Why Should We Set Life Goals?
Researchers believe that setting goals in life is a way to deal with the discontent of some parts of our current situation.
In fact, we may well wish that some part of our lives could change for the better, like our health, our relationship, or our job.
And indeed, by simply setting a goal we can increase the likelihood that we will achieve that change.
Setting Life Goals
When we set clear and challenging goals, such as “I’m going to gradually increase my daily running distance over a year to complete a marathon”.
We usually do a lot better than when we have a not so clear or broad goal like “I want to become rich”
Also, by being fully committed to our goals we increase our chances of actually achieving them.
And getting feedback from other people along with keeping track of our progress can also help us reach our goals (Locke & Latham, 2006).
We can make use of the “SMART” acronym to help us to develop effective life goals.
Although there are a number of variations in what SMART stands for (Rubin, 2002), here is one example:
● S: Specific
● M: Meaningful
● A: Achievable
● R: Realistic
● T: Trackable (or time-based)
What Are Short-Term and Long-Term Life Goals?
When we set easy and short-term goals, it makes us feel like we’re moving forward and therefore encourages us to keep working on our big, long-term goals.
In order to make our long-term goals more manageable, it can be useful to break them into smaller, short and medium-term goals.
These are tasks we can achieve within a short space of time, like an hour, a day, or a week.
For instance, if my end goal is to attend college, I might set a short-term goal of studying for the SAT for an hour every day for a few months.
These short-term goals will add up over time and eventually help me reach my long-term goal.
Turning Your Life Goals into Objectives
Short-term goals often have smaller more specific parts called objectives that you can act on.
Let’s say my goal is to get into college, and my short-term goal is to study for an hour each day.
The things I do during that hour become my objectives.
For instance, during that time, I might aim to solve 10 math problems, learn 10 new vocabulary words, and quiz myself on those words every evening.
These actions are what we call objectives.
Life Goals Examples
● Career Goals. These are related to your job or your life’s purpose. It could involve achieving a specific job title, income level, role, position, or working for a particular company.
● Financial Goals. Financial goals might help us live our values, change our lifestyle, provide for our families, or even promote the well-being of others in some way.
● Relationship Goals. It doesn’t matter whether we are in a romantic relationship or not, we might have goals about the quality or function of our closest relationships.
● Wellness Goals. These encompass fitness, physical health, mental well-being, and emotional health goals—things you’d like to change to feel better and healthier.
● Educational Goals. This category includes goals related to education, such as obtaining a degree as a stepping stone towards a specific career.
● Other Personal Life Goals. Most of us have unique life goals that don’t fit neatly into these categories. For instance, a goal like striving to live sustainably.
What are your other personal life goals?
More examples
● Getting good at a sport or hobby
● Devoting more time to doing your favorite things
● Learning a new skill
● Developing a soft skill like listening, resilience, or emotion regulation
● Meeting and getting to know new people
5 Life Goal Setting Tips
● Make a list of your goals.
● Break each goal down into smaller steps.
● Plan out how you’ll carry out these smaller steps.
● Plan out how you will overcome any barriers that block your goals.
● Don’t beat yourself up; be kind to yourself along the way.
Setting life goals can be good for us in the long run.
We have a greater chance of reaching our goals and making some of our dreams come true, if we take just a little more time to set out the right goals in the right way.
References
● Nair, K. S. (2003). Life goals: the concept and its relevance to rehabilitation. Clinical Rehabilitation, 17(2), 192-202.
● Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2006). New directions in goal-setting theory. Current directions in psychological science, 15(5), 265-268.
● Rubin, R. S. (2002). Will the real SMART goals please stand up. The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist, 39(4), 26-27.
