Human behaviour and actions are motivated by deliberate objectives, plans, intentions, and tasks. An individual cannot tolerate complete relaxation without passion, business, diversion, or effort, as it leads to feelings of nothingness, loneliness, insufficiency, weakness, and emptiness.

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Meaning-making is a uniquely human activity that arises from the structure of the human brain. Having a purpose in life is one of the fundamental human needs. Individuals focus more on their future ambitions and wishes when they think of a meaningful life. Setting life objectives or goals is crucial for finding meaning, purpose, and accomplishment.

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Understanding Goal-setting

Setting goals that reflect one’s ideal self is essential for personal development. However, many people struggle to strike a balance between aspiration and reality, which can lead to frustration and burnout. One can try to understand the intricacies of goal-setting and align their goals with their ideal self, or vice-versa.

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Life goals are the aim, purpose, focus, and desired states that people want to attain, preserve, or avoid. They are more meaningful than daily routines or short-term aims; guiding the long-term behaviours. Meaningful goal-setting has been associated with improved psychological functioning and favourable life outcomes, such as subjective well-being.

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Goals help to structure and guide behaviour by impacting performance levels. Goals are cognitive representations that direct behaviour towards a desired end. Our thoughts, preoccupations, feelings, and behaviours are linked to what we value and strive for, a major percentage of our activities are aimed at accomplishing the goals we set.

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Functioning of goals

1. Goals have a directing role; they guide attention and effort towards goal-relevant activities and away from goal-unrelated ones. 
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2. Goals provide an energising function. High goals require more effort than low aims.

 
3. Goals influence persistence. When faced with a challenging goal, there are two options: work faster and more intensely for a short period of time or work more slowly and less intensely for a longer length of time. 
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4. Goals influence action indirectly by inducing arousal, discovery, and/or application of task-relevant knowledge and methods.

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Types of life-goals

1. Intrinsic & Extrinsic Goals – Intrinsic goals are focused on personal development, health, relationships, and service, and they are sought to meet intrinsic values or promote an individual's self-concept. Extrinsic goals include financial achievement, fame, physical appearance, and power; which are neither positive nor negative, but a person's excessive reliance on them diverts attention away from more essential intrinsic objectives and desires.

 
2. Conflicting & Facilitating Goals – Conflict in goals indicates that pursuing one reduces the likelihood of reaching another. Individuals who experience conflict are less effective in achieving their goals, but these failures are not always related to the conflict itself. Goal facilitation happens when pursuing one goal raises the likelihood of achieving another goal.

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Understanding Ideal-Self

The self is a multifaceted, dynamic cognitive framework that consists of a person's self-representations, including personal qualities, vocational and personal responsibilities, activities, habits, group and organisational memberships, and demographic characteristics. The ideal self is a person's vision of themselves in a desired future life and career that they aim to achieve. A personal vision is a declaration of the ideal self, including its components and effects.

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Components of ideal-self

Purpose, meaning & calling – Purpose is steadiness intended to do something, important for the self and the world beyond the self. Meaning is the sense of and significance felt about the nature of one's being and existence. These internal standards are the primary foundation for the ideal self. An ideal self based on external norms depicts a form of the ideal imposed by others or a person's desire to please others.

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Personal values & philosophy – Personal values influence a person's intents and sentiments in many situations, and they assist in judging if one is being a "good person" or living "a good life". Operating philosophy is a method of evaluating value that creates a prism through which a person perceives and hence evaluates events, people, and actions.

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Developing a sense of identity – Various identities contribute to the ideal self of an individual. A personal or self identity, which describes the meaning people assign to themselves. A person's social identity is made up of their most prominent and frequent social interactions and identification. This involves aspiring to be like others in a certain group and perceiving things through the group's eyes.

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Psychological & Psychosocial factors influencing life goals

Values

Values are typically understood as guiding principles in people's life. They help to define objectives that match specific value categories and drive one to work hard towards those goals. Values motivate goals that contain systems of meaning - people experience meaning as they progress towards goal fulfilment and describe one’s purpose in terms of their most highly motivated goals and values. Values help in setting goals, as goals are ever changing once accomplished, but values stay the same until death.

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Reputation & Commitment

Reputation can encourage hard work and achieving goals. People are more concerned with appearance than with what makes them feel happy. Committing to closed ones or the public strengthens the goal achievement process, most likely because it elevates one's activities to the level of integrity in one's own eyes as well as those of others.

