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How can we set all the types of goals we're aiming for?
Score that project manager position at work. Earn that certification. Achieve that salary to save enough money for a down payment on a house. Start a family...
We all have aspirations, but not everyone obtains their desired results. Why is it that some people can successfully achieve what they want and others can’t? And if there were a way to increase our odds of success, wouldn’t we want to do those things?
The answer isn’t a secret. The answer is goal-setting. Goal-setting is a means to achieving serious self-improvement.
Table of Contents
- The Psychology Behind Goal-Setting
- Types of Goals
- Examples of Goals to Set
- How to Set Major Goals You'll Keep
Here are the best types of goals and how to achieve them—so you can create the life and career you want.
The Psychology Behind Goal-Setting
Goals provide us with a sense of motivation, inspiration, and purpose, and goal-setting is the process of defining actionable steps to achieve your desired result. Ideally, goal-setting helps us get a sense of our current state, helps us determine where we’d like to be, and fills in the gaps along the way of the steps we need to take to achieve our desired outcome.
Before we break down specific goals you can set, there are three kinds of goals to understand: outcome, performance, and process.
Outcome goals are the goals you set to achieve your desired result. Since outcome goals are focused on the results, there are actions you can take to influence the outcome.
But the end result isn’t something you can fully control because there are outside influences that impact your ability to achieve the goal. For example, say your goal is to get promoted to manager. You can do great work and be the best employee and coworker you can be, but that doesn’t guarantee a promotion because the result (i.e., the promotion) is ultimately up to your boss.
Performance goals are the standards we set for ourselves to achieve our outcomes. Unlike outcome goals, you have more control over the results of your performance goals.
In our previous example, if your goal is to get promoted, a performance goal you may set for yourself is to reply to emails within 24 hours to ensure a timely response or set up weekly one-on-one with your manager to establish open communication.
Process goals are the specific actions we take to increase our chances of achieving our outcome goals. These are the behaviors and strategies that we implement that help us set a path to achieve our desired result. Process goals are 100% controllable.
Examples of Process Goals:
- Completing the responsibilities you agreed upon with your manager on an important project
- Spending one hour a week on professional development activities
- Networking with three new people in the company each month
Types of Goals
When thinking about goal-setting, people tend to define their goals in two common ways: time-based and category-based. Time-based is exactly what it sounds like: a goal that you’d like to achieve by a predetermined time.
Category-based goals are goals that you establish by what category they fall into in your life. For example, category-based goals might fall into goals at work, in your personal life, or regarding finances. Let’s start with time-based goals.
Lifetime Goals
Lifetime goals are exactly that: goals that you want to achieve during your lifetime. The length of time to accomplish these goals may vary depending on the complexity and depth of the goal.
Start by imagining what you want your life to look like in the distant future. Think about what you wanted to be when you grew up or what you envisioned you’d do after you graduated. Those larger-than-life goals are your lifetime goals.
The sky is the limit when it comes to lifetime goals. You can shoot big because you have more time to obtain these goals. It’s also natural for these goals to evolve and change as time passes because your wants and needs change as you pass through different seasons of life. Think of your lifetime goals as the items on your bucket list. Some examples of lifetime goals include:
- Become a New York Times bestselling author
- Travel to every continent
- Be a renowned expert in your field
- Save enough money to retire early
- Climb Mount Everest
- Start your own business
Long-Term Goals
Long-term goals are those you want to accomplish in the future that you can take actionable steps to achieve through short-term goals.
Long-term goals may seem similar to lifetime goals, but the main difference is that lifetime goals are broader and grander in scope than long-term goals. Think of them like building blocks in that long-term goals can set you up for success to achieve your lifetime goals, just like short-term goals help you achieve your long-term goals.
Long-term goals give you a sense of direction in your personal and professional life by connecting you with your purpose. Some examples of long-term goals include:
- Land your ideal job
- Graduate from college
- Get accepted into a master’s program
- Get married
- Start a family
- Run a marathon
- Lose the set number of pounds recommended by your doctor to stay healthy
- Buy your first house
- Become a board member of an organization you’re passionate about
Short-Term Goals
Short-term goals are the goals you can accomplish in six months to a year—in the relatively near future.
They are the foundation and stepping stones to help you achieve your long-term goals. In fact, short-term goals are also commonly known as stepping-stone goals.
They’re equally (if not more) important as your long-term and lifetime goals because without setting and accomplishing short-term goals, long-term and lifetime goals become a lot more challenging to achieve.
Examples of short-term goals include:
- Complete the big project at work you’ve been committed to for the last three months
- Escape your comfort zone
- Save $1,000 in your bank account this year
- Network with two new people this month
- Pay off one student loan
- Attend one professional development event this quarter
Examples of Goals to Set
In addition to time-based goals, category-based goals fall into a distinct area of your life. It’s important to note that time-based goals are often related to a category of your life as well.
For example, saving $1,000 in your bank account would fall into the financial category. But add the time frame of six months, and now it’s a short-term financial goal.
Three common categories of goals include professional goals, personal, and financial. The great thing about these categories of goals is that they’re self-explanatory, and you can take them at face value.
Professional Development Goals
Career advancement goals are among the first types of goals people think of when they want to set goals.
When people think of accomplishing something, it’s often related to long-term career goals. However, your immediate career goals can be as immediate as updating your resume, polishing your LinkedIn profile, applying to jobs, and scheduling job interviews.
Pro Tip: When setting any career development goal, it's important to establish a realistic timeline to achieve success. Don't set yourself up for failure by setting goals that are too aggressive.
Whether it’s related to professional development, career change, earning more money at their job, or moving up in their career and company, achieving career success is a point of satisfaction for many. Here are a few ideas if you're looking to set work goals.
Career Goals Examples:
- Get a promotion
- Build a different roadmap for potential career paths
- Earn your master's degree
- Create a personal brand that aligns with you career objectives
- Become a leader in your organization
- Work for a specific potential employer or in a specific job
- Negotiate a raise
- Earn a position on a board
- Win a prestigious award in your industry
- Improve your soft skills
- Learn a new skill
- Network outside of your company
- Change industries or careers
- Attend a seminar to hone your craft
- Find a mentor
- Earn a professional certificate
- Improve your time management skills
- Climb a career ladder
- Advance leadership skills and achieve a leadership position
- Become a thought leader in your industry
- Reimagining (or dumping) the idea of a dream career
Personal Development Goals
Personal goals can encompass a lot of areas of your life. From your relationships to fitness to personal development, your personal goals are what you want to accomplish for you because they make you feel complete, more fulfilled, or simply happy.
Here are some ideas to get your creativity flowing around personal goals.
Examples of Goals in Personal Development:
- Find a partner
- Make new friends in a new city
- Start a family
- Achieve a fitness milestone, like completing ten push-ups or running a mile
- Travel to a foreign country
- Pick up a new hobby
- Be more present in your daily life
- Meditate twice a week
- Take steps to improve your well-being daily
- Spend more time with your family
- Volunteer in your community
- Read one book a month
Financial Goals
Financial goals are all about the money, honey. Whether you’re looking to become financially stable or financially independent, money can be a big conversation topic.
Setting goals around your financial well-being can help ensure that money doesn’t become a point of contention in your life or your relationships. Money is a very personal matter, so make sure that your financial goals align with your personal values and beliefs. Here are a few examples to get you started.
Financial Goals to Set:
- Make a budget
- Revisit your budget monthly to stay on track
- Change your spending habits
- Save $5,000 in your savings account
- Allocate 10% of each paycheck to your 401(k)
- Start investing
- Budget for a trip to Europe and save a set amount of money each month
- Save up to buy a car or home
- Pay off debt
- Gift money to causes close to your heart
- Save enough money to become financially independent
- Create an emergency fund
- Save money to splurge on something you really want
How to Set Major Goals You’ll Keep
Anyone can set goals, but how many can keep them? Just like New Year Resolutions, you won’t see results if you give up after a month. So, how exactly do you set effective goals that you’ll actually keep?
Follow these five steps to achieve the goals, achievements, and successes you've been yearning for.
1. Set Goals That Are Important to You
It should go without saying that to ensure success, only set goals that matter to you and your personal growth.
Setting goals to meet someone else’s standards or expectations is setting yourself up for defeat. When a goal is important to you, you’re more likely to plan for it and prioritize it. It’ll keep you motivated and on track to achieve your end result. Setting goals in alignment with your personal values and beliefs is a good place to start.
2. Make Your Goals SMART
Setting SMART goals is a strategy for achieving your objective and keeping you motivated. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
When setting goals that address these criteria, you’re more likely to stick to your commitments, which means it’s more likely you’ll reach the finish line.
3. Don’t Be Discouraged if You Fail
Failure is a natural part of life. Sometimes you’ll set goals and succeed, and other times you won’t quite make it where you intended. Sometimes failure is a blessing in disguise and sometimes it just plain sucks. But either way, it’s okay to fail. Failure isn’t bad or something to be feared. When it comes to goal setting, redefine failure. If at first you don’t succeed, refresh your goals and try again.
4. Let Go of the Results
Tying our productivity and self-worth to goals can be exhausting and lead to burnout. Throughout your journey, you may achieve different results than you intended. That isn’t always a bad thing and doesn’t mean you should feel defeated. Letting go of the results will give you a sense of peace as you seek to make progress toward your goals.
5. Celebrate
Accomplishing a goal, meeting a deadline, or checking off the first step to meeting your desired result is cause for celebration.
Go ahead and make a big deal about reaching your goal because it was a big deal for you! But remember, a journey is filled with a lot of smaller steps along the way. Make time to celebrate incrementally throughout your journey. It will inspire you to keep going when the going gets tough and will make the victory at the finish line that much sweeter.
