The Upward Spiral Of Pursuing Meaningful Goals
How changing your goals might change your life.
A British study from 2001 investigated how self-concordant goals affect goal attainment, wellbeing, and the continued pursuit of self-concordant goals after the goal has been reached.
What are self-concordant goals? They can simply be described as goals that the individual has chosen for themselves, based on some measure of alignment with one’s personal values. According to the Self-Concordance Model (SCM), self-concordance is characterized by a sense of ownership over broad personal goals.
A total of 114 British first-year undergraduates were asked to write down how they thought they were settling into university, what goals they had for the coming semester, and details of their current wellbeing. The researchers then divided the students goals by a four-grade scale from least to most self-concordant, guided by another validated theory close to the SCM.
The students attainment of personal goals and wellbeing were then measured again at the end of their semester. At that point, they were also asked to generate new goals for the coming semester and then repeat the whole process.
The researchers discovered that students who began by chose goals that were aligned with core values and less dependent on external praise or punishment had a significantly higher rate of goal achievement. The students also saw an improvement in how well they adjusted to their new environment at university.
Perhaps even more interestingly, those same students were then more likely to choose similar types of goals. Consequently, they also achieved higher goal attainment in the second term. They also seemed to fare better with their grades, even though most of their goals were not directly related to their academic grades.
Furthermore, the first term saw an increase in their level of wellbeing increased in the first term which was then maintained during the second term. Overall, students with were self-concordant goals seemed to experience a general upward spiral in their lives.
In a second, smaller study, 94 undergraduates were asked to pick eight goals from a larger list of goals. They then had to rate them according to the degree to which they felt they had some personal ownership. Again, this second study produced similar results. Students that chose goals that were closely aligned with their values experienced higher goal attainment than those who chose goals based on external reasons.
Similar to the first study, students were more likely to achieve their goals when they were driven by deeply-rooted reasons. Though the study, by design, was unable to distinguish wether students that chose these types of goals were different in some meaningful way and therefore attained goals at a much higher rate, or if the differing goals themselves were the causal link, it says something about the impact that different types of goals can have.
As with previous research on motivation and overall wellbeing, this study points to the importance of people getting to choose their own goals, for their own reasons; not just so that their achievements are accomplished faster, but also because of the meaningful pursuit towards those goals which is beneficial in and of itself.
Defining a direction for your life like this is actually possible. Apps such as Zeeds can help you go through this process to figure out the path of your life.
Thanks for reading.
References
Sheldon, K. M., & Houser-Marko, L. (2001). Self-concordance, goal attainment, and the pursuit of happiness: Can there be an upward spiral? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 80 (1), 152–165.
Mamduh Halawa is a psychologist, writer and entrepreneur. He is the CEO of Zeeds, an application that helps individuals define the path of their lives. You can download the app here. He is passionate about psychology, business and tech.
