How to Set and Achieve Life Goals The Right Way

Fulfilling life goals

So, can we take this premise and apply it to the biggest, most meaningful objectives we could possibly set for ourselves—our life goals?

And what would that really mean, in terms of planning and getting on with it?

Locke’s seminal research has given us a good deal to go on when it comes to effective goal-setting. But understanding goal-setting theory is only one step toward crafting personal life goals. In this article, we’ll take a closer peek at some ideas and resources that will help you set out on the right path, and stick at it for success.

Whether you’ve got no clue what you want, or you have a mile-long bucket list, hopefully, there will be something in here to get you motivated.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Goal Achievement Exercises for free . These detailed, science-based exercises will help you or your clients create actionable goals and master techniques to create lasting behavior change.

This Article Contains:

What are life goals, why should we set goals in life, 5 examples of setting life goals, life goal ideas: a list of goals to achieve in life, the process and steps of setting life goals, how to find and determine personal goals in life, healthy goal setting objectives and guidelines, planning life goals and how to prioritize them (incl. planner), 5 worksheets for creating and setting life goals (incl. pdf), how to track and evaluate the status of your life goals: the role of accountability, 11 strategies and techniques for achieving success, a look at life without goals, 3 life goal apps, 6 books on the topic, 17 inspiring quotes, a take-home message.

Life goals are what we want to achieve, and they’re much more meaningful than just ‘ what we need to accomplish to survive ’. Unlike daily routines or short-term objectives, they drive our behaviors over the long run. There’s no single psychological definition for them, and they aren’t strictly a clinical construct, but they help us determine what we want to experience in terms of our values .

And because they are personal ambitions, they can take many different forms. But they give us a sense of direction and make us accountable as we strive for happiness and wellbeing—for our best possible lives.

Lots of us have dreams. We know what makes us happy, what we’d love to try out, and we may have a vague idea of how we’d go about it. But setting clear goals can be beneficial in several ways, above and beyond wishful thinking: here are a few.

1. Setting Goals Can Clarify Our Behaviors

First and foremost, Locke’s Theory of Goal-Setting puts intentions squarely at the center of our behavior (Locke, 1968). The act of setting goals and the thought we put into crafting them directs our attention to the why, how, and what of our aspirations. As such, they give us something to focus on and impact positively on our motivation.

Of course, there are limitations to the generalizability of this finding—simply setting goals won’t drive the actions that lead us to success.

We’ll look at this shortly, but for now, suffice to say that they give us something to commit to. It may not be easy to switch careers, but acknowledge that it’s your goal and you’ll at least be able to choose some appropriate actions (Ajzen, 1991).

2. Goals Allow for Feedback

If and when we know where we want to be, we can assess where we are now, and essentially, we can chart our progress. This feedback helps us adjust our behavior accordingly (and when it’s rewarding feedback, our brains release dopamine, e.g. Treadway et al., 2012). By allowing for feedback, goals let us align or re-align our behaviors, keeping us on track with our eyes on the prize.

3. Goal-setting Can Promote Happiness

When our goals are based on our values, they are meaningful. Meaning, purpose, and striving for something ‘bigger’ is a key element of happiness theory in positive psychology, and the ‘M’ in Seligman’s PERMA model (Seligman, 2004).

Along with positive emotion, relationships, engagement, and accomplishment (which goals allow for), it makes up what we’ve come to known as ‘The Good Life’.

In other words, life goals represent something besides the daily grind. They allow us to pursue authentic aims of our own choosing and enjoy a feeling of achievement when we get there. That said, even striving to be the very best we can sometimes lead to happiness in itself, according to eudaimonic wellbeing research (Ryan & Huta, 2009; Huta, 2016).

4. They Encourage Us to Use Our Strengths

When we consider what matters the most to us, we can get more attuned with our inner strengths as well as our passions. Charting a course for ourselves is one thing, but using our strengths to get there comes with a whole set of other benefits.

Studies show that knowing and leveraging our strengths can increase our confidence (Crabtree 2002), boost our engagement (Sorensen, 2014), and even promote feelings of good health and life satisfaction (Proyer et al., 2013).

Using them in pursuit of our goals, therefore—even discovering what they are—can be a good thing for our wellbeing.

life goals essay pdf

As you may have seen elsewhere in our goal-setting articles, positive psychologists tend to draw on (at least) four main findings from his original work and the literature that followed (Locke & Latham, 2002; 2006).

We can then take a ‘nice idea’ and create some examples of setting goals from it. Let’s assume, therefore, that Jamie wants to set goals based on her passion – teaching.

  • The more difficult Jamie’s goal, the greater the accomplishment. Challenge, in other words, is important. Jamie could approach her goal-setting with an easy task like “ Helping my brother with his homework “, but she will derive a greater sense of achievement if she sets the bar a bit higher. An example here would be, “ Become a certified teacher ”. At the other extreme, she might try to avoid overly excessive and potentially unattainable goals, like “ Starting my own boarding school by the end of the year .”
  • The more explicit Jamie’s goal, the better she will be able to regulate her performance. Here, she could specify exactly what she wants to achieve in greater detail: “ Become a certified K1 teacher for asylum seekers in Svenborgia ”. With more precise details, Jamie can get more explicit feedback on her progress and align her performance accordingly—helping her on the path to achievement.
  • High goal commitment comes from setting important, attainable goals. At this point, Jamie has addressed challenge and clarity (or difficulty and specificity) (vanSonnenberg, 2011). She will need to reflect on whether it really matters to her and whether it’s realistic. This is more of a principle and less of a ‘step’. Does she understand what it involves and does it align with her values?
  • Jamie needs to ensure she can get feedback to stay motivated. In other words, she needs to be able to look at where she is along the way and compare that to her goal. Has she enrolled in the relevant academic pathway? Has she signed up for professional experience? Or has she achieved those and now she’s getting her Svenborgia work visa? Even better, she could see if someone might mentor her, allowing her more regular feedback on her progress.
  • Jamie’s goal should not be overly complex. As life goes on, our goals may change. Jamie might realize at teacher’s college that she wants to redefine the goal. Maybe she now wants to teach in another country and decides to learn another language. Although there’s no harm in reassessing her goals, the main takeaway is that she should not increase the difficulty of her task(s) beyond what is achievable or realistic—or she may become overwhelmed.

life goals essay pdf

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Inherently, life goals need to be meaningful, and meaning is subjective. In that respect, it’s probably more useful to think about categories or types of life goals before reeling off potential bucket list objectives.

According to Kasser and Ryan (2001), therefore, there are two types of life goals, and these relate to our wellbeing in different ways:

  • Intrinsic goals relate to emotional intimacy, personal growth, and helping others. They are believed to be aligned with our needs as humans, reflecting our inherent desire for self-knowledge and more fulfilling relationships (Maslow, 1943).
  • Extrinsic goals  are more culturally defined and less about our nature as human beings, encompassing things like our physical appearance, social standing, status symbols, and wealth.

Research suggests that intrinsic life goals are related to greater happiness, self-actualization, vitality, and satisfaction with life, compared with extrinsic life goals (Ryan et al., 1999; Niemiec et al., 2009).

But at the end of the day, evidence also shows that the content of our goals may be less important to our wellbeing than our reasons for pursuing them. Having the ‘right’ reason for goal pursuit—irrespective of the aspiration itself, that is—has been found to contribute to our wellbeing, and the opposite applies (Carver & Baird, 1998).

Intrinsic Life Goals

These satisfy the needs that stem from being human—including our psychological and self-fulfillment needs, as shown below in Maslow’s Hierarchy (1943).

Maslow Hierarchy of Needs

Life goals based on the former might include:

  • Having a loving marriage or a trusting relationship with your significant other;
  • Finding and keeping a healthy work-life balance, with time for friends and family;
  • Living with integrity, being honest and open with others;
  • Inspiring others through your beliefs and actions;
  • Being a great listener so that others can turn to you; or
  • Becoming an expert in your field and helping others.

Self-fulfillment needs-based goals could entail:

  • Coming up with a new invention that reflects your creative abilities;
  • Being a successful entrepreneur and running your own business;
  • Creating your own personal brand for your work;
  • Graduating with a Master’s or Ph.D. in something;
  • Learning a new language; or
  • Picking up a ‘hard skill’ and mastering it.

Extrinsic Life Goals

Extrinsic goals aren’t necessarily material, but because they are generally ‘wants’ rather than human needs, they are easier to come up with. They require less self-reflection, for example:

  • Owning the very latest Tesla;
  • Becoming a millionaire;
  • Getting a big promotion or being in a senior position at work;
  • Starring in a movie;
  • Having your own workshop/studio or
  • Visiting every country in Europe.

At the end of this article, I’ve also included some recommended books on setting life goals. Miller and Frisch’s Creating Your Best Life , for one, has many more examples that you’ll hopefully find useful.

You can (and easily will) find countless models for goal setting in the self-help literature. But what does positive psychology say about the process and steps of goal-setting? The following framework is taken from the well-known psychological capital intervention (PCI), and it uses three steps: goal design, pathway generation, and overcoming obstacles (Luthans et al., 2006).

1. Goal Design

The first step is to design our goals. When crafting goals, we need to remember the key premise of goal-setting theory—that they are intentions which guide our behavior. They are “targets for mental action sequences” (Synder, 2002: 250).

Ideally, by design:

  • Goals should be concrete endpoints. That is, we should be able to measure our success because they are clear and detailed;
  • They should be approach-based. This means we should easily be able to focus on moving positively towards their accomplishment, rather than on away from negative outcomes. (“Working toward” rather than “avoiding” something) (Coats et al., 1996); and
  • We should be able to break them down into sub-goals if necessary so that we can celebrate little successes along the way (Snyder et al., 1991).

2. Pathway Generation

We now have personally meaningful life goals designed and we can start thinking about different potential pathways for achieving them. Luthans and colleagues’ PsyCap Intervention invited participants to brainstorm multiple pathways without worrying at first about their feasibility. ‘As many possibilities as they could think of’, essentially, and not unlike ‘there are no bad ideas in brainstorming’.

Participants then invited others to weigh in and add to their potential pathways. In the same way, you might ask friends, family, or someone in a mentor-like position to help you come up with ideas on how to pursue your goals. What possible pathways might Jamie take to become a certified K1 teacher for asylum seekers in Svenborgia, for example?

The last part of pathway generation considers inventory pathways: what resources will you need to pursue pathway A, B, or C? Essentially, we refine our potential pathways—we think carefully about what we can realistically expect, and this leaves us with fewer, more viable options (Luthans et al., 2006).

3. Overcoming Obstacles

We have inherent beliefs about our ability to use pathways for goal success—our agency—and these are accordingly termed ‘agency thought’ (Snyder, 2002). This kind of thinking plays a particularly important role when we come up against obstacles, especially unexpected ones, as they can determine whether we pick ourselves up or just disengage.

When setting life goals, therefore, it helps to consider the possible barriers that might arise. Independently, we can self-reflect, thinking about our potential pathways as well as our strategies we might use to deal with them (Luthans et al., 2006). We might do this alone or with others, like in the pathway generation stage, and our focus here is to ready ourselves for contingencies.

Put differently, “ What might prevent me from achieving my goal? ” and “ How could I work through or around this? ”

life goals essay pdf

We’ve put it further into context using Maslow ’s Needs Hierarchy, and we’ve laid out a 3-step positive psychology framework for the process of life goal-setting, so now it’s about self-reflection.

