20 Personal Goals Examples to Become The Best Version of Yourself
Here are 20 personal goals examples for you that will take you towards freedom in the coming years.
When we are living in a comfort zone we just keep going with our same daily routine. We live paycheck to paycheck and don’t work on something new.
But after a few years when we get bored with our job or we face any difficult situation, we feel helpless. Because we didn’t build anything when we had free time.
But don’t regret it if you haven’t done it earlier, just start today. Situations are temporary, everything in this universe changes and your current situation will change too.
“If you’re bored with life – you don’t get up every morning with a burning desire to do things – you don’t have enough goals.”-Lou Holtz
What are Personal Goals?
Personal goals can be habits, behavior, or things that we want to achieve.
Personal goals help us to become a better version of ourselves. Setting personal goals gives us a direction in life. And if we seriously follow our goals, it can lead to massive changes in our life.
Below are the major categories you can set your goal in:
- Health
- Happiness
- Relationship
- Finances
- Work/ Passion/ Purpose
- Giving
- Life Celebration (Ex. Travel, Attending Events, Dance or doing things that will help you live life at fullest)
These personal goals examples will give you an idea to set your own goals in any category.
Benefits of Setting Personal Goals
Personal goals don’t only improve the quality of your life but they also save you when difficult times hit you at any point in life.
I have seen in my life, when I was in my comfort zone, many new ideas came to me but I never took them seriously. Sometimes, I started working on an idea but didn’t finish it.
After a few years when I was unhappy and wanted a change in my life, I regretted my decision to not act on ideas.
If I would have done it then, today my life would be completely different.
But we don’t have to dwell in the past, what is gone is gone. Today we have a new opportunity to start over. Let’s get some idea from these personal goals examples and do it today.
SMART Personal Goals Examples
There is a huge difference between wish and goal. Wishes are just our intentions to achieve something.
But when we have to have something at any cost it is called a goal.
Goals are not mere wishes. Behind every goal, there is a planning and action plan.
SMART is a term that is used to define any goal. It separates your goals from your wishes.
What are SMART goals:
- S– Specific (You need to be more and more specific about what you want)
- M– Measurable (Your goal should be measurable so that you can record your progress)
- A– Achievable (Your goal should be achievable. Don’t choose something impossible to do)
- R– Realistic (It should be realistic and within your reach)
- T– Time-Bound (Your goal must be time-bound with a start and end date)
The personal goals examples you will see below and be made SMART goals by applying a time limit.
20 Personal Goals Examples
Below are 20 personal goals examples that you can start working on today:
1. Start Working On an Extra Income Source
Unless you are working in a very high position with a highly reputed firm, you can not achieve financial freedom just by doing a 9 to 5 job.
Most of the people just keep dragging themselves in the same routine throughout their career.
And if something bad hits them like 2020, they become helpless.
Side hustles don’t take much but only your willingness to do something.
I had a long-term desire to start a blog. Many times I started working on this but didn’t continue.
I was working on a good job and my mind didn’t want to get into something new or learn something new.
But when I started with a commitment it took only 3-4 months to learn most of the things and start a blog.
So your mind is telling you a lie. It will tell you, it’s difficult, it will take time, you can not do this with your job.
Start working on whatever you have in your mind. Start making a plan to execute it. Set a date when you will officially start it.
Once you get success with one task, you can add more in the future. That will give you financial freedom, also it will allow you to work on your passion instead of working for a paycheck.
So start searching for the things you like, whether it’s blogging, stock market, or something else, and start working on it.
Your future self will thank you one day for this decision you are making today.
Read side hustle success stories on medium to keep inspiring yourself.
This is one of the best personal goals examples. It will help you a lot in your life
2. Making Meditation a Daily Habit
We all know how creative our thoughts are. So if we let our thoughts keep running on autopilot mode, we will be experiencing the same reality again and again.
I believe meditation is one of the most important things in our life that can bring us out of any situation. There are numerous benefits of meditation in our life
So make it a daily habit. Start with 15 minutes of meditation every day.
3. Be Thankful
As we discussed before, our thoughts are very creative. What we focus on grows more in our life.
If we focus on problems we will see more problems, and if we focus on good things and become thankful for them, more good, will follow us.
