Nothing against goals here as having well defined, progressive goals can help to motivate us, give us structure, routine and ultimately achieve. Unfortunately, emotional difficulties may occur when we are over-focused on these goals without giving adequate time to make sure we are measuring up to our values.

Goals

Let’s start with the difference between goals and values. A well-defined goal often follows the SMART acronym, which is a structured way to make a goal more attainable.

Specific

Measurable

Achievable

Realistic

Time-Framed

Using the SMART acronym an example goal may be to buy a house by next year or play tennis at the local club 3 times per week.

Values

Values in contrast to goals are typically vague and never fully achievable. They are general directions we want to take in life as opposed to specific destinations. Values are often linked to areas of life that we see as important and appraise highly such as family, work, hobbies, intimate relationships etc. An example of a value would be fitness, running, healthy eating, spending time with loved ones, having a meaningful job. Nobody can tell you to practice specific values as they must be intrinsically important to you.

Why values are important.

1. Values can often be underlying reasons of why we want to achieve our goals and therefore by working on our values this keeps us more intrinsically motivated which leads to better goal attainment in the long term
2. An over focus on goals without an active awareness of values can lead to persistent dissatisfaction. We either achieve our goal, get a short lived sense of accomplishment and then have to set a new one straight away or we fail to achieve our goal which can often lead to unhappiness. By working on the value alongside this it is much more likely we will enjoy the process of trying to meet our goal
3. Destructive goal pursuit- Occasionally meeting goals can be so important for an individual, that they take risks or behave in ways that have negative long term consequences. These risks may include spending too much money, overtraining, excessive caffeine to stay awake. All of these behaviours may be directed to meet a short term goal but will eventually lead to unhappiness, burnout or worse…

To conclude

Values/Goals- Goals/Values – Often they coincide but they are different. My best advice would be to check in on goals that have been set and ask why is that goal important. If it is linked to a valued direction in your life you want to take then that’s a sign of a great goal. If not then why is it a goal of yours? Can it be modified to incorporate a value? I will follow up this blog post with one on how to identify our values and exercises to have a go at that may help with this important matter

Over and out