You will definitely be able to find inspiration all over the place for different possible goals, but because meaning is intrinsic, your answers will be unique.

With the aim of discovering your own values and inspiration, have a look at these self-reflection exercises and see what the right questions might be for you personally.

No matter what you’ve set as your life goals, adopt some best practice guidelines to make the whole journey a positive experience. Based on what we have looked at so far, we can draw a few objectives to keep in mind.

  • Be realistic. Try to keep things in perspective both when designing your goals and as you work toward them. Research indicates that the best goals are challenging, yet achievable (Locke & Latham, 2002).
  • A healthy goal is a positive ‘approach’ goal . Rather than setting negative, avoidance goals that have us working away from certain harmful, averse, or unpleasant outcomes, set yourself positive targets. Depending on whether they are intrinsic or extrinsic, therefore, they might be desirable, enjoyable, or ‘good’ in a deeper sense (Coats et al., 1996).
  • Be ready to fail along the way…but don’t let it stop you . Resilience is the capacity to persevere in spite of setbacks, and obstacles are inevitable in some form or another. So as well as accepting this inevitability first up, resilience is a useful skill to develop throughout your journey. How do you plan to overcome obstacles? Can you brainstorm some alternative pathways?
  • Involve others . As we’ve discussed earlier, family and friends can be invaluable. Not only do they help us generate ideas, but they are social resources that we can reach out to for support along the way.
  • Break them down where possible . Celebrating our wins along the way is the same as celebrating our progress towards a larger life goal. Whether that celebration takes place on a monthly, weekly, or even daily basis will depend on your unique aims and the pathway you choose to follow. Nonetheless, research shows that they are critical for momentum and motivation (Amabile & Kramer, 2011).

So, do you have a million things you want to accomplish? Or even just a couple of goals, but lots of milestones along the way? We don’t really need statistics to understand why writing them down adds some organization to the whole thing, but active planning can also boost our motivation.

Personal Strategic Planning

According to Brian Tracy, author of Goals! , getting from A to B is about personal strategic planning. Quite simply, his suggested approach takes organizational management principles and applies them in the personal realm.

Rather than aiming to maximize return on investment (ROI) as we would in corporate settings, we aim instead to boost our efficiency by reducing the physical, mental, and emotional energy we might waste on the journey. He calls it ‘return on energy’ (ROE).

The idea is to think in terms of human capital. If you like, we can think back to the generating pathways step we described earlier in Luthans et al.’s 3-pronged framework. When refining our pathways, we can think beyond just what’s feasible to reflect on what might also maximize our return on energy (ROE).

Unless walking to every EU country is a life goal in itself for you, might it not be more efficient to fly or take a train? Or, could you take a few extra days on your next business trip? Two very logistics-based examples, but hopefully they illustrate the premise of personal strategic planning.

Prioritizing Life Goals

Prioritization is about identifying the most personally important life goals you’ve designed and written down. The following might help (Collingwood, 2018):

  • After you’ve formalized them by writing them down, rank them on a scale of 1-5 or 1-10, or whatever works for you. As long as you systematically apply the same ranking system to all of them, the most important ones should stand out.
  • An alternative would be to categorize them first into whatever domains work best for them, then rank within each category. What’s your most important health goal? Career goal? The PDF goal-setting worksheets below are full of categories you might find useful, but you are unique, and there’s no one best way to go about it.
  • Is it feasible or realistic to focus on the top five goals? Or is three a more viable figure? Highlight, circle, or pick out the ones that are most worthy of your energy—what would make you happiest? What’s most meaningful to you personally, in terms of your values? (Interestingly, billionaire Warren Buffet would have you stick to the top five and avoid the rest.)
  • Get planning. What are the sub-goals you’ve identified? What resources will you need for each stage, and when will you need them? ‘Reverse engineering’ goals and working backward from the finish line is helpful for some people (Collingwood, 2018).
  • Find a good, but not necessarily the best time to start, as the latter might never come around. Then, use a planner to work it all out. When you’re scheduling, don’t forget celebrations as well as milestones.

Some useful planners include:

  • LifeTick – a free or paid online planning calendar;
  • GoalScape – which allows you to share your goals and create projects;
  • This free PDF , which is more of a planning tool than a calendar; or
  • Any of the free Full PDFs here from Passion Planner.

life goals essay pdf

These life goals worksheets will hopefully be useful to you as a means of getting started.

1. Workbook for Goal-setting and Evidence-based Strategies for Success

Put together by Caroline Miller, The Ultimate Life List Guide author, this is an entire workbook about setting goals and staying on track. It is based on six concepts that come together as a strategy for designing goals and creating optimal conditions for success:

  • Finding what enables you to create a happy life;
  • Envisioning your best potential self, an intention which will motivate your actions;
  • Designing short- and longer-term life goals;
  • Cultivating an environment that facilitates your success;
  • Developing willpower and habits that support this; and
  • Encouraging a mindset conducive to long-term change.

3 particularly useful worksheets in here include:

  • The Mission and Purpose Worksheet – this guides you through creating your own personal purpose statement (p. 36);
  • The Evaluating Goals Worksheet – over several pages, you can assess how or whether your life goals meet certain criteria for success (p. 40); and
  • The Ifs, Ands, and Buts Worksheet – which focuses on overcoming obstacles (p. 67).

2. Goal Exploration Worksheet

Breaking down life goals into different areas can be helpful, and this Goal Exploration exercise provides you with 7 different categories that might stimulate your thinking. With useful prompts, a few tips, and some examples, the layout of this sheet includes spaces for 5-year, 1-year, and 1-month goals.

  • Social goals;
  • Career goals;
  • Physical goals;
  • Family goals;
  • Leisure goals;
  • Personality goals; and

3. Goal Setting Workbook

Starting on Page 7 of this Citrus College workbook , you’ll find useful information about long- and short-term goal-setting. There are brainstorming exercise and categories for your inspiration, such as:

  • I want to be…
  • I want to learn…
  • I want to give…

This is followed as you progress by questions about your goals:

  • “Are they achievable?”
  • “Does the goal come with an alternative?”
  • “Do I want to do what’s necessary to accomplish it?” and
  • “Is the goal compatible with my values?”

We write down our goals to formalize them in one respect, and in another, to give us a sense of personal accountability for their outcomes (Schlenker & Weigold, 1989). If we share those goals with others, we create even more accountability, as we’re ‘answerable’ to more than one person (Schlenker et al., 1994).

The first kind of accountability is internal, and psychologists suggest it motivate us to keep going if these goals are aligned with our personal values (Rutledge, 1998). This is all well and good, but how do we track and evaluate our progress?

Tracking Your Life Goals

First, as discussed, we can identify our goals and create clarity around them. Prioritizing them allows us to channel our focus on the top important goals, and one or more of the planners above will hopefully be useful for this.

We can then break down our larger, key goals into smaller sub-goals or objectives. These might be step-wise milestones, or we might have several alternative pathways running concurrently, but breaking down these goals allows us to plan better.

If you want to set deadlines or time frames for accomplishing each small sub-goal, feel free—this adds another layer of personal accountability and is commonly used in project management contexts.

Set realistic, sufficiently challenging time frames, and you’ll also benefit from a healthy amount of pressure— eustress , in other words (Brulé & Morgan, 2018; Mills et al., 2018).

When you have time-bound goals, therefore, you can better evaluate your progress. And from here, we can adapt or adjust our generated pathways accordingly to maximize our chances at success (Snyder, 2002).

Why the secret to success is setting the right goals – John Doerr

If it’s all a lot of information to take in at once—or if you’ve skipped ahead—here’s a neat recap. These goal-setting strategies and techniques draw from the literature we’ve mentioned already, starting with Locke and Latham’s work and moving on to what we know about motivation.

Let’s cover the techniques within the three-pronged strategy we discussed earlier for maximum relevance.

Goal Design

Based on what we know, the following techniques help us craft well-designed goals.

  • Set intrinsic life goals as well as extrinsic ones . This requires self-reflection on your personal values, as well as your psychological and self-fulfillment needs as a human being (Maslow, 1943). Aligning your goals with what you really consider important will make them more meaningful (Kasser and Ryan, 2001), and meaning is considered a key part of happiness in positive psychology (Seligman, 2004).
  • Set approach, rather than avoidance goals . Aim for positive outcomes rather than focusing your psychological, emotional, and physical energy on avoiding negative ones (Locke, 1968; Tracy, 2003; Locke & Latham 2006).
  • Make them clear and actionable . Ideally, you should be easily able to break these down into sub-goals after some thought on potential pathways. If you can create concrete steps that lead toward a positive vision of the future, it will be easier to start thinking about resources you might need (Luthans et al., 2006).
  • Make them challenging, but keep them realistic . When it comes to outcomes, excessively easy goals won’t motivate you enough and could be boring. Overly challenging aspirations, on the other hand, can lead to stress and overwhelm you (Locke, 1968; Luthans et al., 2006). Similarly, don’t rush yourself in terms of getting started if it’s not necessary, but don’t wait until the time is perfect, either.

Generating Pathways

These include some brainstorming techniques and ideas about creating the ideal conditions that support your goal pursuit (Miller & Frisch, 2009).

  • Brainstorm as many alternative pathways as you can . Think about all the potential ways you might go about achieving your goal and don’t be too quick to discount them. Give your creative brain a workout and record them as you go. This will keep you from forgetting them later down the line.
  • Identify the resources you’ll need . What is absolutely necessary for each step along the way? Then, what will make things easier for you? Consider people who might support you as well as more tangible resources (Emmons, 2003).
  • Plan out your progress if it helps . Think motivation and accountability, this time applying the eustress principle to the goal pursuit process rather than its outcomes (Frink & Ferris, 1998). Use a planner, an app, or whatever else you find most valuable, and don’t be afraid to adapt your pathway if it’s necessary.

Overcoming Obstacles

Here, some planning techniques and useful resources from elsewhere on this site, to help you stay on track.

  • Plan for potential obstacles . Part of being realistic means planning for contingencies (Luthans et al., 2006). What might stop you from pursuing one pathway and force you onto another? How can you avoid or overcome obstacles through proactive strategizing?
  • Use positive self-talk . Our self-talk is very powerful. Preparing proactively for worst-case scenarios helps counter pessimistic self-talk, but your perceived self-efficacy is also critical to goal accomplishment (Schunk, 1990). Hope is very important and positive self-talk plays a key role in overcoming obstacles (Snyder, 2002).
  • Develop resilience . Setbacks can take their toll emotionally and lead to disengagement (again, if we let them). It’s possible to develop your capacity to deal with setbacks through resilience training and exercises, so why not try some of these approaches ?
  • Evaluate your progress . Remember that your priorities might change along the way, so evaluation is not necessarily about success or failure. If you like, tweak your goals—make them more or less challenging, or change their nature as you see fit.

Empathy and sadness

But while there are real benefits to goal-setting, is the absence of goals really so terrible?

Essentially, this dives into a more complex philosophical debate. To put it succinctly, though, we can think of happiness as both subjective wellbeing ( SWB ) and eudaimonic wellbeing ( EWB )—or hedonic vs eudaimonic happiness .

The first is related to feelings of life satisfaction and the predominance of positive over negative affect, the second premises that life is about the pursuit of virtue and fulfillment of one’s own potential (Ryan & Deci, 2001; Diener et al., 2002).

What do you think?