So find at least 10 things every day that you are thankful for.
Write them down in a journal or just close your eyes and thanks to the creator for this from the core of your heart.
If you focus you will find a lot of things to be grateful for every day.
4. Self Love
If you love yourself the whole world will love you.
when you love yourself everything else falls into place automatically.
If we have resistance inside us we will face difficulty while doing anything. But at the same time if we are in a state of flow things will happen smoothly and effortlessly.
Self-love helps us to remove all the negative beliefs we have, that are blocking our way.
Make self-love a daily habit. You can choose any self-love practice and do it every day.
I will recommend an amazing book called “Love Yourself” authored by Kamal Ravikant.
Don’t forget to take yourself on a date with self every month.
5. Learn a New Skill
Learning upgrades us. If we stop learning we stop growing.
Learning is not just for kids, learning is for everyone and it never ends.
Don’t just learn anything, learn something that will help you with your work so that you can grow fast.
Or you can learn something that will help you with a side hustle.
For side hustles and learning new things, you need to come out of your comfort zone.
Maybe you don’t want to do this because you feel tired after working for long hours at your job.
But if you do this you will find many new ways and a stability after a few years, and you will have a chance to quit your job and work on the things you built by side hustles. But if you don’t do anything you will have to work your entire life for someone else. The choice is yours.
6. Random Act of Kindness
There is a connection between giving and receiving.
If you do things only for yourself you will not receive the ultimate joy of giving.
This is our planet and we must make it a better place.
When you do something good for this planet, human beings, and animals, you will find deep peace and satisfaction.
There are many ways you can contribute to the betterment of our world.
Decide a day every month when you will perform a random act of kindness.
7. Take Care of Your Body
If we do not take care of our body, our mind believes that we do not love our body. And will take us into bad health.
The same thing happens to a house if we do not take care of it.
Our body is our vehicle to experience this life. So love it and take care of it. Feed it good and healthy food, keep it clean and when you see yourself in a mirror say “I love my body.”
8. Wake Up on Time
If you just wake up and rush to work, you will not have time to do other activities. So wake up on time so that you can perform your morning routine.
Things that you do at your job don’t make you. Things you do outside your job hours, decide where you will be in the coming years.
9. Forgive Everyone Before You Go To Sleep
Do not go to sleep with any anger or resentment in you. Forgive everyone and set yourself free.
10. Sleep Happily With a Vision of Future
Just before we fall asleep, our mind goes through different brainwave frequencies.
In these lower brainwave stages, our mind is more suggestive. So whatever we are thinking at that moment goes into our deeper mind.
So everyday, sleep with happy thoughts. Imagine a beautiful future when you go to sleep.
When you imagine something multiple times, your mind will accept it as true. Once our mind accepts it, it becomes a belief and our mind will do everything to materialize it.
Many of us think about the bad things that happened to us today, and by doing this we prepare ourselves for similar experiences tomorrow. So don’t do this.
Make a short movie of a future event that you want to bring into your experience and repeat it every day when you go to sleep.
If you face difficulty with imagination, then you can repeat a positive affirmation and sleep with it. ex. “I am willing to love myself.”
11. Question Your Mind
Most of us just react to the situations at the subconscious level. We don’t know why we did something or why we said something.
We just go through our day-to-day life on an autopilot mode and never question our minds.
We have a lot of beliefs stored in our subconscious mind and we react automatically based on these beliefs.
So if you don’t like something about the way you react, you need to find out the core beliefs that are generating the reaction.
Sit quietly and ask yourself “Why did I do this? Why did I react in such a way?”
It will take you to the hidden belief that you need to change. Below are three major ways that can help you change a belief:
- Deep Meditation: When we are in deep meditation, our old mind patterns are not active at that time. So in this state, if we give a new command, our mind accepts it. It will take a lot of practice to reach this state of mind
- Repetition: If we repeat a new pattern multiple times, finally our mind replaces the old pattern with it. But in this approach, we need to be greater than our mind and our old pattern. Every time this pattern comes up we need to replace it with the new one. Suppose if you don’t love yourself, then you will repeat “I love myself” with the feeling of self-love, every time that old feeling comes up. Your willingness must be powerful enough to convince your mind to replace the old patterns.
