Life Goals Examples: How to Define What Matters in All 5 Areas

There are two different goal types, and most people lump them together. That is why they lose motivation after a short time. When you learn to differentiate the two, you can break your goals into components. That gives you the language around your goals.

Two Types of Goals: Deep Goals and Sprint Goals

Deep goals are the big picture, long-term vision. They can be intangible. You might not know how many steps it will take to reach one. Nobody can tell you. There is an abstractness to them. But you understand the emotions behind them. They are fuel.

Sprint goals are actionable, results-driven, and have a beginning and an end. They are what you hold yourself accountable to. You do not know if a sprint goal will get you to the deep goal. But if you have a clear allocation of time and a clear task attached to a deep goal, it is a very powerful lever you can push and then test.

When you differentiate the two, you can break your goals into components. The things you learn in between tasks show you the gaps. They show you what you need to learn. It is a way to put a path together for yourself, and the two types reinforce one another.

Life Goal Examples Across 5 Areas

Your goals span five channels: Health, Work, Relationships, Community, and Spirit. These are the dimensions of who you are. When you define goals in all five and pay attention to them, you have awareness. You have a path to higher fulfillment in these areas, and you feel more complete. This is what 360-degree productivity is, because you are paying attention to all of those dimensions.

The channels are subjective. You define them. You put whatever you need to in them. Here are examples of deep goals and sprint goals for each area.

Health

Deep goal: Build a great physique. Have more energy.

Sprint goal: When you define what health means to you in your own language, the actionable steps will appear. The sprint goals are specific to what you are working toward.

Work

Deep goal: Build a successful business. Feel recognized in your career path. Publish a book. Get a graduate degree.

Sprint goal: Come up with the title. Build the outline. Send 20 emails today. Focus on two to three sprint goals you can achieve in a two-week to one-month period.

Relationships

Deep goal: Find your life partner. Build a deep relationship.

Sprint goal: Send 20 messages on a dating application today. Hold yourself to something you can be accountable to.

Community

Deep goal: Build an online community. Contribute to society in a way that feeds a different need than your work does. It fulfills a different function, a contribution in society.

Sprint goal: When you define what community means to you, the steps will emerge. It could be building an online community around your business, or something separate that feeds a different need.

Spirit

Deep goal: Cultivate your inner spiritual life. Find what appeals to you.

Sprint goal: Go for a walk in nature to clear your head and detach from the normal workday. Meditate. Find what creates a meditative experience for you.

Your goals are as unique as you are. If you have never thought about what your community goal should be, or what your spiritual goal should be, or what your relationship goal should be, that is where you start. You are either actively or passively paying attention to these things. When you start defining the goals in these categories, you become top of mind. You have a path to higher fulfillment.

The Mountaintop: Why Most People Stall

Think of a mountain in the distance. It is beautiful. It attracts your attention and inspires you. But if you want to summit that mountain, you have to take steps. You have to focus on what is in front of you while keeping the mountain in view. This is the process of dual vision.

Most people make one of two mistakes. They have the big picture in focus but no practical steps. They dream of being an artist or an actor someday, but they keep it intangible. They never create a path for themselves. They are afraid.

Or they have the reverse problem. They cannot look up from the steps in front of them. They have no vision of what is out there. They are just executing the things in front of them.

Dual vision gives you both. It gives you the flexibility you need to change your path, but you are always working towards a certain vantage point, a certain direction. You should have a mountain in each of these five areas. Something that inspires you, but then also a path to reach it through direct action.

From Vague to Defined: How to Write Goals in Your Own Language

The goal has to be in your language.

If you want to write your first novel, say that. If you want to get a great physique, say that. If you want more energy, say that. When you find it in your terms, then the steps to reach it will become clear.

Define the deep goal in one sentence or two. Something that appeals to you and inspires you. Then the sprint goals will start to appear.

Take the book example. Once you define that you want to write your first novel, you see the sprint goals: come up with the title, build the outline, draft the introduction, write chapter 1. Do not focus on all of them at once. Pick two to three sprint goals you can achieve in a sprint period, which is two weeks to a month.

Work section by section. The pieces come together and the whole starts to form. Along the way, you will discover adjacent skills you did not anticipate. You might need to figure out how to get in contact with publishers. You might need to learn how to self-publish online. Those are skills adjacent to the actual goal itself, but they are going to come up later that you need to be able to add. The things you learn in between the tasks show you what you need to learn.

Your Goals Are as Unique as You Are

Goals change with age. Of course they do. Someone who is 20 and entering college has different circumstances than someone in their 50s.

But it is not age-specific. It is person-specific. Someone in their 20s can have the same goal of finding a deep relationship as someone in their 50s. Someone in their 40s might have a great career but lack a personal relationship. That could be true of any age group.

Your goals are as unique as you are. When you define them, you unravel the steps to reach them. You demystify your goals. It is not society creating goals for you based on how old or young you are. It is you checking in internally and deciding where you want to go with your life.

Keeping Goals Alive After Week Two

Most people forget their goals because the big picture is so far in the future that they cannot see traction. They lose the original motivation.

The way to keep yourself on track is a monthly cycle. Set monthly goals and work in sprints of two-week periods. Look back at the monthly goals and evaluate. Are these good activities? Are they moving me closer? Is there something I need to learn?

This is where you see micro wins. You see progression. You see clarity of action. That is what keeps you going. You are not leaving the big goal so far in the future that you give up on it.

You have to become a different person to reach a big goal. These micro wins and working in sprints and using timed intervals around activities, that helps you develop. You can see your development and reflect on it. You are becoming more. You are doing more. But you are becoming a different person altogether.

That is what keeps motivation going. It is not just one hit. You get it every time by building a progression of success. You are your own fulfillment cycle, and you see it going, and that is what is going to keep that traction.

When Goals Change: A Personal Story

Goals can change. You might get close enough to mastery in a certain area and decide that the goal is not for you anymore or that you have outgrown it. And that is what is exciting.

I used to want to be a film composer. I was a commercial composer for 10 years, and I thought I wanted to move to California to do film music. I took a lot of steps to become a master in my field as best as I could. I had to take a lot of actions, I had to skill up, I had to become good at my craft and be professional and learn.

Then a mentor asked me if I wanted to be in competition with eight other composers in California fighting for the same work. He was mentoring me and saying, basically, do you really want that kind of life? That was a question I never asked before.

When I got to the place where it was an opportunity where I could possibly do it or not, I decided that is not the life that I want. I had a family that I had to support. And it is okay to change the goal. That is no longer a goal of mine to be a film composer. It changed completely by the activity, the buildup that I used. I had that deep, big picture goal and then I had the sprint goals. But what happened is that I changed in the process. What I wanted changed.

That is what is going to often surprise you. When you get closer to a goal, the opportunity will challenge you and test if you really want it or not. And if you do not want it, maybe you want something else. And that other thing, the new goal you set, is very important because it marks how you have changed as a person.

Start Defining Your Goals

Pick a channel. Define the deep goal in one sentence or two, something that appeals to you and inspires you. Then identify two to three sprint goals you can act on in the next two weeks.

When you are ready to build the full system across all five areas, the SPRY framework for whole life goal setting breaks down how to set goals that span every dimension of your life.

If you want to understand why most life goals stall and how to get them moving again, this hub post covers the deeper diagnosis.

If you are ready to see how balancing goals across all five areas creates a different kind of performance, the activity portfolio framework shows why 360-degree performers outperform specialists.

If you are just starting to think about which areas of your life need goals, this post on the five areas will help you identify where to begin.