5 Tips on Goal Setting for Well-Being

Goals are extremely important to our sense of well-being. But, not just any goals, research has shown goals with certain characteristics are achieved easier and help make us happy. Here’s the skinny on goal setting for a high completion rate and max benefit.

  1. Make goals that have personal meaning to you.
  2. Make goals that align with your beliefs or value structure.
  3. Goals that focus on helping others bring more satisfaction and higher completion rates than self-serving goals.
  4. Approach goals are easier to achieve and give more sense of fulfillment than avoidance goals. For instance, I want to meditate every day (approach) is more attainable than I want to cut sugar out of my diet (avoidance).
  5. Highly abstract goals work well for long range goals but concrete goals work best for short range.

Remember, making progress toward goals brings a higher sense of well-being than achieving the goal. Or as Denzel Washington’s character said in The Equalizer, “Progress not perfection.”

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