Setting Goals in Life Through the Lens of a Day

Did you know that most people never set goals in life?  That’s like taking the most important trip of your life, without a destination and a way to get there.

Consider your own schooling. If you’re like most of us, not only do we not learn about setting goals in life, it’s rare to be taught about setting goals at all.

This is not about casting blame or criticizing parents or schools. Rather, this is about awakening to the need to take responsibility to do this for ourselves now. For so many generations past life was more about survival than vast opportunity. Now, in the land of plenty with the world at our fingertips and infinite creative opportunities, we have to set destinations and stay on course in order to achieve our goals.

Then, we pass on that life transforming legacy to our children and grandchildren.

Goal oriented, purpose driven people generally achieve their dreams.
~LeAura Alderson, cofounder-iCreateDaily.com®

You can too.

AUDIO ARTICLE: Setting Goals in Life

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

• The Harvard Goals Study Myth
• Do You Know Your Goals in Life?
  • Begin at the End
• How to Identify Your Goals in Life
• What Will You Want to Be Able to Say?

Don’t Be Most People

Most people spend more time each day planning and dreaming about what they want to consume than on what they want to create. They daydream about where and what they want to eat, what they want to do for fun, and chatting on social media than they do planning out their day, let alone their life.

Don’t be most people. Don’t leave your life to chance. Don’t be adrift in the stream of life without a paddle.

Setting goals and working them daily steers you to success.

Setting goals in life and working them daily, is the only way to live the life you want to live.
~LeAura Alderson, Cofounder-iCreateDaily.com®

The Harvard Goals Study Myth

There’s an unproven urban legend citing a 1979 Harvard MBA study on goal setting that says that 83% of graduate students do not do goal setting.

This oft-cited study is as yet apparently unfound and mimics an identical one supposedly published by Yale in 1953, also as yet undiscovered in the online world. It seems this might be a made-up story by a motivational guru.^[1]https://www.wanderlustworker.com/the-harvard-mba-business-school-study-on-goal-setting/

However, suffice it to say that setting goals is effective. Most people who achieve remarkable success, set goals in life and pursue them with intense mental focus and strenuous physical effort. The most disciplined and successful set personal growth goals as well as relationship, family, financial and career goals.

Setting Goals Reduces Anxiety

You may never encounter a depressed, lost, goal setter focused on daily pursuit of their goals. We’re designed to evolve in motion. Human brains literally evolved through tundra trekking migrations of mankind.

So when we’re in pursuit of our goals, we’re creating the circumstances of our lives. We’re letting our future pull us forward rather through the intentions of that which we set in motion.

The human brain evolved under conditions of almost constant motion.
Dr. John Medina, developmental molecular biologist, author, b.1/19/1956

Goal Setting Research

Educational psychologist, Dale H. Schunk, has done research that reveals the Goldilocks concept of goal-setting, (our term). Where the goals need to be hard enough, but not too hard, long enough out, but not too far for the greatest positive impact.

Like Goldilocks, goals are best when not too hard or too easy, not too distant or too close for the greatest motivational boost.

The Goldilocks of Goal Setting

• Setting goals that are challenging but not too difficult stimulates development and interest
• Achieving goals increases confidence and leads to setting steadily more challenging goals.
• Goal setting fosters growth, positivity, and success

“Clear goals increase persistence and self­ efficacy, making individuals less susceptible to the undermining effects of anxiety, disappointment, and frustration.”

SOURCE: Dale H. Schunk (1990) Goal Setting and Self-Efficacy During Self-Regulated Learning, Educational Psychologist, 25:1, 71-86, DOI: 10.1207/s15326985ep2501_6
~D.H. Schunk, 1990, Educational

Do You Know Your Goals in Life?

If you don’t yet know your goals in life, no worries! Most people don’t, so don’t let it trouble you. Instead, let it motivate you to embark on the journey of discovery.

The good news is that the process of setting goals is literally only a pen and paper away. Or only a screen away if you prefer to set and track your goals digitally.

