Ten years ago, I was teaching philosophy to 17 year olds. One group in particular had been kind of written off as low achieving, and were only in my class to fill their timetable. There were four of them (students, not classes.)

And me? I have no degree in philosophy, and knew nothing about it other than a few famous philosophers names (famous for what I wasn’t too sure). I was asked to do it as nobody else could and I had spare time. The rest of the time I was giving college counselling to the same students.

Not exactly a promising start for anyone.

My goal? To teach philosophy. One small problem – what exactly is it?

Their goal? To pass the class to get the high school certification so they could apply to University (College in the States). No pressure on me then. If I did a bad job in their class, they couldn’t apply to College, and it was me helping them to apply to College…you see the issue here.

I really like solving problems under high pressure situations. By this, I mean creating a lesson plan as you go through the door into the classroom. I’ve done this countless times and it forces you to be innovative with very few resources. The best resources are your students, after all, so why bother with creating fancy materials? Well, that’s a whole other discussion but I’ll press on.

I decided to do two things. The first was to make sure I read more than they did from the school library (easy, that one) and the second was to ask THEM during that first lesson, ”so what is philosophy then?”.

I opened up the room to a debate. I was super keen. The reaction was complete silence.

And some more silence, apart from one girl who was clearly puzzling over what I had said.

Almost too much silence later, and she came out with the single best reply I’ve ever heard or read, anywhere since. Here’s what she said:

”Philosophy means directions of the mind”.

Absolutely spot on. What an answer! Rene Descartes eat your heart out. I’ve reflected on that answer for ten years now, and I agree wholly with it. I really like how it also forms the basis for learning how to achieve goals.

Any goal you ever create, begins in the mind. You project yourself out from the starting point to an imagined future self, and we often do this multiple times to create plural future potential identities in our minds. Each identity takes us in a different direction – the directions of the mind. ”What shall I become when I grow up?” is a good example question that shows someone is thinking about future identities.

Each pathway requires its own set of values, problem solving, decision making, ethics, knowledge etc. All of these are the bedrock of philosophy.

Therefore, my first point to make about successful goal setting, is to be as clear as possible about the multiple future selves you are trying to create. Successful goal-setting relies heavily on clarity – yet also be aware that this initial clarity will change as you make progress and discover new things. It’s a bit like an early astronomer looking at the Moon and drawing it, and then in 1969 we land on it and it looks a bit like the original drawing but actually loads different too.

I like to keep a journal of these changes. I write my ideas down as they transform, like keeping an art portfolio. If you’re creative you’ll get what I mean. And sometimes, what seems like the world’s best idea at the time, can become cringe worthily bad after you keep developing as a person. The same is true for artists when they start out. Those first sketches are never going to be exhibition pieces because they are probably pretty rubbish. But they are a start, and for that, worth more than the finished piece in some ways.

Take time to write (or draw) whatever is in your mind in as much initial detail as possible. My goal at the moment is to provide you with as much insight into goal setting as possible and in the end draw it all together in a book, because I like helping people develop. I have a good clear idea of the title, the cover design etc in my mind already. Will it survive the journey? That’s the really exciting bit, and we’ll come to what you do next in a weeks’ time.

Until then…