Between realism and idealism, one would often ask which is more beneficial to a person’s development; whether is it better to be idealistic or realistic towards one’s goals. There should be a healthy balance of realism and idealism in young adults’ career goals. Young people should have goals that are achievable while being challenging at the same time. This way, it will give them motivation and confidence that they need to obtain that goal. If a goal is too realistic, it might be easily obtainable which can lead to a lack of motivation. On the other hand, when a goal is far-fetched or too idealistic, one will get discouraged and very likely to give up.
Compared to idealistic goals, realistic ones are more achievable and practical. Often times, realism is viewed as something conservative and safe due to the fact it is based off of the word “real.” There are many definitions of realism but in this circumstance, I would define it as “behavior or thought based on a conception of things as they should be, or as one would wish them to be, with a tendency to be imaginary to visionary,” according to Montgomery. If I take one of my courses as an example, a realistic goal would be getting B as my final grade when my current grade is a high C. This shows that the goal is obtainable while being not very far-fetched because I am only less than ten percent of my grade away to my goal.
On the other hand, idealistic goals allow one to dream and innovate. It is one of the reasons how breakthroughs are created; it allows one to visualize and persevere to make their goals come true. If one is too realistic, they will not have the confidence to take risks and make jumps in their lives. An example of an idealistic goal would be creating a startup and hoping it will become as successful as Facebook. While this goal is not impossible, it is very unlikely to happen since I do not have the resources and knowledge to make it happen. This illustrates that a goal that is too idealistic can also be a step toward the wrong direction because you are working toward something that has a very low chance of happening. The goal could still be achievable but it is not very practical as compared to a realistic one.
Therefore, a perfect goal is one that is a medium of a realistic goal and an idealistic goal. This allows the person to dream and make risks while having it to be obtainable and reasonable. This type of goals will make young adults live ambitiously while being practical.
Sources: http://www.tedmontgomery.com/bblovrvw/endtimes/idealismvsrealism.html
Bromke, A. (1967). Poland’s politics: Idealism vs. realism. Cambridge: Harvard University Press