Some apps will help you store your short-term goals in one place, and can be pretty handy if you’ve got objectives you’d like to stay on top of daily.

Goalify is an Android and iOs app that lets you log and review your objectives regularly. As well as sending you updates and reminders, you can compare your accomplishments against friends with identical goals. With this app, you can categorize, tweak, and get tips on how to better accomplish them. And let’s face it, gamification has its merits.

2. Coach.me Habit Tracker

This nifty app lets you do more than just list your goals—it’s pretty effective at keeping you accountable and is simple to use. You can log your targets and view your stats, ask questions of the community, and sync it with other gizmos. The free version is enough if you simply want to start creating a habit, but paid users can also get advice from pro coaches.

It’s only available for iOs devices, but Strides is quite popular nonetheless. This lets you stay on top of your progress for short-term or daily goals, with a calendar function and some more sophisticated stats. If you want to see your progress as averages or celebrate the small wins with time-bound targets, they are all easily accessible from one straightforward dashboard.

Here are some of the titles we have already mentioned, as well as a few more books that you might find insightful. Some are more ‘how to’-focused, and others cover the psychology of goal-setting theory.

  • Creating Your Best Life: The Ultimate Life List Guide by Caroline Adams Miller and Dr. Michael Frisch ( Amazon )
  • Think Small: The Surprisingly Simple Ways to Reach Big Goals by Owain Service and Rory Gallagher ( Amazon )
  • Goals!: How to Get Everything You Want – Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible by Brian Tracy ( Amazon )
  • A Theory of Goal Setting & Task Performance by Edwin Locke, Gary Latham, Ken Smith, and Robert Wood ( Amazon )
  • New Developments in Goal Setting and Task Performance by Edwin Locke and Gary Latham ( Amazon )
  • Goal Setting: A Motivational Technique That Works! by Edwin Locke and Gary Latham ( Amazon )

life goals essay pdf

17 Tools To Increase Motivation and Goal Achievement

These 17 Motivation & Goal Achievement Exercises [PDF] contain all you need to help others set meaningful goals, increase self-drive, and experience greater accomplishment and life satisfaction.

Created by Experts. 100% Science-based.

If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.

Albert Einstein

By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be. Put your future in good hands — your own.

Mark Victor Hansen

What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?

Robert Schuller

The only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.

Michelle Obama

Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.

William Jennings Bryan

You are never too old to set a new goal or to dream a new dream.

C. S. Lewis

If something is important enough, even if the odds are against you, you should still do it.
You don’t have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things – to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals.

Edmund Hillary

A goal is a dream with its work boots on.

Rachel Hollis

You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.

Wayne Gretsky

Goals transform a random walk into a chase.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

The important thing isn’t where you’ve been, or where you are, but where you want to go.

Dean Bokhari

Goals are the road maps that guide you to your destination.

Roy Bennett

An aim in life is the only fortune worth finding.

Robert Louis Stevenson

When you know what you want and you want it bad enough, you’ll find a way to get it.
The question I ask myself like almost every day is, ‘Am I doing the most important thing I could be doing?’

Mark Zuckerberg

It doesn’t matter where you came from. All that matters is where you are going.

Brian Tracy

We all have dreams, but some merit more of our energy than others. When we reflect on the second type of aspiration along with our personal values, we’re already on the way to setting life goals. In this article, we have considered goal-setting theory and some actionable strategies that use positive psychology concepts to frame the whole concept.

We’ve also looked at how human nature leads to intrinsic goals, and how the whole idea fits into wellbeing. Have you discovered any ideas that you find useful? Or how do you motivate yourself to keep on track?

More importantly, why not share some of your life goals with us in the comments? Let’s get those ideas flowing!

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Goal Achievement Exercises for free .

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My Goal In Life Essay

A goal is a vision for the future or the desired outcome that an individual commits to imagining, planning, and achieving. People try to achieve their goals in a restricted time by setting deadlines. Here are some sample essays on my goal in life.

100 Words Essay On My Goal In Life

A goal is a desire you have to accomplish yourself. If one wants to succeed in life, one must have a goal. Being a teacher is my life's ambition. A wonderful and responsible profession is teaching. I have made the conscious decision to do all in my ability to promote knowledge among the people. Some people believe that money is life.

My Goal In Life Essay

However, in my opinion, morality is what makes life truly sweet. In the future, I hope to be a beloved and reputable teacher. I have no clue how far I will get in achieving my goal but I'll give it my best.

200 Words Essay On My Goal In Life

A goal is a vision for the future or a desired outcome that an individual or group of individuals commits to envisioning, planning, and achieving. By setting deadlines, people try to accomplish their goals by setting deadlines.

My current goal is related to my education. I want to come in first place and achieve the top marks in every subject because this will increase my chances of receiving an overseas scholarship. I am putting a lot of effort into achieving this as my objective. Any student wants the chance to pursue their studies overseas, and I have that chance. I also take my coursework seriously and educate myself on all topics pertaining to my field of study, including research, literature, and academic journals.

Additionally, studying overseas will help me get a superior education and a diploma that is recognised across the world, both of which will allow me to compete for prominent jobs. So that I may accomplish my goal, I don't waste time on pointless activities and instead pay attention to my studies. My family is undoubtedly a tremendous benefit for me; they support me at all times and provide me whatever I require. Additionally, I owe a lot of credit for my success to my professors, who are a big help to me in my studies.

500 Words Essay On My Goal In Life

Everybody has a life goal. The aim or aspiration of man is his inner desire. One will not take any action if his or her goals are unclear.

What Is A Goal

The goal of an individual is to achieve a particular objective or target. Goal may also refer to the finish line of a race or the object that a player is attempting to insert as part of a game. As a noun, "goal" has other meanings. A goal is something you strive to achieve after working hard and persistently towards it.

Types Of Goals

Mastery goals | A mastery goal, such as "I will score higher in this event next time," is one that someone sets to attain or master a certain skill.

Performance-approach goals | A performance-approach goal is one where the person aims to outperform their peers. This kind of objective might be to improve one's appearance by dropping 5 pounds or to receive a better performance evaluation.

Performance-avoidance goals | When someone sets a goal, they frequently want to avoid performing worse than their peers, such as setting a goal to avoid receiving negative

Importance Of A Goal

A goal is similar to a specific objective, the anticipated outcome that directs behaviour, or an end, which is a thing, whether it be a tangible thing or an abstract thing, that has inherent worth.

Everyone should have a life goal. When you have a goal, you work hard every day to attain it and live for it. And when you succeed in those efforts, you feel more confident.

Goals provide us a path to follow. We can hold ourselves accountable by having goals. We are able to clarify what we genuinely desire in life when we set goals and strive toward obtaining them. We can better organise our priorities by setting goals.

Goals can be long-term and short-term. For instance, finishing your schoolwork might be a short-term goal. Learning a musical instrument, pursuing a profession as a doctor, or other long-term goals examples.

Due to the length of time required and the fact that we pick our professional objective, long-term goals play crucial roles in life. The most significant effects of choosing a certain career occur both during and after the effort to attain it.

Setting goals encourages us to create plans of action that will help us reach the desired level of performance.

Example Of A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam overcame obstacles to achieve his aim while serving as India's 11th president from 2002 to 2007. Dr Abdul Kalam was raised by Muslim parents who spoke Tamil. Being from a low-income household, Dr Abdul Kalam began delivering newspapers after school at a young age to help augment his family's income. This fact allowed him to help support his father financially. He did not succeed academically, but he was a dedicated student who enjoyed mathematics.

Even during his senior project in college, the dean expressed displeasure with the lack of progress and threatened to revoke his scholarship if the assignment wasn't completed by the next three days. He later put forth a lot of effort on his assignment and finished it on time, impressing the dean. From that point on, Dr Kalam worked as a scientist with the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) , eventually rising to the position of organisation chief. What follows is history.

Explore Career Options (By Industry)

  • Construction
  • Entertainment
  • Manufacturing
  • Information Technology

Data Administrator

Database professionals use software to store and organise data such as financial information, and customer shipping records. Individuals who opt for a career as data administrators ensure that data is available for users and secured from unauthorised sales. DB administrators may work in various types of industries. It may involve computer systems design, service firms, insurance companies, banks and hospitals.

Bio Medical Engineer

The field of biomedical engineering opens up a universe of expert chances. An Individual in the biomedical engineering career path work in the field of engineering as well as medicine, in order to find out solutions to common problems of the two fields. The biomedical engineering job opportunities are to collaborate with doctors and researchers to develop medical systems, equipment, or devices that can solve clinical problems. Here we will be discussing jobs after biomedical engineering, how to get a job in biomedical engineering, biomedical engineering scope, and salary. 

Ethical Hacker

A career as ethical hacker involves various challenges and provides lucrative opportunities in the digital era where every giant business and startup owns its cyberspace on the world wide web. Individuals in the ethical hacker career path try to find the vulnerabilities in the cyber system to get its authority. If he or she succeeds in it then he or she gets its illegal authority. Individuals in the ethical hacker career path then steal information or delete the file that could affect the business, functioning, or services of the organization.

GIS officer work on various GIS software to conduct a study and gather spatial and non-spatial information. GIS experts update the GIS data and maintain it. The databases include aerial or satellite imagery, latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates, and manually digitized images of maps. In a career as GIS expert, one is responsible for creating online and mobile maps.

Data Analyst

The invention of the database has given fresh breath to the people involved in the data analytics career path. Analysis refers to splitting up a whole into its individual components for individual analysis. Data analysis is a method through which raw data are processed and transformed into information that would be beneficial for user strategic thinking.

Data are collected and examined to respond to questions, evaluate hypotheses or contradict theories. It is a tool for analyzing, transforming, modeling, and arranging data with useful knowledge, to assist in decision-making and methods, encompassing various strategies, and is used in different fields of business, research, and social science.

Geothermal Engineer

Individuals who opt for a career as geothermal engineers are the professionals involved in the processing of geothermal energy. The responsibilities of geothermal engineers may vary depending on the workplace location. Those who work in fields design facilities to process and distribute geothermal energy. They oversee the functioning of machinery used in the field.

Database Architect

If you are intrigued by the programming world and are interested in developing communications networks then a career as database architect may be a good option for you. Data architect roles and responsibilities include building design models for data communication networks. Wide Area Networks (WANs), local area networks (LANs), and intranets are included in the database networks. It is expected that database architects will have in-depth knowledge of a company's business to develop a network to fulfil the requirements of the organisation. Stay tuned as we look at the larger picture and give you more information on what is db architecture, why you should pursue database architecture, what to expect from such a degree and what your job opportunities will be after graduation. Here, we will be discussing how to become a data architect. Students can visit NIT Trichy , IIT Kharagpur , JMI New Delhi . 

Remote Sensing Technician

Individuals who opt for a career as a remote sensing technician possess unique personalities. Remote sensing analysts seem to be rational human beings, they are strong, independent, persistent, sincere, realistic and resourceful. Some of them are analytical as well, which means they are intelligent, introspective and inquisitive. 

Remote sensing scientists use remote sensing technology to support scientists in fields such as community planning, flight planning or the management of natural resources. Analysing data collected from aircraft, satellites or ground-based platforms using statistical analysis software, image analysis software or Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a significant part of their work. Do you want to learn how to become remote sensing technician? There's no need to be concerned; we've devised a simple remote sensing technician career path for you. Scroll through the pages and read.

