If I were to guess the most common question in the last few decades, I would imagine that at the top of this list, you'd see the following:

"What is the best advice you ever received?" or perhaps "What's the best piece of advice you can give to someone?"

Suffice to say that this question is a simple one and yet so difficult to answer if we're able to adhere to the quick soundbite nature of life today. But even in recognizing this, attempting to match the simplistic question with a single answer is exciting.

So with that, my answer to anyone that ever pops this question to me is….

Here we are. At the end of the year and the start of a new one.

If you're actively checking your social feeds over the next week, you'll likely see familiar & unfamiliar faces stating what they're going to achieve in the next 12 months. If you took all the data from their statements and analyzed what people said, you'd have a dot chart that could make your head spin. The goals would stretch into endless categories such as family, career, fitness, hobbies, language, and travel (among others).

All this talk about goals, dreams, and achievements make us wonder, what are we going to with our own lives? Should we make wild statements and hope nobody notices, or can we systematically approach our futures? Before we all promise ourselves that we'll have our own Netflix series by 2030, let's take a look at how to decide what our goals should be.