough times you start to get really down on yourself

or

(B) You achieve these lofty goals and then find yourself sitting there saying to yourself “right, okay then… that was nice. What the hell am I going to do now?”

Just an added thought…

TEFLtastic has never been short of navel gazing, but the lack of sleep might indeed be increasing the amount…

Not sure how similar or different this is to your own perspective, but for me, (teaching) life has become much more satisfying through a combination of continuing to set very high goals and keeping the adrenaline going with less looking back and dwelling on mistakes or ‘what coulda beens’.

So in a way, it’s not (for me) so much about setting easier or apparently more feasible goals as it is continuing to try for (hopefully) great things and not beating myself up much when things don’t quite go the way I’d hoped for. It’s not about caring less, it’s about the direction I keep looking in.

Hah! Knew fatherhood would bring out the more reflective master/grasshopper side of you!