Budget Analyst

Budget analysis, in a nutshell, entails thoroughly analyzing the details of a financial budget. The budget analysis aims to better understand and manage revenue. Budget analysts assist in the achievement of financial targets, the preservation of profitability, and the pursuit of long-term growth for a business. Budget analysts generally have a bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, economics, or a closely related field. Knowledge of Financial Management is of prime importance in this career.

Underwriter

An underwriter is a person who assesses and evaluates the risk of insurance in his or her field like mortgage, loan, health policy, investment, and so on and so forth. The underwriter career path does involve risks as analysing the risks means finding out if there is a way for the insurance underwriter jobs to recover the money from its clients. If the risk turns out to be too much for the company then in the future it is an underwriter who will be held accountable for it. Therefore, one must carry out his or her job with a lot of attention and diligence.

Finance Executive

Product manager.

A Product Manager is a professional responsible for product planning and marketing. He or she manages the product throughout the Product Life Cycle, gathering and prioritising the product. A product manager job description includes defining the product vision and working closely with team members of other departments to deliver winning products.  

Operations Manager

Individuals in the operations manager jobs are responsible for ensuring the efficiency of each department to acquire its optimal goal. They plan the use of resources and distribution of materials. The operations manager's job description includes managing budgets, negotiating contracts, and performing administrative tasks.

Stock Analyst

Individuals who opt for a career as a stock analyst examine the company's investments makes decisions and keep track of financial securities. The nature of such investments will differ from one business to the next. Individuals in the stock analyst career use data mining to forecast a company's profits and revenues, advise clients on whether to buy or sell, participate in seminars, and discussing financial matters with executives and evaluate annual reports.

A Researcher is a professional who is responsible for collecting data and information by reviewing the literature and conducting experiments and surveys. He or she uses various methodological processes to provide accurate data and information that is utilised by academicians and other industry professionals. Here, we will discuss what is a researcher, the researcher's salary, types of researchers.

Welding Engineer

Welding Engineer Job Description: A Welding Engineer work involves managing welding projects and supervising welding teams. He or she is responsible for reviewing welding procedures, processes and documentation. A career as Welding Engineer involves conducting failure analyses and causes on welding issues. 

Transportation Planner

A career as Transportation Planner requires technical application of science and technology in engineering, particularly the concepts, equipment and technologies involved in the production of products and services. In fields like land use, infrastructure review, ecological standards and street design, he or she considers issues of health, environment and performance. A Transportation Planner assigns resources for implementing and designing programmes. He or she is responsible for assessing needs, preparing plans and forecasts and compliance with regulations.

Environmental Engineer

Individuals who opt for a career as an environmental engineer are construction professionals who utilise the skills and knowledge of biology, soil science, chemistry and the concept of engineering to design and develop projects that serve as solutions to various environmental problems. 

Safety Manager

A Safety Manager is a professional responsible for employee’s safety at work. He or she plans, implements and oversees the company’s employee safety. A Safety Manager ensures compliance and adherence to Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) guidelines.

Conservation Architect

A Conservation Architect is a professional responsible for conserving and restoring buildings or monuments having a historic value. He or she applies techniques to document and stabilise the object’s state without any further damage. A Conservation Architect restores the monuments and heritage buildings to bring them back to their original state.

Structural Engineer

A Structural Engineer designs buildings, bridges, and other related structures. He or she analyzes the structures and makes sure the structures are strong enough to be used by the people. A career as a Structural Engineer requires working in the construction process. It comes under the civil engineering discipline. A Structure Engineer creates structural models with the help of computer-aided design software. 

Highway Engineer

Highway Engineer Job Description:  A Highway Engineer is a civil engineer who specialises in planning and building thousands of miles of roads that support connectivity and allow transportation across the country. He or she ensures that traffic management schemes are effectively planned concerning economic sustainability and successful implementation.

Field Surveyor

Are you searching for a Field Surveyor Job Description? A Field Surveyor is a professional responsible for conducting field surveys for various places or geographical conditions. He or she collects the required data and information as per the instructions given by senior officials. 

Orthotist and Prosthetist

Orthotists and Prosthetists are professionals who provide aid to patients with disabilities. They fix them to artificial limbs (prosthetics) and help them to regain stability. There are times when people lose their limbs in an accident. In some other occasions, they are born without a limb or orthopaedic impairment. Orthotists and prosthetists play a crucial role in their lives with fixing them to assistive devices and provide mobility.

Pathologist

A career in pathology in India is filled with several responsibilities as it is a medical branch and affects human lives. The demand for pathologists has been increasing over the past few years as people are getting more aware of different diseases. Not only that, but an increase in population and lifestyle changes have also contributed to the increase in a pathologist’s demand. The pathology careers provide an extremely huge number of opportunities and if you want to be a part of the medical field you can consider being a pathologist. If you want to know more about a career in pathology in India then continue reading this article.

Veterinary Doctor

Speech therapist, gynaecologist.

Gynaecology can be defined as the study of the female body. The job outlook for gynaecology is excellent since there is evergreen demand for one because of their responsibility of dealing with not only women’s health but also fertility and pregnancy issues. Although most women prefer to have a women obstetrician gynaecologist as their doctor, men also explore a career as a gynaecologist and there are ample amounts of male doctors in the field who are gynaecologists and aid women during delivery and childbirth. 

Audiologist

The audiologist career involves audiology professionals who are responsible to treat hearing loss and proactively preventing the relevant damage. Individuals who opt for a career as an audiologist use various testing strategies with the aim to determine if someone has a normal sensitivity to sounds or not. After the identification of hearing loss, a hearing doctor is required to determine which sections of the hearing are affected, to what extent they are affected, and where the wound causing the hearing loss is found. As soon as the hearing loss is identified, the patients are provided with recommendations for interventions and rehabilitation such as hearing aids, cochlear implants, and appropriate medical referrals. While audiology is a branch of science that studies and researches hearing, balance, and related disorders.

An oncologist is a specialised doctor responsible for providing medical care to patients diagnosed with cancer. He or she uses several therapies to control the cancer and its effect on the human body such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiation therapy and biopsy. An oncologist designs a treatment plan based on a pathology report after diagnosing the type of cancer and where it is spreading inside the body.

Are you searching for an ‘Anatomist job description’? An Anatomist is a research professional who applies the laws of biological science to determine the ability of bodies of various living organisms including animals and humans to regenerate the damaged or destroyed organs. If you want to know what does an anatomist do, then read the entire article, where we will answer all your questions.

For an individual who opts for a career as an actor, the primary responsibility is to completely speak to the character he or she is playing and to persuade the crowd that the character is genuine by connecting with them and bringing them into the story. This applies to significant roles and littler parts, as all roles join to make an effective creation. Here in this article, we will discuss how to become an actor in India, actor exams, actor salary in India, and actor jobs. 

Individuals who opt for a career as acrobats create and direct original routines for themselves, in addition to developing interpretations of existing routines. The work of circus acrobats can be seen in a variety of performance settings, including circus, reality shows, sports events like the Olympics, movies and commercials. Individuals who opt for a career as acrobats must be prepared to face rejections and intermittent periods of work. The creativity of acrobats may extend to other aspects of the performance. For example, acrobats in the circus may work with gym trainers, celebrities or collaborate with other professionals to enhance such performance elements as costume and or maybe at the teaching end of the career.

Video Game Designer

Career as a video game designer is filled with excitement as well as responsibilities. A video game designer is someone who is involved in the process of creating a game from day one. He or she is responsible for fulfilling duties like designing the character of the game, the several levels involved, plot, art and similar other elements. Individuals who opt for a career as a video game designer may also write the codes for the game using different programming languages.

Depending on the video game designer job description and experience they may also have to lead a team and do the early testing of the game in order to suggest changes and find loopholes.

Radio Jockey

Radio Jockey is an exciting, promising career and a great challenge for music lovers. If you are really interested in a career as radio jockey, then it is very important for an RJ to have an automatic, fun, and friendly personality. If you want to get a job done in this field, a strong command of the language and a good voice are always good things. Apart from this, in order to be a good radio jockey, you will also listen to good radio jockeys so that you can understand their style and later make your own by practicing.

A career as radio jockey has a lot to offer to deserving candidates. If you want to know more about a career as radio jockey, and how to become a radio jockey then continue reading the article.

Choreographer

The word “choreography" actually comes from Greek words that mean “dance writing." Individuals who opt for a career as a choreographer create and direct original dances, in addition to developing interpretations of existing dances. A Choreographer dances and utilises his or her creativity in other aspects of dance performance. For example, he or she may work with the music director to select music or collaborate with other famous choreographers to enhance such performance elements as lighting, costume and set design.

Social Media Manager

A career as social media manager involves implementing the company’s or brand’s marketing plan across all social media channels. Social media managers help in building or improving a brand’s or a company’s website traffic, build brand awareness, create and implement marketing and brand strategy. Social media managers are key to important social communication as well.

Photographer

Photography is considered both a science and an art, an artistic means of expression in which the camera replaces the pen. In a career as a photographer, an individual is hired to capture the moments of public and private events, such as press conferences or weddings, or may also work inside a studio, where people go to get their picture clicked. Photography is divided into many streams each generating numerous career opportunities in photography. With the boom in advertising, media, and the fashion industry, photography has emerged as a lucrative and thrilling career option for many Indian youths.

An individual who is pursuing a career as a producer is responsible for managing the business aspects of production. They are involved in each aspect of production from its inception to deception. Famous movie producers review the script, recommend changes and visualise the story. 

They are responsible for overseeing the finance involved in the project and distributing the film for broadcasting on various platforms. A career as a producer is quite fulfilling as well as exhaustive in terms of playing different roles in order for a production to be successful. Famous movie producers are responsible for hiring creative and technical personnel on contract basis.

Copy Writer

In a career as a copywriter, one has to consult with the client and understand the brief well. A career as a copywriter has a lot to offer to deserving candidates. Several new mediums of advertising are opening therefore making it a lucrative career choice. Students can pursue various copywriter courses such as Journalism , Advertising , Marketing Management . Here, we have discussed how to become a freelance copywriter, copywriter career path, how to become a copywriter in India, and copywriting career outlook. 

In a career as a vlogger, one generally works for himself or herself. However, once an individual has gained viewership there are several brands and companies that approach them for paid collaboration. It is one of those fields where an individual can earn well while following his or her passion. 

Ever since internet costs got reduced the viewership for these types of content has increased on a large scale. Therefore, a career as a vlogger has a lot to offer. If you want to know more about the Vlogger eligibility, roles and responsibilities then continue reading the article. 

For publishing books, newspapers, magazines and digital material, editorial and commercial strategies are set by publishers. Individuals in publishing career paths make choices about the markets their businesses will reach and the type of content that their audience will be served. Individuals in book publisher careers collaborate with editorial staff, designers, authors, and freelance contributors who develop and manage the creation of content.

Careers in journalism are filled with excitement as well as responsibilities. One cannot afford to miss out on the details. As it is the small details that provide insights into a story. Depending on those insights a journalist goes about writing a news article. A journalism career can be stressful at times but if you are someone who is passionate about it then it is the right choice for you. If you want to know more about the media field and journalist career then continue reading this article.

Individuals in the editor career path is an unsung hero of the news industry who polishes the language of the news stories provided by stringers, reporters, copywriters and content writers and also news agencies. Individuals who opt for a career as an editor make it more persuasive, concise and clear for readers. In this article, we will discuss the details of the editor's career path such as how to become an editor in India, editor salary in India and editor skills and qualities.

