Things I want to achieve in the next ten years Things I want to achieve in the next ten years Mickey el Ratón - Spanish teacher It certainly is a tradition of ours to set goals. As it seems, we are all programmed from our earliest childhood to have a plan. The reader could try to stretch his memory to the very first time he was asked what he wanted to be when he grew up –he won’t be able to recall it. So tender his age was. Reading the articles of this series that have been published in the past few weeks, one comes to a bitter realisation. Our society forces us into deep schism and unsatisfaction in an utterly unnecessary way. Many of the authors of those pages expressed their thoughts regarding the alledged opposition between real life and their dreams, often sweetened with an optimistic note to the end. They all seem to conclude: ‘Even though life is hard, and nothing but too often reality comes into your dreams’ way, you can aspire to find a balance between need and will, and then hope for the best’. Fair enough. What I would like to achieve in the next ten years is actually sort of an anti-goal. I intend not to worry at all about personal achievements, and –as the good old saying goes– let my self go with the flow. This of course is no easy task to fulfil. One needs to be alert, and develop the all too rare ability to genuinely hear his own will. A whole life of new year resolutions, plans and programs for the future can indeed make you quite deaf to your actual desires and inclinations. We have all been trained to believe that we want to do what we are supposed to do, and at a certain point of the way it is easy to lose perspective and be unable to discern whether we enjoy what we do or not. I firmly believe that, by following my true impulses ans passions, I will undoubtedly be happy in the years to come. And impulses are not to be planned.