It seems so obvious - now that I've thought of / remembered this maxim.
It took years for me to be able to admit I had personal goals - after all, when you're worried about survival, planning past that is virtually impossible. Once I got past the survival stage - somewhere in th mid 90s, I think - I then had to wrestle through bad epistemology: I thought that having a specific personal goal meant it was easier for things to be taken away. I incorrectly applied the lessons of the schoolyard taunters: whatever you appeared to care about would be their primary target. Heck, I even had a name for it: the Black Van people. Show you care about something, show you want it - and the Black Van people would find out and make sure you not only didn't get more of it, but would lose what you already had. (Black Van being a reference to their preferred mode of travel, which came with a fully equipped monitoring set up as well as elite enforcers.) I believed I had to be oblique in my goal pursuit - appear to care about X while secretly also pursuing Y and Z.
Um. Didn't say it was brilliant. Rooting it out took a lot of introspection and a lot of work. Even today, I do still hold that there are some - especially at work - who believe any success of yours means less opportunities for success for them: this means they must sabotage you when they can. This is different from Black Van people in the limited nature of the scope; also, they can easily be out-thought, converted into allies, etc.
As I learned how to overcome those would-be backstabbers with consistent performance, competence, and most critically - constant observation & vigilance - it became easier to grow in my career. A reputation for consistently and genuinely helping others succeed - but one that whispers how those who try to stab somehow end up 'falling on their own swords' around me - means I don't have to deal with it as often, either. I think this may be what's euphemistically referred to as "workplace credibility".
As I figured out what motivated them, I also learned just how short sighted and limited those would-be backstabbers really are. I realized that there could be no Black Vans; evil and cowardice and such just aren't able to work in concert over the long term (and thus realizing there was no such thing as "universal malevolence"). As I gained confidence and competence, and as I changed my fundamental way of thinking, it became safe to have personal goals; and to pursue them openly. Yes, I do still get attacked for it sometimes, both personally and professionally - indeed, more than I would like - but I no longer fear the attacks as much. They can't paralyze me into inaction.
The barriers to my goals are internal. They're my fault, where they exist. If I'm not meeting my goals, I've mis-prioritized something, failed to clearly identify what I truly value, and/or the goal was something I set up because I thought I ought to - not because I genuinely held it as a goal.
A goal without a plan is just a wish - or worse, isn't a truly a goal at all. Even if I have to break the goal down into the teensie tiniest of baby steps, because it seems so huge and distant and impossible - I can identify those steps and take them. I may not make what I'd call significant progress very quickly - but I am executing, I am trying.
I can falter, I can lose hope at times. I can be delayed by external crises. I can realize that the goal I thought was so important no longer matters as much to me. I can choose to move a goal up or down in my priorities - or drop it off the list completely. But a goal is only real if I'm taking action to achieve it. I want to remember this: I want to say it to myself until I know it at my core: a goal without a plan is just a wish. Wishes don't come true; goals and plans do. If I don't have the skills or resources to make the goal happen entirely, I can work to acquire those skills and resources. I can chip away at the mountain until I have a clear line of sight to the finish line.
I hope I live long enough to achieve my current set of goals. I hope I die before I lose the bravery it requires to create and strive for new ones.