Individuals who opt for a career as a reporter may often be at work on national holidays and festivities. He or she pitches various story ideas and covers news stories in risky situations. Students can pursue a BMC (Bachelor of Mass Communication) , B.M.M. (Bachelor of Mass Media) , or  MAJMC (MA in Journalism and Mass Communication) to become a reporter. While we sit at home reporters travel to locations to collect information that carries a news value.  

Corporate Executive

Are you searching for a Corporate Executive job description? A Corporate Executive role comes with administrative duties. He or she provides support to the leadership of the organisation. A Corporate Executive fulfils the business purpose and ensures its financial stability. In this article, we are going to discuss how to become corporate executive.

Multimedia Specialist

A multimedia specialist is a media professional who creates, audio, videos, graphic image files, computer animations for multimedia applications. He or she is responsible for planning, producing, and maintaining websites and applications. 

Quality Controller

A quality controller plays a crucial role in an organisation. He or she is responsible for performing quality checks on manufactured products. He or she identifies the defects in a product and rejects the product. 

A quality controller records detailed information about products with defects and sends it to the supervisor or plant manager to take necessary actions to improve the production process.

Production Manager

A QA Lead is in charge of the QA Team. The role of QA Lead comes with the responsibility of assessing services and products in order to determine that he or she meets the quality standards. He or she develops, implements and manages test plans. 

Process Development Engineer

The Process Development Engineers design, implement, manufacture, mine, and other production systems using technical knowledge and expertise in the industry. They use computer modeling software to test technologies and machinery. An individual who is opting career as Process Development Engineer is responsible for developing cost-effective and efficient processes. They also monitor the production process and ensure it functions smoothly and efficiently.

AWS Solution Architect

An AWS Solution Architect is someone who specializes in developing and implementing cloud computing systems. He or she has a good understanding of the various aspects of cloud computing and can confidently deploy and manage their systems. He or she troubleshoots the issues and evaluates the risk from the third party. 

Azure Administrator

An Azure Administrator is a professional responsible for implementing, monitoring, and maintaining Azure Solutions. He or she manages cloud infrastructure service instances and various cloud servers as well as sets up public and private cloud systems. 

Computer Programmer

Careers in computer programming primarily refer to the systematic act of writing code and moreover include wider computer science areas. The word 'programmer' or 'coder' has entered into practice with the growing number of newly self-taught tech enthusiasts. Computer programming careers involve the use of designs created by software developers and engineers and transforming them into commands that can be implemented by computers. These commands result in regular usage of social media sites, word-processing applications and browsers.

Information Security Manager

Individuals in the information security manager career path involves in overseeing and controlling all aspects of computer security. The IT security manager job description includes planning and carrying out security measures to protect the business data and information from corruption, theft, unauthorised access, and deliberate attack 

ITSM Manager

Automation test engineer.

An Automation Test Engineer job involves executing automated test scripts. He or she identifies the project’s problems and troubleshoots them. The role involves documenting the defect using management tools. He or she works with the application team in order to resolve any issues arising during the testing process. 

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How to Write an Essay About My Goal: A Comprehensive Guide

How to Write an Essay About My Goal: A Comprehensive Guide

In the ever-evolving journey of life, setting clear objectives and ambitions is crucial. Whether these goals are short-term or stretch into the far reaches of our future, they act as guiding lights in our journey. This guide will assist you in articulating and expressing these ambitions effectively, especially when it comes to writing them down.

Understanding the Importance of Goal Setting

Setting life goals is a combination of introspection and foresight. It demands an understanding of one's current standing and a clear vision for the future. By penning down your goals, you not only provide yourself a clear road map but also make a commitment to yourself to achieve them.

How To Write An Essay About My Life Goals

  • Introduction : Initiate with an engaging hook—be it a quote, question, or anecdote—that aligns with your goal.
  • State your main goal : Elucidate on what your primary life objective is. Be it professional success, personal achievement, or societal contribution, clarify your aim.
  • The 'Why' behind the goal : Delve into your motivations. Discuss the driving forces behind this ambition.
  • Steps to achieve : Provide a roadmap. Enumerate the steps you'd undertake to transform this goal into a reality.
  • Potential Challenges : Highlight potential obstacles and your strategies to navigate them.
  • Conclusion : Summarize and re-emphasize your dedication towards your objective.

Career Goal Essay Definition

It's essential to differentiate between life goals and career goals. While the former encompasses broader objectives, a career goal essay underscores your professional aspirations, detailing why they matter and how you plan to attain them.

How Long is a Professional Goal Statement?

A professional goal statement's length can vary but should be concise. Ranging typically from 500 to 1000 words, it should capture your aspirations succinctly. Always adhere to specific guidelines if provided.

What to Avoid While Writing Your Career Goal Essay

• Ambiguity: Always be specific. • Unsubstantiated lofty goals: Your ambitions should be grounded in reality. • Neglecting personal growth: Showcase how your past has shaped your future. • Reiteration: Stay succinct and steer clear of repetition.

My Future Goals Essay: 12 Models

  • Entrepreneurial Aspirations : Launching a sustainable fashion startup by 2030.
  • Technological Goals : Developing an AI-driven community healthcare system.
  • Educational Objectives : Attaining a Ph.D. in Quantum Physics.
  • Artistic Pursuits : Holding a solo art exhibition in a renowned gallery.
  • Societal Contributions : Establishing a foundation for underprivileged children's education.
  • Scientific Aspirations : Contributing to renewable energy research.
  • Medical Goals : Becoming a pediatric surgeon and researching rare childhood diseases.
  • Travel Objectives : Visiting every UNESCO World Heritage site.
  • Sports Ambitions : Completing an Ironman Triathlon.
  • Literary Goals : Publishing a trilogy of fantasy novels.
  • Environmental Aims : Pioneering a city-wide recycling initiative.
  • Leadership Aspirations : Becoming the CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

Articulating one's life and career goals requires introspection, clarity, and foresight. This guide offers a structured blueprint to ensure your essay not only adheres to academic standards but genuinely resonates with your aspirations and dreams. Whether you're grappling with questions like "what should I write in my college essay?" or "how to draft a goal statement?", this guide is here to light the way.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • What is the ideal structure for a future career essay? Start with an engaging introduction about your aspirations. In the body, detail the steps you plan to take, experiences that have guided you, and why you chose this career. End with a conclusion summarizing your determination and future vision.
  • How do I ensure my career goals essay stands out? Incorporate personal stories or experiences that shaped your goals. Be specific about your aspirations and how you plan to achieve them.
  • How can I relate my past experiences to my future career in the essay? Highlight skills, lessons, or challenges from your past and demonstrate how they have directed or prepared you for your future career.
  • What should I avoid when writing an essay about my career goals? Avoid being too vague about your goals. Steer clear of clichés, and ensure your goals are realistic and grounded.
  • How long should my essay about my goal be? This depends on the requirement. Usually, personal statements are between 500-700 words. Always adhere to the specified word limit.
  • Can I include short-term and long-term goals in my essay? Absolutely! Detailing both shows planning and vision. Highlight how short-term goals will pave the way for long-term objectives.
  • How do I conclude my essay about my goals effectively? Reiterate your dedication to these goals, reflect on the journey ahead, and end with a note of optimism and determination.

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Life Goals — My Goals And Ways To Achieve Them

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My Goals and Ways to Achieve Them

  • Categories: Life Goals Personal Goals

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Words: 523 |

Published: Mar 18, 2021

Words: 523 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Works Cited:

  • Chang, L. (2021). The Ultimate Guide to Budgeting: 5 Steps to Take Control of Your Finances. The Balance. https://www.thebalance.com/how-to-make-a-budget-1289587
  • Davenport, K. (2022). The 50/30/20 Rule for Budgeting. Forbes Advisor. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/personal-finance/50-30-20-rule/
  • Dave Ramsey. (2021). Budgeting. Dave Ramsey.
  • Kobliner, B. (2017). Make Your Kid a Money Genius (Even If You’re Not). Simon & Schuster.
  • NerdWallet. (2021). Budgeting 101. NerdWallet.
  • Robbins, T. (2017). Unshakeable: Your Financial Freedom Playbook. Simon & Schuster.
  • The Simple Dollar. (2021). How to Create a Budget: A Step-by-Step Guide. The Simple Dollar. https://www.thesimpledollar.com/save-money/how-to-create-a-budget/
  • Tiller Money. (2021). How to Create a Budget Spreadsheet in Google Sheets. Tiller Money.
  • Williams, G. (2018). Budgeting: A Practical Guide for Beginners. Amazon Digital Services.

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life goals essay pdf

Rafal Reyzer

How To Write A Powerful Essay On Achieving Goals (+ Example)

Author: Rafal Reyzer

Writing an essay on achieving your goals can be a great opportunity to share your accomplishments.

Goal setting is a useful strategy to get the most out of life and set yourself up for success. However, there are many things to remember regarding proper goal setting and achievement. When writing a blm argumentative essay , it’s important to provide context on the history of the Black Lives Matter movement and the issues it seeks to address. This can help the reader understand the significance of the essay’s thesis and arguments. Let’s get to grips with the process of goal setting and come up with a powerful essay on achieving goals.

Structuring Your Essay on Achieving Goals:

How to write an introduction.

Any academic essay must have a strong beginning. It will establish your point of view and inform the reader of what to expect. An introduction should:

  • Attract the reader’s attention with a ‘hook’. You can achieve this by quoting a shocking statistic, quote, fact, or controversial statement.
  • Give some background or historical information about the topic. For instance, psychological theories and models on effective goal setting and achievement.
  • Present your thesis (main point of your essay) e.g., “Rewarding achievement is the most effective means by which employers can increase workplace productivity”.

How to Write The Main Body of Your Essay

There should be a minimum of three paragraphs in your essay. Each one is a ‘mini-essay with an introduction, body, and conclusion. Each should include:

  • Topic sentence: inform the reader about the subject of the paragraph, e.g., “how to measure goal attainment”, or “effective workplace goal setting”.
  • Evidence sentences: inform the reader about the evidence you’ve uncovered, e.g., a business model and study on effective workplace goal setting.
  • Analysis sentences : inform the reader of your thoughts on the evidence and its significance. For example, “Model A clearly shows how employers are to set realistic goals with employees and this model has proven to be successful in study x”.
  • Concluding sentence: summarize what you’ve learned about the topic and how it relates to the essay question. For instance, “Setting realistic goals for employees is straightforward and likely to increase successful goal achievement in the workplace”.

