Jen Hassaj
- Dec 13, 2023
- 3 min read

Personal Goal Setting Part 2: Examining the Various Types and Categories of Goals.

Updated: Mar 7

Types of Goals

There are numerous types of goals including short-term goals, long-term goals, personal goals, professional goals, financial goals, academic goals, family goals, social goals, pleasure goals, etcetera, etcetera. In this series however, we are focusing on personal goals.

In looking at a broad categorization of goals- a good rule of thumb to keep in mind is that specific goals are best for external pursuits while general goals are best for internal pursuits.

Setting specific, measurable goals works extremely well in helping us to achieve tangible, external achievements. A specific goal will act like GPS for your life, guiding the specific work needed to achieve that specific outcome.

General goals (for example ‘be healthier’ or ‘have financial freedom’) are more useful than the specific goals because they are endless and internal. They are things that you could always be doing better with in your life. This endless nature keeps us honest and satisfied with specific goals.

We need to have both specific and general goals to help us enjoy the process of goal setting, rather than focusing on the outcome too much. The specific goal/outcome will get you excited while the general goal stabilizes that specific outcome and helps keep your self-esteem intact over time.

It's important to identify the types of goals that align with your values and priorities to make goal-setting more effective and meaningful to you.

When goal setting you can choose to establish different types of goals that vary depending on the scope, context, duration or complexity of what you want to achieve.

Some of the various categories include:

· Process vs performance vs outcome goals:

Process goals- are the method or strategy used to have progress towards performance goals.

Performance goals- are short term actions that work together to achieve the outcome goal.

Outcome goals- are the big picture goal that you are working towards achieving.

· Short term vs long term goals:

Short term goals are to be achieved in a small time-frame i.e. a week, a month, a quarter. These serve the bigger picture and longer goals.

Long term goals are something accomplished later on, they are often based in your values and require planning, time and commitment.

· Individual vs shared goals:

Individual goals are personalized to the values and dreams of an individual.

Shared goals- i.e. in a family or organization working towards a common goal- help create a sense of unity, collaboration and teamwork enhancing the strengths of individuals for the common good.

· Qualitative vs quantitative goals:

Qualitative goals are assessed objectively with no concrete definition or measurement showing achievement.

Quantitative goals are measurable and can be tracked as certain outcomes are reached.

Just for the sake of information- in a work based setting the following are beneficial in helping align employees with the company’s trajectory. Additional information can be found by searching the framework name.

9 of the most widely used frameworks to goal setting: