PERSONAL GOALS AS

WINDOWS TO WELLBEING
• Goals
• Personal Goals
• Search for universal human motives
• What goals contribute most to wellbeing
• Materialism and its discontents
• “What are you doing?
• we typically respond by describing the purpose of our
actions in terms of a desired outcome (i.e., achieving a
goal)
• All of our behaviour has a purpose
 GOALS
• A goal is an idea of the future or desired result that a person
or a group of people envision, plan and commit to achieve.
• People endeavour to reach goals within a finite time by
setting deadlines.
• Is goal an end or a means to an end?
• A goal is roughly similar to a purpose or aim, the anticipated
result which guides reaction, or an end, which is an object,
either a physical object or an abstract object, that
has intrinsic value.
• Goals also make our lives coherent by establishing connections
between specific short-term and more general long-term
purposes and desires.
• For example, if you are a college student reading this text for a
class on positive psychology, your specific purpose is to
understand the material in this chapter.
• This specific goal is probably part of a larger goal of doing well in
the class; which is a sub-goal of meeting the requirements to
graduate from college; which relates to the more general goal of
getting a good job; which may relate to an even more
encompassing goal of having a satisfying life.
• Our behavior during a day, a week, a year, or a lifetime would
not make much sense without an understanding of the goals we
are striving to achieve.
 GOALS

• Goals are central to an understanding of human behavior

because they energize action and provide meaning,
direction, and purpose to life activities. Goals help explain
the “whys” of action—that is, what people are trying to
accomplish.
• Goals explain and make sense of our actions by providing
reasons for their occurrence.
There are three types of goals- process, performance, and outcome goals.
•Process goals are specific actions or ‘processes’ of performing. For example, aiming to
study for 2 hours after dinner every day . Process goals are 100% controllable by the
individual.
•Performance goals are based on personal standard. For example, aiming to achieve a
3.5 GPA. Performance goals are mostly controllable.
•Outcome goals are based on winning. For a college student, this could look like landing
a job in your field or landing job at a particular place of employment you wanted.
Outcome goals are very difficult to control because of other outside influences.

Process, performance, and outcome goals have a linear relationship. This is important
because if you achieve your process goals, you give yourself a good chance to achieve
your performance goals. Similarly, when you achieve your performance goals, you have
a better chance of achieving your outcome goal.
• Your dream in life
• Each one of these dreams involves setting and reaching
small (and big!) goals. Each of these major goals can be
broken down into smaller, more attainable goals that will
propel you towards success.
 GOAL SETTING
• taking active steps to achieve your desired outcome
• Goal setting is a purposeful and explicit process that starts with
identifying a new objective, skill, or project you want to achieve.
Then, you make a plan for achieving it, and you work to complete
it.
• Why is goal setting important?
• When you set goals, you take control of your life’s—or your work’s
—direction.
• Goals provide you with focus. The decisions you make and actions
you take should bring you closer to achieving those goals.
• Setting goals keeps you moving, increases your happiness, and
significantly benefits your organization. When you set goals, you
create a vision of what your life or your business could look like.
Then you start pushing yourself and your team to get the best
 WHAT IS GOAL-SETTING
THEORY?
• Proposed by industrial-organizational psychologist Edwin
Locke, goal-setting theory recommends how to set the most
effective kinds of goals. Locke found that employees perform
better and are more motivated to complete goals if those
goals are difficult.
• In other words, you can’t cheat. The easier the goal, the less
you’ll work to achieve it. If you set hard (but not impossible)
goals, you’ll actually put in the highest level of effort.
 GOAL SETTING THEORY
• Specific, difficult goals lead to higher performance than either easy
goals or instructions to "do your best", as long as feedback about
progress is provided, the person is committed to the goal, and the
person has the ability and knowledge to perform the task. (Goal
Setting Theory, E.A Locke, G.P. Latham (2002).
• According to Locke and Latham, goals affect performance in the
following ways:
• goals direct attention and effort toward goal-relevant activities,
• difficult goals lead to greater effort,
• goals increase persistence, with difficult goals prolonging effort,
and
• goals indirectly lead to arousal, and to discovery and use of task-
relevant knowledge and strategies.
• Goal setting and planning ("goal work") promotes long-
term vision, intermediate mission and short-
term motivation.
• It focuses intention, desire, acquisition of knowledge, and
helps to organize resources.
 HOW TO SET GOALS
• If you create a long list of goals to
pursue all at the same time, you
may have a difficult time achieving
any of them.
• set both short- and long-term goals
• set goals that motivate you
• write your goals down and put them in a place
you can see
• adjust your goals as necessary
• Recognize and reward yourself when you
meet a goal
•
 HOW TO SET GOALS
• 1. Think about the results you want to see
• Before you set a goal, take a closer look at what you’re trying to achieve and ask
yourself the following questions:
• Is this goal something you truly want?
• Is it important enough to pour hours of time and effort into it?
• 2. Create SMART goals
• Once you’ve zeroed in on what you actually want, ensure your goal meets the
SMART criteria:
• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Realistic
• Time-bound
• The most important part of SMART goal setting is to make your goal specific so you
can clearly track your progress and know whether you met the goal. The more
specific you can be with your goal, the higher the chance you’ll complete it.
 HOW TO SET GOALS
• 3. Write your goals down
• When you write your goals down, they become real
and tangible instead of a vague idea that resides only
in your mind.
• Once you’ve written your goals down, keep them
somewhere visible––put personal goals up on your
mirror or near your computer screen, put team goals
up on the walls next to everyone’s desks, and include
company goals in internal presentations.
• 4. Create an action plan
• Many people decide on a goal but never create an
action plan to determine how exactly they will meet
that goal. Your action plan should include the overall
goal you’re trying to meet and all the steps you need
to take to get there.
• Don’t be afraid to get creative with your action plan.
 HOW TO SET GOALS
• 5. Create a timeline
• As part of your action plan, use a timeline maker to help visualize roles, tasks,
milestones, and deadlines to achieve your goal.
• Once you’ve set those dates, try to stick to them as closely as possible. A
timeline creates a sense of urgency, which in turn motivates you to stay on
schedule and finish your goal.
• 6. Take action
• Now that you’ve planned everything out, it’s time to take action. You didn’t go
through all that work just to forget about your goal. Every step that you take
should lead to another until you finish your goal.
• 7. Re-evaluate and assess your progress
• You need to keep your motivation strong to complete your goal. Consider
scheduling a weekly evaluation, which could include measuring your progress
and checking your schedule. Once you see how close the finish line is, you’ll
feel more motivated to push through to the end. If you're a little behind
schedule, make necessary adjustments and keep going.
 PERSONAL GOALS
• Are goals and personal goals one and the same thing?
• Targets for the improvement of a person – may be
developed from different perspectives; improvement
as a professional, student, person
• Personal goals are the expressions of the things you want
to achieve for yourself in life, whether those are
business goals, family goals, or lifestyle goals.
• When you think about what you want to achieve in life and
set goals towards achieving them, you will become more
self-motivated and positive.
 PERSONAL GOALS
• Robert Emmons (2003) describes personal goals as “the well-springs
of a positive life” (p. 105).
• The goals we pursue are intimately connected to our happiness and
well-being.
• The importance of goals is clearly evident in cases where people do
not have reasonably clear, personally meaningful, and attainable
goals.
• Both goal conflict and unrealistic goals have consistently been linked
to lower well-being and higher distress
• conflict and ambivalence about personal goals may be related to
higher levels of negative affect, depressed mood, neuroticism, and
physical illness.
• Even though people spend a good deal of time ruminating about their
conflicting goals, this does not lead to action aimed at resolution.
 SETTING UNREALISTIC GOALS
• There is strong relationship between goals and personal distress
• Setting unrealistic standards for self-evaluation and clinical
depression
• Perfectionists are at higher risk for both depression and suicide
because of the self-blame, low self-worth, and chronic sense of
failure that result from their inability to meet unrealistic expectations
• These expectations may be self-imposed through a belief that one
must be flawless, or socially imposed through a belief that significant
others have expectations and demands that are difficult or
impossible to achieve.
• The chronic inability to satisfy individual standards for self-approval
and to meet the perceived expectations of others to gain social
approval can cause severe distress.
• Prolonged distress may lead to what Baumeister (1990) called the
“escape from self”—namely, suicide.
 WHAT ARE PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT GOALS?

• Personal development goals are objectives you set to improve

your character, skills and capabilities.

• Setting these goals involves assessing yourself and identifying

the areas in which you can improve to maximize your potential.

• To get started with personal development, you should create a

plan with actionable steps.

• These steps will help you measure your improvement and keep
you focused on your target.
SIGNIFICANCE OF PERSONAL GOALS
• Attaining personally significant goals, pursuing
meaningful aspirations, and involving oneself in valued
activities all contribute to enhanced happiness and well-
being
• Personal goals play a pivotal role in individual wellbeing
because they are the basis for activities that bring
happiness and meaning to life.
• Engagement in meaningful life tasks makes a significant
and independent contribution to well-being.
• participation in social activities increase well-being above
and beyond the effects of personal resources.
EXAMPLES OF PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
GOALS FOR WORK
• Improve your time management.
• Develop emotional intelligence.
• Cultivate resilience.
• Listen actively.
• Develop a growth mindset.
• Develop a reading habit.
• Learn new things.
• Improve your public speaking skills.
PERSONAL GOAL ACHIEVEMENT AND HAPPINESS
• There has been a lot of research conducted looking at the link
between achieving desired goals, changes to self-efficacy and
integrity and ultimately changes to subjective wellbeing.
• Goal efficacy refers to how likely an individual is to succeed in
achieving their goal. Goal integrity refers to how consistent one's
goals are with core aspects of the self.
• A focus on goal efficacy is associated with well-being factor
happiness (subjective well-being) and goal integrity is associated
with the well-being factor meaning .
• Multiple studies have shown the link between achieving long-term
goals and changes in subjective well-being; most research shows
that achieving goals that hold personal meaning to an individual
increases feelings of subjective well-being
• Desired outcomes that people expend energy trying to
achieve.
• Goals contain both a cognitive and an emotion-motivational
component.
• Goals are cognitive in the sense that they are mental
representations of desired future states.
• These representations include beliefs, expectations,
memories, and images. The emotion-motivational
components of goals include the positive and negative
feelings associated with thinking about achieving or failing to
achieve important goals, evaluations of goal progress, and the
emotions following successful or unsuccessful goal
attainment. It is this emotion-motivational component that
energizes action in goal pursuits.
 MEASURING PERSONAL GOALS
• Researchers attempt to capture what people are trying to
accomplish in their lives in terms of personally desirable
outcomes.
• Goals have been described as personal projects ( studying
the kinds of activities and concerns that people have in
their lives).
• All of us have a number of personal projects at any given
time that we think about, plan for, carry out, and
sometimes (though not always) complete” (McGregor &
Little, 1998, p. 497).
• Examples of projects might include “completing one’s
subject assignment” and “getting more outdoor exercise”
 MEASURING PERSONAL GOALS
• personal strivings (“the things you are typically or
characteristically trying to do in your everyday behavior.)”
• Could be either positive objectives we sought, or negative
events/ things we want to avoid
• Example – trying to persuade others you are right, trying to
help others in need of help
• May include goals at more higher or general level
 MEASURING PERSONAL GOALS
• Life tasks (One way to think about goals is to think about ‘current
life tasks).’
• For example, imagine a retired person.
• The following three life tasks may emerge for the individual as he
or she faces this difficult time: (1) being productive without a job;
(2) shaping a satisfying role with grown children and their
families; and (3) enjoying leisure time and activities.
• These specific tasks constitute important goals since the
individual’s energies will be directed toward solving them”
• personal goals open up a rich assortment of interrelated factors
for well-being researchers. Goals capture the guiding purposes in
people’s lives that are central to happiness and satisfaction.
Goals may be considered windows for viewing major
determinants of well-being.
 HOW TO DO GOAL ORGANIZATION ?
• Goals can be arranged in a hierarchy with general, more
abstract, and “higher-order” goals at the top and more
concrete, specific, and “lower-order” goals at the bottom
(Austin & Vancouver, 1996).
• Goals higher in the hierarchy are considered more important
because they control and give meaning to many lower-order
goals.
• Higher-order goals can easily be broken down into the lower-
order subgoals they control
• For example, the goal of earning a college degree requires
successful achievement of numerous subgoals (e.g., meeting
college entrance requirements, signing up for classes, studying,
fulfilling graduation requirements, and paying tuition).
 HOW TO DO GOAL ORGANIZATION

• Higher-order goals may also be more important because

of the personal consequences that may occur if they are
not achieved.
• The consequences of failing to obtain a college degree
are more significant than failing one class.
• Clearly, if all or most subgoals are not achieved, higher-
order goals will be lost as well
 Are There Any Universal Human Motives?
• What are the sources of different goal related motivations?
• Based on Maslow’s classic conception of a hierarchy of
needs
• Originally describing five needs, the model later expanded to eight
needs regarded as universal among humans. The expansion
occurred as the result of subdividing aspects of self-actualization
into separate needs. Each need can be thought of as motivating a
particular class of behaviors, the goal of which is need fulfillment.
• Maslow argued that lower-order needs take precedence over
higher-order needs. Higher-order needs are not important, of
interest or motivating unless lower-order needs are first satisfied.
Maslow viewed human development as the process of progressing
up the hierarchy.
 Are There Any Universal Human Motives?
• Depending on circumstances, a person who was previously
motivated by higher-order needs may regress to a lower-order
need. For example, many college students have experienced
difficulty in finding the motivation to study (cognitive need) after
a failed romantic relationship or the death of a loved one
(belongingness need)
• Maslow’s legacy is still visible in positive psychology. For
example, common assumptions among positive psychologists are
that the more needs a person has fulfilled, the healthier and
happier that person will be, and that unmet needs decrease
wellbeing (Veenhoven, 1995).
• The eudaimonic conception of a healthy and fully functioning
person shares much common ground with Maslow’s description
of a self-actualized individual
 Focus On Research: An Empirical Method For
Assessing Universal Needs
• A list of universal needs may help sort and organize the
diverse theories postulating widely different needs,
values, and goals.
• A recent study addressed this issue by testing 10
psychological needs as candidates for “universal need”
status (Sheldon, Elliot, Kim, & Kasser, 2001).
• based on their similarity, frequency of use, and empirical
support within the motivational literature
 Assessing Universal Needs
• 1. Self-esteem: The need for a positive self image, a
sense of worth, and self-respect, rather than a low self-
opinion or feeling that one is not as good as others
• 2. Relatedness: The need to feel intimate and mutually
caring connections with others, and
• to have frequent interactions with others as opposed to
feeling lonely and estranged.
• 3. Autonomy: The need to feel that choices are freely
made and reflect true interests and values.
• Expressing a “true self” rather than being forced to act
because of external environmental or social pressures.
 Assessing Universal Needs
• 4. Competence: The need to feel successful, capable, and
masterful in meeting difficult challenges rather than
feeling like a failure, or feeling ineffective or incompetent.

• 5. Pleasure/stimulation: The need for novelty, change, and

stimulating, enjoyable experiences rather than feeling
bored or feeling that life is routine.

• 6. Physical thriving: The need to be in good health and to

have a sense of physical well-being rather than feeling
 Assessing Universal Needs
• 7. Self-actualization/meaning: The need for personal growth
and development of potentials that define who one really is.
• Finding deeper purpose and meaning in life as opposed to
feeling stagnant or feeling that life has little meaning.

• 8. Security: The need to feel safe rather than threatened or

uncertain in your present life circumstances; a sense of
coherence, control, and predictability in life.
 Assessing Universal Needs
• 9. Popularity/influence: The need to feel admired and
respected by other people and to feel that your advice is
useful and important, resulting in an ability to influence
others’ beliefs and behaviors (as opposed to feeling that you
have little influence over others and that no one is interested
in your advice or opinions).

• 10. Money/luxury: The need for enough money to buy what

you want and to have nice possessions (as opposed to feeling
poor and unable to own desirable material possessions).
 HOW DO WE DETERMINE UNIVERSALITY OF
THESE NEEDS ?
• based on two criteria.
• The first criterion stems from the assumption that people’s
most satisfying life experiences are related to fulfillment of
important needs.
• Tested by describing one’s single most satisfying life event.
• Asked to rate the degree of relationship between each of the 10
needs and the “most satisfying” event they had described.
• The second criterion assumes that the experience of positive
and negative emotions is related to need fulfillment.
• Tested by asking to rate the extent to which one feels 20
different positive and negative moods associated with satisfying
and dissatisfying events.
• Needs are significantly related to satisfying and dissatisfying
 GOALS EXPRESSING FUNDAMENTAL VALUES
• Fundamental values offer another way to think about
universality and hierarchies of human motivation.
• Most value theories view values as desirable states that
function as general guides or principles of living
• Values describe broad and general goals that may motivate
a wide range of behaviors. In a hierarchy of human goals,
ranging from concrete (e.g., cleaning your house) to abstract
(having a satisfying life), values would occupy a top position

• A recent theory of values addresses both the hierarchy issue

and universality issue.
• 10 human values
 GOALS EXPRESSING FUNDAMENTAL VALUES
• Values: - Cognitive representations of three universal
requirements for human existence:
• biological needs of the individual,
• needs for coordinated social interactions, and
• needs related to the welfare of groups and social
institutions.
• Because of their assumed connection to important
requirements of life, the 10 values are regarded as universal
across cultures. People and cultures may differ in how they
prioritize their values.
 GOALS EXPRESSING FUNDAMENTAL VALUES
• That is, how people rank order values in terms of their
importance will vary from person to person and from culture
to culture.
• A value may be important to one person and less important
or even unimportant to another.
 GOALS EXPRESSING FUNDAMENTAL VALUES
• The connection between goals and values is explicit
because values are defined as broad goals that apply to
many situations and remain stable across time.
• Some of our most personally important goals are
probably related to one of the 10 values.
• A helping professional’s career goals, for example, may
express the importance of a benevolence value.
• Because values help define our personal identities and
serve as general principles of living, they represent some
of our most important, and therefore, higher-order goals.
• The fact that the values described by Schwartz are shared
across cultures argues for their universal importance
 THE PERSONALIZATION OF GOALS IN SELF-
CONCEPT
• Suppose you were given the task of writing a relatively complete
personal history that covered significant life experiences from your
past, who you are in the present, and where you’re headed in the
future. What would such a description include?
• Certainly you would write about important life experiences, significant
relationships, and the personal qualities and traits that define who you
are as a unique individual.
• You might also describe personally relevant goals that you have
achieved in the past, goals that you are working to accomplish in the
present, and goals that you hope to achieve in the future.
• Our self-concept is partly defined by goals that extend across time
from past, through present, to future—who I’ve been, who I am now,
and who I might become.
THE PERSONALIZATION OF GOALS IN SELF-
CONCEPT
• Defined by future goals is captured in the idea of “possible selves”
• Possible selves encompass all the potential futures we can imagine
for ourselves.
• Future selves may be positive, in the form of ideal selves that we
want to become, or negative, in the form of selves that we are
afraid of becoming.
• Possible selves we hope to become might include a physically fit
self, a wealthy self, a popular self, a loved self, a respected self, or
a successful, “A-student” self.
• Selves we fear becoming might be an overweight self, an
unemployed self, a depressed or anxious self, a lonely self, a lazy
self, or an academically failing self
 THE PERSONALIZATION OF GOALS
IN SELF-CONCEPT
• A person’s self-concept plays an important role in
processing information, regulating emotion, and
motivating behavior
• Possible selves are most relevant to the third function of
self—the motivational view
• This is because possible selves provide a connection
between the past, present, and desired future self and
therefore provide motivation for self-change.
• Past, present, and future possible selves are distinct and
separable, but are also intimately connected.
 THE PERSONALIZATION OF GOALS
IN SELF-CONCEPT
• The idea of possible selves makes an explicit connection
between the self and motivation.
• “An individual’s repertoire of possible selves can be
viewed as the cognitive manifestations of enduring goals,
aspirations, motives, fears and threats.
• Possible selves provide the specific self-relevant form,
meaning, organization, and direction to these dynamics.
• They provide the essential link between the self-concept
and motivation”
• Possible selves personalize the form and content of more
general needs, values, and goals.
 WHAT GOALS CONTRIBUTE MOST TO
WELL-BEING?
• Goal Progress, Achievement, and Importance
• Progressing toward and achieving personally important goals
increases people’s satisfaction with their lives and
themselves
• For example, a semester-long study found that students’
perceived progress toward achieving their personal goals was
significantly correlated with increases in positive emotion and
life satisfaction (Brunstein, 1993).
• Student goals included such things as improving a
relationship with a romantic partner, learning enough Spanish
to study in Spain, becoming more independent from parents,
and learning to be more assertive and confident with others.
 WHAT GOALS CONTRIBUTE
MOST TO WELL-BEING?
• A general relationship between goal importance and
personal satisfaction
• Goals that express fundamental and self-defining aspects
of personal identity are likely to be the most deeply
satisfying when pursued and achieved.
• Although routine activities such as fixing a meal, cleaning
your house, and paying bills can bring some satisfaction,
these goals are relatively less important to our self-
conception and therefore tend to produce smaller and
more temporary effects on well-being
 THE MATCHING HYPOTHESIS
• Matching hypothesis: a way of sorting out which goals lead to
increased well-being and which do not.
• The degree of person-goal fit determines the effect of goal progress
and goal achievement on well-being.
• Pursuit of goals that express or fulfill (i.e., “match”) an individual’s
needs, values, motives, or self-conception is more likely to increase
well-being than pursuit of goals that do not fit or match with the
person.
• In other words, if you want to increase your happiness and well-being,
the “right” goals to pursue are those that fit and express your most
important needs, desires, and sense of self.
• The “wrong” goals are those that are unrelated to these deeper,
enduring personal characteristics.
• The personal characteristics that underlie goals may be unique to the
individual or shared by all people. For example, goals related to
belongingness needs may make successful relationships and social