Everyone has dreams and goals in his or her mind. Different people choose different goals. Some of them prefer those ambitious dreams and goals, and others may choose to follow practical and achieving realistic goals. Personally, I would like to have more ambitious dreams and goals even they are not realistic.
First of all, ambitious dreams and goals can bring out the best in people. Just as the old saying goes, one's potential is endless. Challenging goals that are more difficult to realize can inspire people to keep working harder and give their best. Take The Wright Brothers as an example. The Wright Brothers used to spend a great deal of time observing birds in flight. And they had a dream of making a flying machine for human which was thought totally crazy by others. Over the next several years, they have designed a series of gliders and flew numerous test glides. In spite of all kinds of problems, the Wrights determined that they could fulfill their dream. Finally in 1904, they made the first airplane flight. If The Wright Brothers had more realistic and ordinary goals at that time, they would hardly achieve such success.
Moreover, following ambitious dreams can not only make personal progress but also prompt the development of the whole society. If Jules Verne had never written about space, air, or underwater travel, human could not soon have achieved air travel, invented practical submarines and devised practical means of space travel; If Martin Luther King had not dreamed of ending the racial segregation and discrimination, African-American would still live on a lonely island of poverty and discrimination, and civil rights in the United States and around the world would not be improved; If Bill Gates had not quitted from famous university and started his own enterprise, now we would not do our homework or even take examinations just through the computers. At first, all these ideas and goals were considered crazy and not realistic by most of people, but it is the ambitious and not realistic dreams open up a new era in different areas in our society.
On the other hand, both kinds of goals and dreams have advantages. It is true that people can easily gain more confidence when they focus on realistic goals and be less stressed. However, feeling too good about themselves may make those people satisfy with their current lives, and will never want to give up their secure lives. As a result, they will never make a breakthrough. Take my brother as an example. He does everything step by step following achieving realistic goals all the time, such as going to an ordinary university after high school graduation and finding a secure job at hometown when graduated from college. Every day he looks confident, but at the same time he loses the chance to feel a great sense of achievement forever.
All in all, challenging goals can not only motivate us to maximize our potential and attain more significant achievements, but also promote social progress. So I stick with the belief that focusing on ambitious goals would be a more beneficial choice.
