reach for the stars
They say that we must aim to reach for the stars and that even if we fail, we will fall on the moon. But that harms mental wellness. once doesnt like to feel the feeling of failure. Setting the right goals and achieving them builds confidence and integrity.
so in order to reach the lofty goals, we need to break them down into the smallest part. For my case, if I set a goal of wanting to become a professor at, say, the London School of Economics, then I need to set the smallest goal I can achieve now, which is to publish one quality paper on my topic.
Eventually, many such papers would be needed, apart from references and vacancies and all that. But at the minimal stage, I need to keep working on building a portfolio of good publications. then there is a chance of the rest to happen.
But if I think that if I set a goal to reach the London School of Economics as a teacher but fall down to reach a relatively modest school, I would keep having feelings of inadequacy. So it's best to build up towards the goal by setting achievable, controllable goals.