2021- Is making goals worthwhile?

According to researcher, doctor, and Professor Elizabeth Sadowski there are 3 core processes involved with setting and successfully obtaining goals:

(1) define requirements/tasks and personal career goals

(2) determine how well current tasks fit with personal career goals

(3) make a plan to reorganize and prioritize tasks to align with personal career goals

Setting goals on paper might not come naturally, however, having goals has been found to provide a sense of meaning and even contribute to the feeling of finding a purpose in life. Goals have also been found to improve a person’s identity and offer direction on the selected targets. Having abstract goals can plan an important role in motivating behaviour especially if these are paired with more specific and concrete goals. For instance: I want to be happier this year (abstract /superordinate goal) and I will achieve this by clearing my schedule a few hours a week to read/exercise/socialise etc (concrete/subordinate goal).

When goals are aligned with people’s identity and their ambition in life, and clear plans of how, when, and where the goal would be attained, success of fulfilling them is more likely. More often than not you have heard someone tell you to list down the goals/resolutions you have for the New Year, for life. However, literature strongly advocates against this, as the cognitive processing involved in this task is little and committing to the goal may simply cease. Writing about goals is still useful, if paired with values. In other words, if your goals this year are to achieve a promotion at work, improve your health, or develop more intimate personal relationships, ask yourself if your expectations match your goals.

In expectancy theory, there are three elements that must all work together to create motivation: valence, instrumentality, and expectancy. Valence is the perceived value or preference that someone allocates to a given outcome, such as high performance. For high performance to emerge, individuals would need to be self-reflective and actively seek to attain it. Something about seeking high performance must be personally advantageous to the person as well, for the goal to come to fruition.

If an individual engages in defensive pessimism however, this suggests the anticipation of failure. This negative feeling that accompanies the outcome, often leads individuals to set lower goals as a defense and motivating mechanism. Similarly, according to the self-handicapping research, people are found to limit their own ability to succeed and deliberately impair themselves to avoid risk and maintain their self-esteem. Achieving awareness of the way you set your goals is the first step to starting a concrete plan to accomplish them.

Thus, I pose the question: What are your goals and what measures will you take to pursue them?