How to Write a Conclusion

  • To signal the essay is ending, use a suitable word or phrase , such as ‘In summary’ or ‘With all of this in mind’.
  • Reread your introduction to remind yourself of your thesis. After that, either paraphrase or respond to the thesis.
  • Summarize the key points stated in each of the assignment’s paragraphs. So, if you wrote three key body paragraphs, the conclusion should include three main themes.
  • Give your readers a concluding line on the main issue and possibly attempt to urge them to further ponder the topic in its wider context.

happy successful goal achieving winner

Example Of An Essay About Achieving Your Goals

So, let’s put all this information together and check an example essay on achieving goals: Effective Methods to Increase the Likelihood of Goal Achievement Achieving goals can be extremely rewarding and result in a more satisfying and successful life. Many people set goals yet cannot achieve them. However, there are ways to avoid or reduce the likelihood of missing the mark. By ensuring that goals are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound), using visualization techniques, and rewarding goal attainment, the chances of success increase. First, ensure your goals are SMART. This means that goals should be specific and measurable in terms of outcomes, e.g., test scores . Goals should be achievable and realistic to the person’s capabilities and resources available. Also, a goal should apply to the person’s work, education, hobbies, or interests and include a deadline. If there is no specificity of outcome, there’s no real way to see how someone has improved—or how they might be falling short. And if goals are not SMART, they are more difficult to achieve. Second, by imagining and visualizing the feelings and outcomes of achievement of the goal , the likelihood of high achievement increases. The imagination can be a powerful tool. Imagining the feelings of accomplishment helps to increase self-efficacy and motivation. A Canadian study found that imagery skills moderate the effect of mental practice on self-efficacy. The effects of visualization techniques are valuable in goal achievement. Third, once the goal has been accomplished, a reward is required. Getting a reward for hard work will increasingly motivate an individual to set and achieve the next goal. The offer of a reward gives employees and students an extra boost of motivation. Rewards help the cycle of goal setting and goal achieving to continue. In summary, by ensuring the goals set are SMART, visualizing and rewarding success, goal achievement becomes more likely. Achieving goals is a cyclic process that’s possible to master if the right method is in place.

The Basics of Setting and Achieving Goals

Getting things done is often more difficult than you may think. You may have a strong desire to see positive changes, including better grades, weight loss, or passing an educational course. But success requires more than just motivation. The right goal-achievement skill set can help you see the exact steps you need to perform to take your life to the next level. Of course, it all starts with setting a goal and there’s a useful (SMART) acronym to remember:

Goals should be specific and free of generalizations, or they are unlikely to get done. Instead of stating that your goal is to improve your English skills, make it more specific by stating that your goal is to learn and use one new word every weekday to boost your English vocabulary.

A goal should be measurable because you need to keep your finger on the pulse and know where you’re at. For instance, a test or assessment score can provide evidence that you have reached your goal.

A goal needs to be possible to achieved. If it’s beyond your capabilities or requires resources you cannot access, then you will set yourself up for failure.

Goals must have some relevance. It is pointless to set a goal if it’s not relevant to your life, work, education, interests, hobbies, etc.

You must set a completion date for your goal. If you do not set a deadline, you may lack the motivation to reach it. Once you have your SMART goal, record it clearly on paper or a mobile device and then visualize the outcome of achieving that goal. Imagine how happy you will feel when you achieve it. This vivid mental imagery will provide you with the extra motivation to go for it. Finally, when you reach your goal, it’s time to celebrate! Reward yourself with a trip, an item you desire, relaxation time with friends, or whatever else that will make you feel happy.

Ready to write an essay about achieving goals?

Hopefully, the information in the article has given you the basics to help you write a powerful essay on achieving goals. I also hope that this article has helped you think about how you can work toward achieving your own goals. There are many great books about the science of goal achievement. I especially recommend ones written by Brian Tracy , as they have helped me a great deal in my pursuit of happiness . You can also create an engaging presentation about achieving goals and objectives using this  goal presentation template . Next up, you may want to explore an ultimate guide to writing expository essays .

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How To Write An Eagle Scout Statement of Ambition & Life Purpose

Title: Eagle Scout Statement of Ambitions and life purpose

Before you can begin Eagle Scout rank requirement 7 and hold your final board of review, you’ll be tasked with writing a comprehensive essay that discusses your long-term goals and values. This piece of writing, which must be submitted with your Eagle rank application, is called a Statement of Ambitions and Life Purpose!

What is an Eagle Scout Statement of Ambitions And Life Purpose? An Eagle Scout Statement of Ambitions and Life Purpose is a short essay, written by an Eagle Scout candidate, that describes their goals, values, and mindsets. Often, these statements are about 500 words in length and are broken into 4 parts: Intro, short-term goals, long-term goals, and life purpose.

PS. This article is based on the experiences and research of Eagle Scout, Kevin A and Cole  🙂

While most Eagle Scouts (myself at the time, included!) usually aren’t aware that they even need to write this essay until the last minute, it’s actually an incredibly important thing to do. Why? Well, the Chair of your final Eagle Scout Board of Review will be reading your Statement of Ambitions and Life Purpose and asking you questions, accordingly!

Additionally, writing a Statement of Ambitions and Life Purpose gives you the chance to start thinking about your life’s vision. What do you hope to give to the world? Where do you see yourself in 3 years? These are all very important questions, and this essay might be one of the first times in your life where you’re directly asked to critically think about what you want your future to hold!

Plus, your Statement of Ambitions and Life Purpose is a great foundation upon which you can write an amazing Eagle Scout college application . (Click the link for my ultimate guide to getting Eagle Scout college acceptances) Kill two birds with one stone by using this statement to outline your thoughts for college and beyond! Trust me, my own Eagle Statement of Ambitions really set my sights in the right direction. I promise it’ll help you too if you put a lot of thought into it, dig deep, and keep an open mind.

With all that being said, you’re probably wondering how to write a great essay of your own. Not to fear! In this article, I’ll be using my own Statement of Ambitions and Life Purpose essay as an example to get your writing juices flowing! Then, I’ll give you some questions to reflect on, so you can make your essay even better than mine was. 😉

My Example Statement of Ambitions and Life Purpose Essay

First, take a second to read through my example essay. This is a bit shorter than the typical essay of 500 words (2 double-spaced pages), but it should give you a good idea of what’s required. Then, in the following sections, we’ll be reviewing each component, from the introduction to your life vision, so that you can create an incredible statement of your own!

Without further ado, here’s Kevin and my example Statement of Ambitions and Life Purpose:

1. Introduction: “Reflecting back, as I’m now applying for Eagle, the highest rank in Scouting, I realize just how far I’ve come. Not only have I learned how to light a fire with a single match, tie a bowline around myself with one hand, and sell ungodly amounts of Trail’s End popcorn — no, Scouting had given me much more. Scouting has given me the core values and principles that I now carry with me through my life.”  2. Short Term Goals: “In my high school life, I am planning on taking two Advanced Placement courses: AP Environmental Science and AP English Language and Composition. These courses, though challenging, will hopefully help me expand my knowledge into areas that I may be interested in pursuing while at college.”  “My next big hurdle comes in the form of college applications. Between club responsibilities, AP classes, Scouting, and friends, I’ll be hard-pressed to find the time. However, like earning Eagle, nothing worthwhile comes easy. To achieve my short term goals I’ll set a schedule, make a plan, and check things off one requirement at a time.” 3. Long-Term Goals “Upon graduating from high school, I want to attend a four-year college within the University of California system. I have not decided what studies to pursue in college, but I am leaning towards majoring in the chemistry field.”  “In college, I hope to develop the skills and connections to land a chemical engineering job where I can directly help others. I want a comfortable salary, and the expertise to have my ideas be heard within the workforce. I won’t be satisfied simply remaining a follower in my field and intend to lead others to help bring about breakthroughs that improve human wellbeing.” 4. Life Purpose “My ultimate vision for life is to become an individual who lifts others up. Growing up an only child, I always felt best whenever I was able to contribute to the people around me. Whether it’s making scientific breakthroughs, leading a team, or even teaching scouts, my life’s purpose will always be to do good for others.” “Although my specific goals will probably change as I grow older and experience the world from a different perspective, I know that the values I learned from Scouting will forever remain in my mind and heart. Regardless of what I end up doing, while I’m doing it I’ll be physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.” 

If you’ve read through our essay, by now you should have a few ideas bouncing around your head about what to write in your own Statement of Ambitions and Life Purpose. Write them down ASAP! Those ideas will serve as your essay’s foundations. 🙂

Now if you’re like most teens, you might instead be thinking, “I’m worried that I won’t be able to stick to my goals and ambitions that I wrote down because I’m not sure what I truly want to do with my life!” Yup, I’ve been there too. However, if this is something you’re worried about, don’t fret! 

  • Firstly, your Eagle Board of Review team won’t be making you promise to fulfill every single goal you set in your essay, as they realize that most Eagle Scout applicants (and most teens in general) don’t have everything figured out in terms of their life goals.
  • Secondly, in the following sections, I’ve prepared some questions for you that might give you a better idea of your actual ambitions and life purpose!
Here’s a tip: When reading the questions we pose, take your time. Try to think critically and come up with any answer. Then, ask yourself, “is my answer true, for me?” If it isn’t, question why you thought of it. Ask if it’s true in any way.

Doing this exercise will help you succeed in one of the most important areas of your life: knowing yourself . Now, it’s time to read through a detailed breakdown of our essay and answer the questions we’ve posed so that you can create an amazing statement of your own! Let’s go!

Introducing Your Statement of Ambitions and Life Purpose

Your introductory paragraph should go over some of the most impactful experiences you’ve had in Scouting thus far, as well as what you’ve learned from those experiences. Some experiences you can highlight are times when you acted as a leader, times where you learned an important value, or even things that you learned in Scouting that you’ve applied to a situation outside of Scouting. 

The important part here is to consider what you’ve learned from your Scouting career (Hopefully, a lot). The Eagle Rank is the highest rank in Scouting, and with it comes a wealth of experiences and wisdom that you’ve had to learn along the way. Here is how I chose to tie in what I learned from Scouting: 

“Reflecting back, as I’m now applying for Eagle, the highest rank in Scouting, I realize just how far I’ve come. Not only have I learned how to light a fire with a single match, tie a bowline around myself with one hand, and sell ungodly amounts of Trail’s End popcorn — no, Scouting had given me much more. Scouting has given me the core values and principles that I now carry with me through my life.” 

Your introduction shouldn’t be long-winded, as you’ll have many other parts of your essay to get into more detail. Keeping it brief and to the point will likely be the most effective approach to completing your introduction. When writing your intro, here are a few questions you could ask yourself:

Introductory Questions to Consider

  • What part of the Scout Oath and Law means the most to you? How have you lived by it in your Scouting and non-Scouting life? 
  • What is a specific Scouting experience you’ve had where you’ve learned something of great value? What did you learn? How did you end up learning it? 
  • How have you most changed from when you were a new Scout?  Think back to who you were, as a person, when just entering Scouting.
  • When you hear the word “Scouting,” what comes to mind? Why?

Short-Term Goals for High School 

The focus of your next section should be the goals you’d like to complete before finishing high school. These short-term goals can be academic (like getting all A’s), extracurricular (Like making varsity), or even personally-related (such as a hobby, interest, or side-business).

This section can also be used to describe how to plan to achieve these goals. Success comes from making solid plans and then executing on them, so make sure you think about how to achieve your goals. This way they won’t just be dreams! Here’s how I wrote about my high school goals:

“In my high school life, I am planning on taking two Advanced Placement courses: AP Environmental Science and AP English Language and Composition. These courses, though challenging, will hopefully help me expand my knowledge into areas that I may be interested in pursuing while at college.”  “My next big hurdle comes in the form of college applications. Between club responsibilities, AP classes, Scouting, and friends, I’ll be hard-pressed to find the time. However, like earning Eagle, nothing worthwhile comes easy. To achieve my short term goals I’ll set a schedule, make a plan, and check things off one requirement at a time.”

While I highly encourage you to talk about your extracurricular or personal goals as well, I’d highly recommend that you mention your high school academics in some way when writing this section.

Even if you don’t have plans to continue your education after high school, the main point of this part of your life is likely to become educated and graduate with your high school diploma. As such, a portion of this section should be dedicated to discussing your academics (it could even be one sentence stating that you plan on finishing high school!). 

Short-term Questions to Consider 

  • Are there any classes you want to take before you graduate, such as any AP or IB classes? Why do you want to take these classes? How do you think they could help in your future?
  • Do you have any goals you want to complete in your extracurricular activities? How can you take on more leadership in your teams, clubs, and community service groups?
  • Are there any personal interests you’ve developed while in high school that might steer you towards a certain career?  Consider things you’re good at, love doing, and might make you money.

Long-Term Goals For After Graduation

This section focuses on your long-term plans after graduating from high school. There are many avenues you could pursue after your graduation! Will you be going to a trade school? The military? Continuing your education by attending a four-year university or a community college? Heading straight to the workforce? The possibilities are endless! 🙂

I’d recommend considering how you want your life after high school to look (especially since it’ll be happening eventually). Think not just about continued education, but also the values and jobs you’ll be taking on. Here’s how I discussed my own plans in this section of my Statement of Ambitions and Life Purpose:

“Upon graduating from high school, I want to attend a four-year college within the University of California system. I have not decided what studies to pursue in college, but I am leaning towards majoring in the chemistry field.”  “In college, I hope to develop the skills and connections to land a chemical engineering job where I can directly help others. I want a comfortable salary, and the expertise to have my ideas be heard within the workforce. I won’t be satisfied simply remaining a follower in my field and intend to lead others to help bring about breakthroughs that improve human wellbeing.”

This section gives you a lot of freedom to express yourself; you can go into as much detail as you’d like when explaining your post-graduate plans. For example, if you’re sure that you want to enter a trade school, feel free to talk about the steps you’re going to take in order to get trained, certified, and hired for the trade of choice! 

Since you’ll be earning your Eagle Rank soon, it’s vital that you learn how to Properly List Eagle Scout On Your Resume . Not only does this improve your odds of landing a job and getting into a good school, it’ll also help you to more effectively describe your Scouting experiences (and learn from them, too)!

Here’s a Tip: Be realistic, but also dream big! Since in this section you can talk about your desired career, feel free to set a big, hairy, audacious goal (I call this a BHAG). Setting a huge, motivating goal for your future can spur you into action and help you to accomplish anything!

With your BHAG in mind, here are a few questions to consider that can point you in the right direction when writing this section:

Long-term Questions to Consider 

  • If you’re planning on entering the workforce, what type of job are you looking for? What steps might you take to increase your chances of being hired for the position you’re interested in? 
  • If you’re planning on joining the military, what branch of the military are you interested in joining? Why do you want to join this section of the military? 
  • If you’re planning on going to trade school, what type of trade interests you? Do you know any schools that excel in teaching this trade? Do you want to start your own business with this trade or join an existing company? 
  • If you’re planning on continuing your education, will you be going to a community college or a four-year university? What do you want to get out of your continued education, and how will you make it happen?
  • If none of these options apply to you, what will you be doing? Do you have plans to do one of the previous options eventually or are you planning on sticking to your original plans for a long time? 
  • In a perfect world, where do you see yourself in 5 years? What do you want to (and not want to ) be doing?

Your Life’s Purpose and Values

The final section of your Statement of Ambitions and Life Purpose should be used to describe your ultimate life’s vision. What do you really want out of life? Good topics to consider for this section could include plans about a future family, community involvement, and bucket-list experiences.

One thing you should try to mention in this section is how you plan to use the lessons you’ve learned from Scouting when you’re older. You don’t have to promise to return to Scouting in the future (although if you do see yourself volunteering, be sure to mention it), but you should try to discuss how you’ll use what you’ve learned to better the world.

Here is how I chose to describe my life’s purpose and values: 

“My ultimate vision for life is to become an individual who lifts others up. Growing up an only child, I always felt best whenever I was able to contribute to the people around me. Whether it’s making scientific breakthroughs, leading a team, or even teaching Scouts, my life’s vision will always be to do good for others.” “Although my specific goals will probably change as I grow older and experience the world from a different perspective, I know that the values I learned from Scouting will forever remain in my mind and heart. Regardless of what I end up doing, while I’m doing it I’ll be physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.” 

If you’re having trouble figuring out how to write this last section, keep in mind that your goals are only half of the question. Consider what values you feel are most important to you as well. What brings purpose and meaning to your life? There’s no right or wrong answer here, so feel free to expand on these points as much as you’d like! 

You can honestly take any direction you’d like when writing about your life’s purpose, but I’d recommend asking yourself the following questions to first gain some clarity:

Life Purpose Questions to Consider 

  • Think about when you’ll be 30-40 years old. What do you picture your life will be like at that age? What will you have accomplished? What part of doing that will make you happy?
  • How will you stay involved with your family when you’re older? Do you have plans on eventually having a family of your own? 
  • What would you most like to do in your free time? Do you plan to travel, volunteer, or maybe even do something else?
  • How will you stay involved in your community when you’re older? How close do you want to be with others in your community? Do you want to be a mentor? 
  • If you could assign yourself a life ‘theme,’ what would it be? Some ideas include creativity, integrity, resourcefulness, or anything else you can come up with. How will you embody this theme in your life purpose?

Conclusion 

Although the ideas you’ll cover in your Statement of Ambitions and Life Purpose will likely change as you get older, I really encourage you to be as detailed as possible when writing your essay. Believe me, when you’re older you’ll look back on this essay and appreciate the glimpse it gives you into your life right now!

Your Statement of Ambitions and Life Purpose is essentially a time capsule of your teenage self, so it’s vital to do it right. By using the structure we covered in this article, and asking yourself important questions about how you want your life to look, I’m sure you’ll create an awesome essay! 🙂

Chances are this won’t be the last essay you write. In fact, your Statement of Ambitions and Life Purpose may just be the start of an awesome college application essay! To make your college goals a reality, check out my complete guide to Writing An Eagle Scout College Essay That Gets You Accepted .

Congrats on making it to the end of this article, as well as for your upcoming Eagle Rank! Hope to see you back at ScoutSmarts again soon and, until next time, be the best individual you can be!

I'm constantly writing new content because I believe in Scouts like you! Thanks so much for reading, and for making our world a better place. Until next time, I'm wishing you all the best on your journey to Eagle and beyond!

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Career Goals Essay For Scholarships (With Examples)

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Scholarship programs often want you to write a career goals essay to see that you have a clear plan for how you’ll apply your education to a specific career path. This helps show a scholarship committee why you’re seeking funds for the next step on the path toward your success.

Answering “what are your career goals” effectively can help increase your odds of impressing landing a scholarship opportunity. If you’re a prospective student applying for scholarships, this article will provide tips on how to write a career goals essay, along with essays on career goals examples to help you get an idea of what scholarship committees are looking for.

Key Takeaways:

When you’re writing a career goals essay, make sure to write about the goals that are relevant to the scholarship.

Be honest and use your own voice to stand out in your scholarship essay.

Go into detail about how the scholarship will help you achieve your goals.

Career Goals Essay for Scholarships

What is a career goals essay?

Why scholarship essays ask about career goals, example career goals essay prompts, career goals essay examples, tips for writing a scholarship essay about career goals, what to write in a career goals essay if your goals have changed, career goals essay for a scholarship faq.

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A career goals essay is a personal written explanation that discusses your background, why you’re interested in participating in the program, and what career you’d like this degree to lead into. A scholarship essay functions to explain why you want to achieve your professional goals and how you intend to get there.

In almost every application process, a portion asks the candidate to answer an essay question. When applying to an educational program, like an MBA, the essay prompt usually relates to your career goals .

Scholarship essays ask about career goals to assess your enthusiasm for the program, learn more about how the scholarship will help you, and ensure that you’ve considered how the program will help you achieve your goals for the future:

Assess your enthusiasm. Passion is important for scholarship administrators, and if you’re able to articulate your enthusiasm for a specific career path , it will show that you’re determined to meet the requirements to reach that goal. The most specific and well-thought-out your essay is, the easier it will be for a reader to understand your devotion and commitment to the program and the field it will allow you to enter.

Learn how the scholarship will help you. Having a firm grasp of your career goals is great, but it’s equally important that you express exactly how the specific program relates to those goals. This shows that you’ve researched the merits of the program and understand exactly how it fits into your professional goals.

Show you’ve considered your future. This goes along with the first two points — show that you know how to set goals and consider the path toward achieving those goals, and you’ll have an easier time convincing the reader that you’ll know how to set goals while participating in the program. They’ll see that you know how to prioritize education because you have a clear vision for navigating your career path.

While some scholarships might come right out and simply ask, “What are your career goals?” most will rework the question into something different that still accomplishes the same goal.

Below are some examples of career goals essay prompts that a scholarship program could pose to its applicants:

Discuss your career goals. Many scholarships prefer the most direct approach when giving an essay prompt to their applicants. This type of question gives the candidate a lot of wiggle room to discuss their passions, motivations, and career goals.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years ? This question is often used as a prompt for a career goals essay because it gives the applicant a timeline to describe their aspirations. It forces them to be realistic about where their career will be and how they will accomplish this within the next ten years.

How will this scholarship contribute to your professional success? A scholarship committee wants to be sure that the money they’re giving will contribute to a student’s overall professional success. This question asks about the applicant’s game plan in the long-term and evaluates how this program is going to assist in their future.

What is your dream job ? Since a dream job is often categorized as a person’s career goals, this is a common question phrasing in scholarship essays. Asking about a candidate’s dream job answers whether this program aligns with the student’s long-term career goals.

What matters most to you and why? Sometimes, a scholarship essay prompt won’t ask about your career or future at all. Instead, they’ll ask a question like this that assesses your motivations , values, and character.

Use these examples of career goals essays for scholarships to help write your own. Pay special attention to how they’re organized, rather than the content, to inspire your own career goals essay:

Career goals essay example 1 – Discuss your career goals

When I was six years old, I was riding bikes with my older sister around our neighborhood. She had just taught me how to ride, and I was excited to have to freedom to explore with her. When she was rounding a particularly difficult bend to see around, a car happened to be coming along at the same time. It struck her. That bike ride changed our lives forever. Over the next year, I went with my sister every Tuesday and Thursday to her physical therapist ’s appointments to help her regain walking strength. Watching her physical therapist patiently assist my sister back to becoming herself awoken something in me. A passion for helping others in the same way eventually turned into a career goal of becoming a physical therapist myself. I decided to get my bachelor’s degree in exercise science. After graduating in 2019, I knew that the next step for me was to attend a graduate program in physical therapy. I was accepted to Lassell University Master of Science in Rehabilitation Services. This presented me with my latest goal along my career path, and I’m eagerly waiting to start. This scholarship would help me afford the wonderful opportunity to be a part of the Lassell University class of 2023, allowing me to continue working towards my ultimate career goal of becoming a physical therapist and helping others to become themselves again.

Career goals essay example 2 – Where do you see yourself in ten years?

In ten years, I will have been successfully running my own construction business for about five years. I’m currently a second-year student at the University of Texas, pursuing a master’s degree in business administration. I decided to get my MBA because I knew it would be a positive asset toward my long-term career goal of owning a construction business. In my high school years, I worked as a construction apprentice for a local business. I loved many aspects of the business, such as building something from nothing. I knew that I wanted to incorporate this work into my long-term career, but I didn’t want to work as an apprentice . This led me to pursue business. In ten years and with the help of this scholarship, I will have graduated with my MBA almost a decade prior . After graduation, I plan to take a business administration internship with a carpentry business to help myself get a footing in the field. After about two years of this, I will have started my own construction business.