- Self Talk: Our mind is holding some beliefs that are generating a particular behavior or reaction. When we go deeper in conversation with our mind, it will give us all the details. At that point, with a deep desire and powerful will, if we ask our mind to release this pattern, it will do it. Maybe you need to do it multiple times to convince your mind or to prove your willingness to your mind. “Sedona Method” is similar to this approach to some degree.
12. Time Management
Time management is very important. You need to be disciplined to complete your tasks on time.
Don’t rush from one thing to another. Just plan your day in the morning and start working on that plan. You can use any to-do list app or any physical sticky note to write your to-do list.
13. Make Your Bed
When you make your bed in the morning you come out of your comfort zone.
You are telling your mind that you will be disciplined today. You are ready to start the day with excitement, not laziness.
14. Drink Enough Water
Water is an essential part of our body. We need to give enough water to our bodies. Here are some guidelines on how much water we need to drink in a day.
Nowadays we spend most of our time in ACs so we don’t feel thirsty. So keep reminding yourself to drink water after certain time intervals.
15. Go on a Short Walk
We feel refreshed when we walk in nature. Every day, go out for some time. Spend this time with yourself without any digital device.
Also, in the evening you can spend some time watching the stars, it will make you feel good.
16. Work on Communication Skills
Our mind learns only what we practice. If we just read about driving every day, we will not learn to drive. We will just gain knowledge about driving.
So if we want to work on our speaking and communication we need to practice it every day.
One good method I found is, find out a video on YouTube that resonates something in you. Now play the video and once the speaker finishes one sentence pause the video. Speak that sentence loudly with the same confidence and speaking skills. In the same manner repeat all the sentences from the video.
If you do it every day you will notice some changes in your speaking skills.
17. Learn Writing
As the digital world is growing, writing opens a lot of new doors for you.
If you are a good writer, you can work on multiple things while sitting at home.
We all have a writer inside us, we all can write something. But we never let this writer come out.
Once you start practicing writing, you will observe your mind is automatically generating new ideas.
To start, find a well-written article of your interest on the internet. Now read a sentence from the article and memorize it. Open a MS word document and type the sentence here. Write down the whole article sentence by sentence.
Do it every day for some time and It will improve your writing skills.
Once you feel comfortable with writing, you can start freewriting. Just sit and write down whatever comes into your mind.
If you like you can start a blog, affiliate site, or start writing on Medium.
Note: Writing practice from someone else’s article is just for your learning. Do not post it online anywhere.
18. Observer Your Thoughts
Many of us are in complete control of our unconscious minds. We just react to the people or situations according to the belief, our subconscious mind is holding.
Learn to be aware of your thoughts, and every time a negative thought comes, do not react just ask your mind “Why are you acting like this?”. You will find your mind is holding many false beliefs.
Now use your willpower and direct your focus on something positive.
19. Learn Parenting
Kids up to 8 years don’t have a fully developed conscious mind. So they are in a fully download mode for any kind of information or behavior, you give to them
Most of the beliefs are formed by the age of 8 in a child.
So if you do not know about good parenting you will fill your children’s minds with negative information and behavior.
Search and read about parenting and help your children to become positive human beings.
Speak only encouraging words to the kids.
20. Be a Good Partner
Be responsible, caring, and understanding in your relationship. Learn to be a good partner for a long-lasting relationship.
If anything goes wrong don’t just blame your partner, before that ask yourself a question “Am I Right?”.
Make a rule, Whenever you get angry with one another, You both will write 3 good things about each other.
Print and paste this rule somewhere on a wall so you both can see it every day.
It will make you calm and you both will come to a point where you can resolve the issue by putting your ego aside.
Final Thoughts on Above Personal Goals Examples
Setting goals is very important to change the direction of your life. But don’t overload yourself with multiple things. Just choose the things that will really help you to become the better version of yourself.
The worst part is when you rush from one goal to another without completing it. You will get nothing if you do this. Remember these are just your old mind patterns that are stopping you, become greater than your patterns and achieve the tasks.
Become an expert in one thing then move to another.
You can get an idea from these personal goals examples and set your own goals.
