How to Set and Pursue Worthwhile Goals

Goals matter. They matter a lot. In your endeavors, you need to know what you're aiming for. If you're going to make a difference, it ought to be a difference worth making.

And if you're spending your valuable (and irretrievable) time and attention on a goal, it makes sense to make sure that goal is worth the investment.

Here are three principles to apply to setting goals worth achieving and one essential reminder for maintaining your wellbeing while working toward them.

Reflection

Think back on your recent experience with making change happen. What comes up? What feelings arise?

What positive responses emerge? Are these ones you wish to continue and amplify? If negative sensations come up, what are their opposites? Are these worth adding to your list of feelings to cultivate?

This list is your measuring stick against which future decisions should be made.

Relationships

Who do you find yourself spending the most time with? Are they enriching your experience in developing and delivering your work? Are some of those people unsupportive or discouraging?

Who would you like to spend less time with? Whom would you like to be around more often?

The company you keep has an enormous impact on your sense of flourishing as you strive toward your goals. Choose wisely.

Routines

In your day-to-day, what activities energize you? Which exhaust you? What habits fuel your forward progress? Are any daily rituals actually just unconscious wastes of time?

What can you put on your "stop-doing" list? What goes on your "do-more" list? What got you where you are won't get you where you want to go. What new habits can you establish to get you from where you are now to where you want to go next?

You are what you repeatedly do.

A Reminder

Goals are not the same as outcomes. We rarely hit the bullseye with our aims and aspirations. Opportunities and obstacles arise that we couldn't possibly have seen when we set our intention. There are too many forces beyond our control.

When you set goals with intention and approach the work with integrity, you ensure that you'll make progress in a direction worth going. The real benefits are not the results or rewards, but the quality of your endeavor and effort.

Scott Perry, Chief Difference-Maker at Creative on Purpose

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