Excerpt from Wikipedia
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goal
Date: 14-Sep-2014
A goal is a desired result a person or a system envisions, plans, and commits to achieve a personal or organizational desired end-point in some sort of assumed development. Many people endeavor to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines.
It is roughly similar to 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.
Goal Setting
Goal-setting ideally involves establishing specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bounded (S.M.A.R.T.) objectives. Work on the goal-setting theory suggests that it can serve as an effective tool for making progress by ensuring that participants have a clear awareness of what they must do to achieve or help achieve an objective. On a personal level, the process of setting goals allows people to specify and then work towards their own objectives most commonly, financial or career-based goals. Goal-setting comprises a major component of personal development.
A goal can be long-term or short-term. The primary difference is the time required to achieve them.
Short-term goals
Short-term goals expect accomplishment in a short period of time, such as trying to get a bill paid in the next few days. The definition of a short-term goal need not relate to any specific length of time. In other words, one may achieve (or fail to achieve) a short-term goal in a day, week, month, year, etc. The time-frame for a short-term goal relates to its context in the overall time line that it is being applied to. For instance, one could measure a short-term goal for a month-long project in days; where as one might measure a short-term goal for someone’s lifetime in months or in years. Planners usually define short-term goals in relation to a long-term goal or goals.
Personal Goals
Individuals can set personal goals. A student may set a goal of a high mark in an exam. An athlete might run five miles a day. A traveler might try to reach a destination-city within three hours. Financial goals are a common example, to save for retirement or to save for a purchase.
Managing goals can give returns in all areas of personal life. Knowing precisely what one wants to achieve makes clear what to concentrate and improve on, and often subconsciously prioritizes that goal.
Goal setting and planning (“goal work”) promotes long-term vision and short-term motivation. It focuses intention, desire, acquisition of knowledge, and helps to organize resources.
Efficient goal work includes recognizing and resolving all guilt, inner conflict or limiting belief that might cause one to sabotage one’s efforts. By setting clearly defined goals, one can subsequently measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals. One can see progress in what might have seemed a long, perhaps impossible, grind.
Achieving Personal Goals
Achieving complex and difficult goals requires focus, long-term diligence, and effort. Success in any field requires forgoing excuses and justifications for poor performance or lack of adequate planning; in short, success requires emotional maturity. The measure of belief that people have in their ability to achieve a personal goal also affects that achievement.
Long-term achievements rely on short-term achievements. Emotional control over the small moments of the single day makes a big difference in the long term.
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 well-being. 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. Research has shown that 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 (psychology). Multiple studies have shown the link between achieving long-term goals and changes in subjective well-being, most research showing that achieving goals that hold personal meaning to an individual, increases feelings of subjective well-being.
Self-concordance model
The Self-concordance model is a model that looks at the sequence of steps that occur from the commencement of a goal to attaining that goal. It looks at the likelihood and impact of goal achievement based on the type of goal and meaning of the goal to the individual. Different types of goals impact goal achievement and the sense of Subjective well-being brought about by achieving the goal. The model breaks down factors that promote striving to achieve a goal, achieving a goal, and the factors that connect goal achievement to changes in Subjective well-being.
Self-concordant goals
Goals that are pursued to fulfill intrinsic values or are important as they are integrated into an individuals self-concept are called self-concordant goals. Self-concordant goals fulfill basic needs and are aligned with an individual’s True Self. Because these goals have personal meaning to an individual and reflect an individual’s self-identity, self-concordant goals are more likely to receive sustained effort over time. In contrast, goals that do not reflect an individual’s internal drive and are pursued due to external factors (e.g. social pressures) emerge from a non-integrated region of a person and are therefore more likely to be abandoned when obstacles occur.
“Those who attain self-concordant goals reap greater well-being benefits from their attainment. Attainment-to-well-being effects are mediated by need satisfaction, i.e., daily activity-based experiences of autonomy, competence, and relatedness that accumulate during the period of striving. The model is shown to provide a satisfactory fit to 3 longitudinal data sets and to be independent of the effects of self-efficacy, implementation intentions, avoidance framing, and life skills.”
Furthermore the Self-determination theory and research surrounding this theory shows that if an individual effectively achieves a goal, but that goal is not-self endorsed or self-concordant, well-being levels do not change despite goal attainment.