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Perfectionism

Perfectionism and worry for mistakes lead to undesirable outcomes such as high levels of anxiety and low levels of confidence, as well as a tendency to compare one's accomplishments to others. It may result in a negative reaction to mistakes, also anticipating rejections from others. As a result, one may accept negative goals influencing their belief in their own expertise.

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Emotional Value

Goals with emotional worth add meaning to them and are pursued with more persistence. Hope is a positive outcome feeling in which people believe they will succeed in reaching their desired goals. An individual's commitment to goals increases this awareness of and responsiveness to external and internal cues related to those goals.

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Integrating Ideal-self and Goal-setting for growth

Value Check-In exercise

Try to think about what you value most in each area of your life - personal, health, job, leisure, spirituality, etc. Here's a list of prompts to help:

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1. What kind of person do you aspire to be in this area of your life?
2. What do you intend to stand for?
3. What do you want your efforts to convey?
4. What contribution would you like to make?
5. What qualities or attitude do you aim to bring to this aspect of your life?

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Based on the values, try to write down the right goals that will assist you in keeping the values that you hold. After you've chosen your goals, consider what steps or activities you'll do to achieve them.

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Journaling

Another option to do a more frequent values check-in is to incorporate it into journaling. Here are some questions to help you get started with your reflection:

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1. If you could look back on this chapter of your life and be proud and satisfied with how you handled life's obstacles, how would you approach daily life? What would the next chapter look like? Try to focus on your decisions, actions, and attitude rather than other individuals or situations outside your control. Consider how you would handle life, no matter what happened.

2. What values do you wish to uphold in terms of your self-esteem, health, and personal development? What's important to you about these?

3. What kind of person do you hope to be for the people in your life? How would you like to interact with them and contribute to their lives?

4. How do you want the people in your life to feel when you are present? What do you hope to symbolise in your circle of friends and family?

5. If you only had one life, what impact would you like to make while you're here?

6. As you progress through this day or week, what one value will you strive to bring to each decision and action?

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S.M.A.R.T. Goal-setting

Creating S.M.A.R.T. Goals are intended to assist you in determining whether your desired outcome is attainable and setting a timeframe. Use concise wording while including important information.

1. Step 1 - Initial aim: (Write the aim you have in mind)

2. Step 2 - Specific (What do you hope to accomplish? Who should be included? When would you like to do this? Why is this a goal?)

3. Step 3 - Measurable (How can you track progress and determine if you've achieved your goal?)

4. Step 4 - Achievable (Do you have the necessary talents to accomplish the goal? If not, could you get them? What is the motive behind this goal? Is the amount of work necessary comparable to what the goal will achieve?)

5. Step 5 - Relevant. (Why am I setting this goal now? Is it in line with the overarching objectives?)

6. Step 6 - Time-bound (What is the deadline, and is it realistic?)

7. Step 7 - S.M.A.R.T. Goal (Create a new goal statement based on the responses.)

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Conclusion

Setting realistic objectives that reflect your ideal-self is a journey of self-discovery and perseverance. You may turn your goals into attainable milestones by tackling common problems, creating specific targets, and obtaining assistance as needed.

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Online therapy can offer the support and encouragement needed to stay on course. Online therapy provides a secure and judgment-free environment in which to explore your dreams, conquer phobias, and create a personalised strategy to achieve your goals.

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Are you ready to match your goals with your ideal self? Take the first step with Rocket Health India today and begin working towards the life you desire.

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References

Boyatzis, R., Dhar, U., & Organizational Behavior, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA. (2021). Dynamics of the ideal self. In Journal of Management Development (Vols. 41–41, pp. 1–9) [Journal-article]. Emerald Publishing Limited. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMD-09-2021-0247

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Julian, Rishona & G S, Sowmya. (2024). Understanding Life Goals -A Narrative Review Paper. International Journal of Indian Psychology. 12. 2349-3429. 10.25215/1202.292. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/381775906_Understanding_Life_Goals_-A_Narrative_Review_Paper

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Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2002). Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation: A 35-year odyssey. American Psychologist, 57(9), 705–717. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.57.9.705

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Macleod, L. (2013). Making SMART goals smarter. Physician Executive. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/256098067

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Smith, J. (2022). Why has nobody told me this before? First Harper One hardcover. New York, NY, Harper One, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers