
The world's most popular goals - profquail
http://www.43things.com/zeitgeist/popular_goals
======
mstevens
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Taking the first ten, for example:

# lose weight 37862 people

\- dieting website \- exercise website

# stop procrastinating 27741 people

\- 8aweek \- rescuetime \- leechblock \- your-own-twist \- iPhone app with
random advice on meditation and focus.

# write a book 27115 people

\- writer's editor. \- A way to make money off content without publishers

# Fall in love 25192 people

\- dating website

# be happy 22707 people # Get a tattoo 20911 people

\- tattoo directory! \- Design-your-tattoo online, and book with our range of
licensed artists

# drink more water 19639 people

\- Subscribe to bottled water deliveries online!

# get married 19348 people

\- Dating website \- Wedding organiser

# travel the world 19122 people

\- travel tips \- low cost online travel agency

# go on a road trip with no predetermined destination 19098 people

\- Worldwide mobile phone packages \- Post-to-email service \- travel tips
again

etc etc

~~~
nandemo
_"drink more water"_

This is the most puzzling one for me. How can this even be a goal?

Are all those people chronically dehydrated? Perhaps they drink soft drinks
instead of water? Is it a North American thing? Mysteries...

~~~
timwiseman
The last time I went to the dentist he pointed out that I was drinking enough
soft drinks that it was causing noticeable damage to my enamel. I found it
surprisingly hard to stop drinking them. In fact, I haven't stopped, but I
have reduced it substantially.

~~~
smokinn
It's hard at first but it's definitely worth the effort of going cold turkey.
After a month or so the next time you try a soft drink your stomach will feel
all gassy and terrible and the drink itself will taste pretty bad.

Or at least that's what happened to me. I used to drink 3-4 cans of pepsi and
maybe 1-2 of mountain dew every day. I went from that to nothing and two
months later I had the above experience. I've had soft drinks maybe a half
dozen to a dozen times over the past year and it's never a particularly
pleasant experience.

~~~
detst
I've quit soft drinks cold turkey on a few occasions. I've gone from drinking
them almost exclusively to having none for months at a time.

My experience was that they were even better than I remembered them. The only
thing that I can relate to you is that if I haven't had a Coke in some months,
drinking a large amount does upset my stomach.

------
edw519
wtf, 100 goals and mine isn't even there...

I want a user "shaking with excitement".

I've had lots of happy users, but I don't thing I've ever had one shaking with
excitement to use my software.

I got this new goal after reading this article about patio11's Bingo Card
Creator:

[http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/01/what-
mak...](http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/01/what-makes-a-
great-teacher/7841/)

 _Next, Mr. Taylor announces it’s time for Multiplication Bingo. As Mr. Taylor
reads off a problem ("20 divided by 5"), the kids scour their boards, chips in
hand, looking for 4's. One girl is literally shaking with excitement. Another
has her hands clasped in a prayer position. I find myself wanting to play. You
know you're in a good classroom if you have to stop yourself from raising your
hand._

~~~
Sindisil
That is the most inspirational thing I've heard all week, perhaps so far this
month!

Thanks for that!

------
biggitybones
While not surprising, I still find it interesting the number of generic,
immeasurable, and fantastical goals at the top of the list like "be happy",
"stop procrastinating", "fall in love", etc etc.

Perhaps they're the most frequent because it's much more difficult to measure
them and thus harder to fully achieve, or perhaps it's telling the same
inherent set of goals that's instilled in us as we grow, or maybe it explains
the feelings of a large percentage of people.

Any way you look at, data like this aggregated across a population is always
interesting. I love the trend of startups publishing things like this now.

------
Giorgio
If by "world", you mean the female population of San Francisco, I guess this
is pretty accurate... I mean... "Kiss in the rain" in 14th position? Really?

------
ordinaryman
Just did a quick check and found that just 9 of them are available as domain
names, while 91 are already booked !!

Those available are : goonaroadtripwithnopredetermineddestination.com
havebetterposture.com wakeupwhenmyalarmclockgoesoff.com
decidewhatthehelliwouldliketodowiththerestofmylife.com
spendlesstimefoolingaroundonthenetandmoretimeactuallyworking.com
stopcaringwhatotherpeoplethinkofme.com figureoutwhatiwanttodowithmylife.com
goonaroadtrip.com identify100thingsthatmakemehappybesidesmoney.com

When you prefix _HowTo_ you still have around 48 left.

------
alphabeat
I can't even fathom having "watch grey's anatomy" as a goal. I don't even...