Career goals essay example 3 – What matters most to you and why?

The people I surround myself with matter most to me. Whether it be my relatives, friends, or professional acquaintances, I always care the most about the happiness of the people around me. Making the people around me happy matters the most to me because I truly because we find our happiness through others. I believe that this drive to make a positive impression on the people around me is what drove me towards a career as a nurse . I always thought of hospitals as places where people need someone to support them and make their day a little happier. I wanted to be one of those who spend their careers positively impacting people in need. This scholarship will enable me to finally afford nursing school and go after my dream job full force.

Career goals essay example 4 – What are your short- and long-term career goals, and how will earning this degree contribute to achieving those goals? Please provide a minimum of 200 words.

My short-term career goals involve working directly with underprivileged young people to increase the literacy rate in my community. As a student of an underfunded and understaffed school, I’ve seen firsthand how much of an impact early literacy education makes on long-term achievement. It broke my heart to see my peers embarrassed at their struggle with reading at an advanced age, and this shame added another dimension to their lack of opportunity. Being a literacy educator for young people would allow me to serve this community directly to show them not only the necessity of strong written communication skills, but the joy of reading for pleasure. This program focuses specifically on early literacy, and would provide me a direct route to a career in serving the community I hope to serve. As for long-term career goals, I hope to one day create a program where socioeconomically parents can bring their children for literacy education, not only to increase their ability to navigate the world of language, but also to instill confidence and joy in the written word. What drew me to this program was that it also has administrative, legal, and business dimensions that would set me on the path toward achieving this goal.

Here are some tips to keep in mind for writing a career goals scholarship essay:

Write about goals relevant to the scholarship. Although you may have many different kinds of goals for your personal and professional future, a scholarship essay only discusses objectives that are relevant to the program you’re applying for.

Be honest. Applying for a scholarship is stressful because the applicant’s education is usually reliant on receiving these funds in one way or another. Even though it’s tempting to exaggerate your skills or pretend you’re more passionate about something than you are to make yourself a more competitive applicant, it’s a bad move.

Use your own, unique voice. The essay portion of a scholarship application is your chance to stand out by using your voice. Nobody else, regardless of their academic or professional achievements, is you. Make this clear in your career goals scholarship essay by keeping your unique written voice engrained in the words you produce.

Be specific. A big reason that scholarship committees ask applicants to write a career goals essay is to determine how prepared they are in planning their long-term professional goals. They aren’t interested in providing a scholarship to students who aren’t going to follow through with their career plans.

Explain long and short-term goals . Even if the essay prompt asks you to describe where you see yourself in ten years, you still need to tell them the steps leading towards this picture of success.

Include the short-term goals that add up to your larger career objectives in your essay response. Explain how accomplishing the smaller goals gives you an advantage when tackling long-term ones.

Explain how the program and scholarship will help you. Before writing your career goals essay, consider how this program and scholarship will help you in your career. The answer to this question is essential.

Follow the essay formatting guidelines. This may sound obvious, but it’s surprisingly easy to forget this step when your essay is finally flowing and when you’re scrambling to get it submitted on time.

Check, double-check , and triple-check the essay guidelines for content, word count, and formatting requirements. If you miss any of these steps, your essay may be immediately disqualified no matter how good it or the rest of your application is.

Many times career goals essays are written by students who have already completed at least some college or are applying to a post-graduate program and need more money to continue.

There’s a good chance that your career goals have changed since you started or graduated college. For example, say you wanted to be an engineer , so you got your undergraduate degree in engineering but realized you didn’t like it after working in the industry for a few years.

You decided that nursing would be more up your alley, and now you’re applying for a scholarship for a nursing program. While this isn’t unusual, it can make it more difficult to write a career goals essay since your past work doesn’t necessarily match your future goals.

In this case, you’ll simply need to explain why you changed your career path and why this next one is the best choice for you. Share your decision-making process to show that you haven’t taken the switch lightly, and talk about what you’ve already done to try to pursue this path.

How do you write a career goal for a scholarship essay?

You write a career goal for a scholarship essay by sharing your passion, explaining both your long- and short-term goals, and relating your goals to the scholarship.

Explain why you want to pursue the career you’re pursuing, where you hope to be in the future and how you plan to get there, and how the scholarship will help you do this.

How do you describe your career goals in an essay?

You describe your career goals in an essay by explaining what you want to do in your career, why you decided on this career path, and what you’ve done so far to make that a reality.

You can usually work these factors into any prompt you receive, so think through them before you start writing so that you can use them as an outline of sorts.

What are career goals examples?

Examples of career goals include:

Working as a grant writer for a nonprofit organization.

Becoming a department manager and eventually an executive in your field.

Owning your own plumbing company.

Caring for underserved communities as a nurse practitioner .

What are some goals for success?

Some goals for success include growing in your role, building your network, and finding joy in the job. Most careers don’t just happen overnight and require you to set the right milestones that work best for you. Not everyone will have the same goals for success.

How do you start a career goals essay for a scholarship?

You can start a career goals essay for a scholarship by directly answering the prompt. Most scholarship prompts include a word count of between 200 and 500 words, so it’s essential that you immediately respond to the prompt. Attention-grabbing sentences and narratives can be helpful for setting the scene, but an efficient and direct answer will show a clarity of mind that helps enhance the quality of your answer.

BLS – Career planning for high schoolers

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Sky Ariella is a professional freelance writer, originally from New York. She has been featured on websites and online magazines covering topics in career, travel, and lifestyle. She received her BA in psychology from Hunter College.

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  1. My Life Goals

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  3. My Goals And Ways To Achieve Them: [Essay Example], 523 words GradesFixer

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  1. 'MY AIM IN LIFE' Essay || Essay on My aim in life || My aim in life paragraph || paragraph

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  1. Free Life Goals Essay Examples & Topic Ideas

    1. Life Goals Essay Prompt. Before you embark on your essay-writing journey, it's crucial to grasp the nuances of the essay prompt. Let's take a look at some sample prompts to help you get a better understanding: Prompt Sample 1: "Discuss the most significant life goals you hope to achieve and explain why they are important to you."

  2. How to Set and Achieve Life Goals The Right Way

    This feedback helps us adjust our behavior accordingly (and when it's rewarding feedback, our brains release dopamine, e.g. Treadway et al., 2012). By allowing for feedback, goals let us align or re-align our behaviors, keeping us on track with our eyes on the prize. 3. Goal-setting Can Promote Happiness.

  3. My Goal In Life Essay

    200 Words Essay On My Goal In Life. A goal is a vision for the future or a desired outcome that an individual or group of individuals commits to envisioning, planning, and achieving. By setting deadlines, people try to accomplish their goals by setting deadlines. My Goal. My current goal is related to my education.

  4. PDF Strategies for Essay Writing

    When you write an essay for a course you are taking, you are being asked not only to create a product (the essay) but, more importantly, to go through a process of thinking more deeply about a question or problem related to the course. By writing about a source or collection of sources, you will have the chance to wrestle with some of the

  5. How to Write an Essay About My Goal: A Comprehensive Guide

    How To Write An Essay About My Life Goals. Introduction: Initiate with an engaging hook—be it a quote, question, or anecdote—that aligns with your goal. State your main goal: Elucidate on what your primary life objective is. Be it professional success, personal achievement, or societal contribution, clarify your aim.

  6. Essay About My Goals And Ways To Achieve Them

    Goals can help you physically, mentally, emotionally and socially. Goals can help you stay on the right path and not let you fall downhill. But if you don't set a goal you won't know where you'll end up. Setting up a goal can help you set a really good mindset for the future and present. Setting up a goal also gives your life direction ...

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    How to Write a Conclusion. To signal the essay is ending, use a suitable word or phrase, such as 'In summary' or 'With all of this in mind'. Reread your introduction to remind yourself of your thesis. After that, either paraphrase or respond to the thesis. Summarize the key points stated in each of the assignment's paragraphs.

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    which are needed in everyday life. Now your teacher has asked you to write an essay. Life skills should be taught to teenagers at school together with traditional subjects like maths and science. Do you agree? Write about: 1. managing finances 2. cooking (your own idea) Nowada s some schools are teaching life skills as well as traditional subjects.

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    An Eagle Scout Statement of Ambitions and Life Purpose is a short essay, written by an Eagle Scout candidate, that describes their goals, values, and mindsets. Often, these statements are about 500 words in length and are broken into 4 parts: Intro, short-term goals, long-term goals, and life purpose. PS.

  12. PDF Life Areas for Goal Development

    Short-Term Goal Examples for this Life Area: Long-Term Goal Examples for this Life Area: I will complete my college application and essay by the end of the month. I will attend a professional conference this month. I will apply to at least two jobs per day. I will learn a second language. I will earn a doctorate degree.

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    STEP 2—BREAK IT DOWN. Goals are usually too big to complete in a single step. You need to break the process into action steps, and then you need to string the steps together in order. The first part is called developing a work breakdown structure (WBS) and the second part is laying out a network diagram.

  14. Career Goals Essay For Scholarships (With Examples)

    You can start a career goals essay for a scholarship by directly answering the prompt. Most scholarship prompts include a word count of between 200 and 500 words, so it's essential that you immediately respond to the prompt. Attention-grabbing sentences and narratives can be helpful for setting the scene, but an efficient and direct answer ...

  15. PDF SAMPLE "Life's Purpose" Statements

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  16. Statement of Ambitions and Life Purpose

    Requirement #7 for Eagle Scout is an essay about your personal Life Goals. It is submitted along with your Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project Workbook and Eagle Scout Rank Application. The essay should be written in paragraph form and include both your short-term and long-term goals.

  17. Essay About Goals In Life

    1. Essay About Goals In Life Crafting an essay on the subject of life goals is no simple task. It requires a delicate balance between introspection, aspiration, and the ability to articulate one's ambitions. The challenge lies not only in expressing personal goals but also in connecting them to a broader context that resonates with the reader.

  18. PDF Letter of Ambition Eagle Requirement #7

    Requirement #7 for Eagle Scout is an essay about your personal Life Goals. It is submitted along with your Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project Workbook and Eagle Scout Rank Application. The essay should be written in paragraph form and include both your short term and long term goals.

  19. PDF Letter of Ambition Eagle Requirement #7 Suggestions

    Requirement #7 for Eagle Scout is an essay about your personal Life Goals. It is submitted along with your Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project Workbook and eagle Scout Rank Application. The essay should be written in paragraph form and include both your short- and long-term goals.

  20. PDF Attitude, Goal Setting, and Life Management

    sight of your goals, which may result in a poor attitude and poor performance. Choose your friendships wisely and surround yourself with positive people. Posi-tive people are truthful, faithful, loving, and supportive. Negative people interfere with you reaching your goals by making you uncomfortable or by distracting you. think about it

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    Life Goals Essay - Free download as PDF File (.pdf), Text File (.txt) or read online for free. Scribd is the world's largest social reading and publishing site.

  22. Goal In Life Essay.pdf

    1. Goal In Life Essay Embarking on the journey of crafting an essay about one's life goals may seem deceptively simple at first glance. After all, who wouldn't want to share their aspirations and dreams? However, delving into the depths of one's own ambitions and articulating them in a coherent and compelling manner can be a challenging task.

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