You don’t have to be clear on your goals in life to set goals for the quarter, week or day, so don’t let that stop you. The more you work on setting, working and tracking goals the clearer you become.

Once you commit to the journey of setting and achieving your goals, you will pick up speed and power. Your daily doing will accelerate your discoveries which will increase your clarity, which will accelerate your growth.

The day is the way to achieve your dreams, one day at a time.
~LeAura Alderson, Cofounder-iCreateDaily.com®

Begin at the End

How to set goals? Begin at the end. There’s a concept of starting at the end and working your way backward. Imagine the goal you’re aiming for, see it and feel it achieved. Then, make a list of all the steps to make it happen.

Don’t worry about ordering or organizing them yet. This first step is to brain dump all the things that come to mind that need to be done to reach your goal. Once in the journey you will discover additional steps to add and some to remove as less relevant.

Setting your goals in life is like life itself… you live it daily. A 1,000-foot journey begins with a single step, and then another.

To embark on a journey means that you need to know where you want to go. If you’re not yet clear on where you want to end up, you can start with the next place you want to go and head in that direction.

One of the best ways to achieve your goals in life is to achieve your goals in the day.

Writing down your dreams is the first step in the journey to making them real.
~LeAura Alderson, Cofounder-iCreateDaily.com®

How to Identify Your Goals in Life

When it comes to identifying life goals, some people find it helpful to consider their deathbed scenario. I think of mine like this:

In mine, I’m around 108 years old, (maybe more with advances in medicine and prevention) in my dream home of many years, surrounded by family and closest friends. We’re laughing and reminiscing over cherished memories. Family and friends each share what I’ve meant to their life one more time, and I share the same for them.

I’m not afraid to die as I reflect on all the goals accomplished, the people loved, contributions made, and the many joys and experiences over a rich and full life. I’m looking forward to the next great adventure beyond this life, and feel an immense sense of gratitude for family and friends and life’s many blessings.

Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.
~Sydney J. Harris, American author, journalist, 1917-1986

How to Set Goals in Life

The process for setting goals in life is similar, whether it’s life goals or this year’s goals. It’s just a matter of changing the wording to reflect the timing and the destination.

Some people prefer to consider their end they want to accomplish and work their way backward. Others prefer to flesh out each day while progressing toward a more general future goal. Which is it for you?

Either way, here are some orienting questions to help you focus on your life goals. If you’re new to goal setting you may wish to start with setting the day’s goal while beginning to flesh out your quarterly, monthly and weekly goals as you go.

If you have a clear idea of what you wish to accomplish for the quarter or the year, you can start there and work your way backwards.

Goals in Life

When you’re at the end of this life, what will you want to be able to say about your life?

At the End of…

• … 10 years, what will you want to be able to say about your decade?
• … 5 years, what will you be doing, where and with whom?
• … this year, what will you want to have accomplished?
• … the quarter, what will you want to have accomplished?
• … this month, what will you want to have accomplished?
• … the week, what will you want to have accomplished?
• … today, what will you want to have accomplished?

Whenever you feel overwhelmed, always bring it back to the day and the next most important thing you can do to move yourself forward. The day is the way to get where you want to go.

You are in it… in the life of your future. Today. Now. Engage!

Each life is comprised of each day. The day is the way to achieve your goals in life.
~LeAura Alderson, cofounder-iCreateDaily.com®

For setting, tracking and achieving goals we use the iCreateDaily 90 Day Goals Journals. Before that I just used a Google doc.

A simple, non-templated blank document or blank journal works well if you’re already disciplined and clear on what you need to do and you’re diligent about tracking and doing it. For many, a bit more structure is helpful. You can get a free 30-Day PDF journal download here, or read more about how to set goals in this article and videos here.

iCreateDaily Journals and More on Shopify

A movement for creators serious about their work.

The Day is the Way.

iCreateDaily™ on Amazon

For a foray into a list of 100+ life goals, this article may fuel your aspirations.

If you just write down your goals but you don’t do it, you’re telling your subconscious that you’re not a person of your word.
~David Osborne, Realtor, investor, serial entrepreneur, author