So goals are hard for me. My 24th birthday is 8 weeks and I would like to lose 10 pounds by then. I know that it might be slightly unrealistic but I like the roundness of the number and it will get me to a weight I haven't been since I was 14 (ten years ago).

How do you balance working your butt off for your goal (within healthy reason) with preparing your mind that it might be a far stretch and to not be discouraged if you don't make it?

I have the same struggle. I am definitely starting to find the pounds harder to lose. I am slowly focusing more instead on how my body looks and feels and when I'm good with that I will declare my goal weight at that time.

I always like to underpromise and then overdeliver and I preach it all the time at work and it was the same with my weight.

I initially set my goal at 175, then 165, and I think I'm gonna stick with 155.

I might have a different mindset because I started so much heavier than you, but for me, it wasn't about a number, it was about getting healthy. The problem with focusing on a number is that let's say you do lose down to your goal, but then start weight training, or even just train different muscles if you are already doing weights, you will gain. You will be smaller, but you will also be heavier.