My personal goals are to be happy, healthy and to be surrounded by loved ones. — Kiana Tom

My personal goals are to be happy, healthy and to be surrounded by loved ones.

Author: Kiana Tom

Insight: There's something quietly radical about stating this so plainly. We live in a culture obsessed with achievement metrics—followers, promotions, possessions—that we rarely pause to notice that most people, if they're honest, want exactly what Kiana Tom describes. Not fame. Not wealth for its own sake. Just the fundamentals: feeling good, feeling well, and having people who matter nearby. The tricky part isn't identifying what we want. It's that these three things operate on different timelines and require different skills. You can't just decide to be happy and have it stick like a decision to change jobs. Health demands consistency in unglamorous ways—sleep, movement, small daily choices. And surrounding yourself with loved ones? That requires showing up for people even when it's inconvenient, maintaining relationships when life scatters everyone in different directions. It's not passive. What makes this worth remembering is that it's a useful measuring stick. When you're overwhelmed or making a big decision, you can ask yourself: does this move me closer to these three things or further away? It won't answer everything, but it cuts through the noise remarkably well. Sometimes the most powerful goal is the one that sounds almost too simple.