~~~
keefe
no doubt, how does this make the top list???

~~~
epochwolf
Poor sample size/selection?

------
maukdaddy
Oddly enough that list seems to correlate with:
<http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/>

------
drtse4
I'd like to see that grouped by country. And another interesting thing, if you
click on an item you can see on the right the average time the users needed to
check that activity as completed.

~~~
nreece
Yeah, apparently it takes 9 years (avg) to fall in love but it takes only 8
years to get married.

~~~
nandemo
<http://xkcd.com/310/>

------
RevRal
That's a little depressing. I'm visualizing most of these people keeping these
"goals" at arms length, or further, until their deaths.

Most of the crap on that list I wouldn't consider as "goals." Write a book?
I've done that, twice, and am currently writing another. For some reason, I
don't register "book" as the goal, even though that's the outcome I expect to
eventually reach, after the hundreds of tasks and the mind-bending logic that
goes into completing the book.

------
fbailey
I did it all and can tell you from my experience most of them are not worth
it.

I think it's actually a sad list, lot of things people think will make them
happy, but instead of just trying them out the fill lists with goals. It's
actually like a really long business plan ... after reading 20 pages you just
start thinking "just do it!".

------
holeykermoley
Aren't many of these goals vague, aspirational and banal? I would like to take
this as evidence that setting goals simply doesn't work.

Better is to try to identify one's mistakes. That's how progress is truly
made.

------
FluidDjango
Take a look at the some of the "How I did it" people (and what they're
concerned about 'doing').

This strikes me as a strange (not to mention unappealing (to me) ) population.
"Lowest common denominator" comes to mind.

I'd have to see some better-analyzed data and learn something about this
population's income, likelihood of following up on their 'goals', etc. before
I made any business decisions based on this.

------
xs
uhh, someone care to tell me the diff between 15. take more photos and 99.
take more pictures?

also doesn't anyone find it ironic that people wan to write books more than
they want to read more books?

~~~
blhack
Photos are composed, planned, things you would frame and hang on the wall.
Pictures are random things that might end up on facebook.

------
ra
Kiss the rain???????

------
revorad
That list is hilarious, and not just because of the title. The _world_ that is
made up of 100,000 people? Really?

~~~
DanielStraight
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sample_%28statistics%29>

100k people is quite a large sample. Conclusions about the world have been
made from much smaller samples.

~~~
pierrefar
It's 100k people with internet access that speak English. Most likely US and
UK based, likely to be using broadband. They clearly have aspirations beyond
the basic necessities (read more, run marathons, learn languages), suggesting
they perceive a certain level of free time available to dedicate to such
pursuits. Heck, Grey's Anatomy is in the top 100.

My point is that this 100k sample is likely to not be representative of the
world.

~~~
DanielStraight
I will agree that the sample is skewed, but I wasn't trying to make the point
that the particular 100k people in question constitute a representative sample
of the world. I was replying to the sentiment that because the world doesn't
consist of 100k people, you can't call 100k people's goals the world's goals.
I may not have expressed that as clearly as I could have.

I agree; this represents only a certain type of person in the world, but
again, conclusions about the world have been drawn from more specific types.

I just feel it's petty to focus on the title of the article, when the word
"world" is consistently applied in narrower senses.

------
Kilimanjaro
Out of all the goals, the only one not worth pursuing is getting a tattoo.

Parenting is failing somewhere.

------
aaronheckmann
Most popular languages to learn on the list: #1 Spanish #2 Japanese #3 Sign
language

~~~
othello
Actually, French pops in at #24, right before Japanese at #30.

Hence #1 Spanish, #2 French, #3 Japanese, #4 Sign Language.

------
puredemo
Lose weight? Maybe someday, after I finish my book and fall in love..

~~~
pingou
I can think of a more efficient order to get a romantic partner.

