History Main / HumbleGoal

* In the nineties Fox sitcom ''Roc,'' the title character is a Baltimore garbageman whose fondest dream is to someday live in a semi-detached house. He knows he'll never have enough money for a fully free-standing house, but he'd be happy having at least ''one'' wall with nothing on the other side.

A SuperTrope of CallToAgriculture, where a powerful character only wants to be a farmer. Often the goal of an ActionSurvivor whose main goal is surviving so he can get back to his ordinary life. Compare MundaneLuxury, which is often the motivation behind this. Particularly common in stories where the characters or characters are [[TrappedInAnotherWorld stranded somewhere]] and just want to get home. Characters who hear this goal, especially if the road to get it has become complete pandemonium, may probably end up becoming DisappointedByTheMotive.

-->"Our parents came to this country, fleeing poverty, oppression, and hunger. Hunger! They were very, very hungry! And they dreamed of a land, filled with hamburger restaurants. And not just one type of hamburger, but hundreds of types, with different sizes, toppings, and condiments. That land was America. America, Harold! ''America.'' Now, this is about achieving what our parents set out for. This is about the pursuit of happiness. This night... is about The American Dream."

* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'': Jerry used Rick's meeseeks box to help him get two strokes off his golf game. Guess what that led to.

* Played for camp in ''Film/ReeferMadness: The Musical'':

** There's also Brook of the Straw Hat crew. While the others have big dreams of being Pirate King, the worlds best swordsman, curing all disease, being a brave warrior, mapping out the whole world's oceans, discovering the secret past of the world and going to a legendary sea, his goal is to just see his friend Laboon again.

** [[NiceGuy Boy Blue]] is [[BewareTheNiceOnes a veteran of countless battles in a]] HopelessWar and his RoaringRampageOfRescue through the homelands gets him described in-universe as the sort of guy Creator/ErrolFlynn only pretended to be in his films. The only problem is, while being a survivor from countless massacres may be testament to his badassery, it leaves him suffering from terrible SurvivorsGuilt from all the countless comrades he's watched die, and as such, all he really wants to be is a functionary in some boring office job for the rest of his eternal life, with ''finally'' not having a romantic attachment blow up in his face being a nice bonus. [[spoiler:When dying, he specifically requests that he not be buried among the soldiers, because he'd prefer to be remembered as a clerk and musician rather than a world-class badass. After meeting and giving reassurance to the not-quite-dead Bigby in limbo, Blue says that it looks like his own personal heaven will, in fact, be something totally unremarkable that will fulfill his wish at long last]].

** In ''Literature/{{Night Watch|Discworld}}'', the revolutionaries want a slogan that encapsulates what they're fighting for. After asking each of their members what ''they'' want, the result is "Truth, Justice, Reasonably-Priced Love[[labelnote:*]]The original option was for Free Love, but the prostitute objected on occupational grounds[[/labelnote]] [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers and A Hard Boiled Egg]]". This culminates in a tradition of leaving a hard-boiled egg [[DueToTheDead on Sergeant Keel's grave]].

** [[NiceGuy Boy Blue]] is [[BewareTheNiceOnes a veteran of countless battles in a]] HopelessWar and his RoaringRampageOfRescue through the homelands gets him described in-universe as the sort of guy Creator/ErrolFlynn only pretended to be in his films. The only problem is, while being a survivor from countless massacres may be testament to his badassery, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome it leaves him suffering from terrible]] SurvivorsGuilt from all the countless comrades he's watched die, and as such, all he really wants to be is a functionary in some boring office job for the rest of his eternal life, with ''finally'' not having a romantic attachment blow up in his face being a nice bonus. [[spoiler:When dying, he specifically requests that he not be buried among the soldiers, because he'd prefer to be remembered as a clerk and musician rather than a world-class badass. After meeting and giving reassurance to the not-quite-dead Bigby in limbo, Blue says that it looks like his own personal heaven will, in fact, be something totally unremarkable that will fulfill his wish at long last]].

* Americana (1981): All the main character wants is to repair an abandoned merry-go-round in some small town in the middle of nowhere. Why he sets such a goal for himself is for the movie viewers to figure out.

* ''Film/TheHuntForRedOctober'': Vasily Borodin, ''Red October'''s executive officer, a man who has risen pretty much as far as is possible in the Soviet Navy, dreams of settling in rural Montana, raising rabbits, [[ChubbyChaser marrying a chubby Midwestern woman with a good rabbit stew recipe]] and owning an RV so he can go to Arizona over the winter.

* ''LightNovel/FateApocrypha'':

* ''Film/{{Payback}}'': Porter takes on the city's entire underworld to retrieve his $70,000 cut of stolen heist money. Though $70K isn't insignificant, it's peanuts to the people he's fighting against, with one mob boss complaining that the suits Porter had shot up were worth more than that. Just about everyone he encounters either reacts with disbelief that he'd go to war with the mob over such a paltry amount.

* ''LightNovel/MyNextLifeAsAVillainessAllRoutesLeadToDoom'': Having died as a teenager in her previous life, Katarina has resolved to dying of old age in this one, specifically to become an old woman sitting in a rocking chair, staring at the sunset with a cat on her lap.

* ''Literature/TheBible'': In Proverbs 30:8-9, a Believer wants neither poverty nor riches, but only their daily bread (ie, 3 square meals a day), on the grounds that a rich man might become arrogant in that wealth, and a poor man might become a thief, but a man whose needs are fulfilled by God knows who puts the food on the table.

A SuperTrope of CallToAgriculture, where a powerful character only wants to be a farmer. Often the goal of an ActionSurvivor whose main goal is surviving so he can get back to his ordinary life. Compare MundaneLuxury, which is often the motivation behind this. Particularly common in stories where the characters or characters are [[TrappedInAnotherWorld stranded somewhere]] and just want to get home.