Personal Goal Inventory

An instrument for a self-guided assessment of one's personal goals.

A self-administered instrument for assessing personal goals.

(c) 1984 Marlene Winell

PART 1. The AIMS Chart: Adult intentional & Motivational Systems

INSTRUCTIONS. This instrument is organized to help you list and examine all the personal goals that you have in your life at this time. We are using the word "goals" to include all the things you try to achieve. As you identify your goals, keep in mind that they can be:
    •     Positive or negative; that is, they can be things that you actively do to get satisfaction, such as "spending time with friends," or plans for avoiding or solving problems, such as "getting a car fixed."
    •     Specific or general, i.e. "going running" or "staying healthy"
    •     Concrete or abstract, i.e. "buying a home" or "finding peace of mind"
    •     Definite plans or vague hopes and dreams, i.e. "graduate'' or "making a name in my field''

On these forms, please organize your goals using two dimensions:

1) Level Of Time/Generality
A. Short-term Goals (for the next few days or weeks)
 B. Medium-term Goals (for the next few months or years)
 C. Long-term Goals (more than 5 years or most of life)

2) Domain of Life (these are more completely defined on the forms)
A. Work and School
 B. Family Life
 C. Social Life
 D. Personal Growth and Health
 E. Leisure
 F. Material/ Environmental
 G. Other/General

 Please list your goals in the boxes provided for these categories. Try to be as thorough as you can while working quickly and spontaneously. Remember that your goals cannot be "right" or "wrong" and don't need to be consistent or reasonable. The total number of goals written in each box is up to you. However, for clarity, please number the goals in each box.

If a goal seems to apply to more than one life domain category, list it in the most primary one, the one that makes the most sense for your purpose (e.g., if you go swimming for the purpose of getting exercise, then put in in Personal Growth and Health, not Leisure). List each goal only once. Feel free to make changes and ask questions as necessary. Please take as much time as you need and remember that your responses are completely confidential.

[FORMS A 7X3 CHART]
[HORIZONTAL AXIS:]
A. Short-term Goals (for the next few days or weeks)
B. Medium-term Goals (for the next few months or years)
C. Long-term Goals (more than 5 years or most of life)

[VERTICAL AXIS]
1. Work and school. This category includes goals that concern your job, your education, and any volunteer work you do.
 
 
 
2. Family life. This area refers to activities and relationships with members of your present and future family (spouse, children, parents, siblings, etc.)
 
 
 
3. Social life. This area includes activities and relationships with other people in your life (friends, intimates, neighbors, coworkers, etc.)
 
 
 
4. Personal Growth and Health. This refers to activities and goals related to your personal well-being, whether physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual.
 
 
 
5. Leisure. Include here goals for enjoyment and relaxation (cultural events, sports, hobbies, entertainment) that are not primarily social
 
 
 
6. Material / Environmental. This includes your finances, material possessions, home environment, and the area you live in.
 
 
 
7. Other. Include here any general goals or those that did not fit the other categories.
 
 
 

back to top

This is an outline of a workshop which has been offered by Marlene Winell.

Personal Goal Evaluation

 "You have to take life as it happens, but you should try to make it happen the way you want to take it." - An old German saying
"If you don't know where you're going, you'll probably end up somewhere else."

  Personal "goals" are more than just career ambitions. They include all of the desirable outcomes of your behavior, including your effort to be a good parent and your resolve to relax on weekends. "Goals" run the full range from specific plans to vague dreams. Altogether, they form a system which may or may not be working for you.

 Becoming clear on your true goals creates motivation and brings you closer to what you really want in your life. This workshop includes 1) An explanation of how goals operate as a system and the meaning of living with "intentionality," 2) Individual completion of the Personal Goal Inventory (PGI), an instrument which assesses short, medium, and long-term goals in six areas of life: work, family, leisure, social, personal, and material, and 3) Group discussion and interpretation of PGI results.

  Goals are important, and not as simple as they seem. Getting what you want out of life requires clarity, confidence, and creativity. The following questions are a partial list of the issues involved in evaluating personal goals.

 1. Are they your goals? "Self-direction" is a useful concept referring to the ability you have to run your own show, to write your own script. Be aware of competing writers and directors like parents, societal expectations, friends, children.

 2. Are your goals consistent with your values: Consider both outcome values  (contentment, excitement, prosperity, etc.) and process values (being productive,  generous, honest, creative, etc.).

 3. Are you setting your sights too high? That is, are your goals completely  unrealistic given your abilities and opportunities? Are you letting yourself  experience pressure to be perfect, to "be all you can be'?" (The notion of becoming
 "self-actualized"  can create anxiety that detracts from enjoying daily life.)

 4. Are you setting your sights too low? Have you given free rein to your ability
 to dream, to have a vision for yourself? Do you use excuses like Women don't. . .,
 A person my age can't. It's not possible because.- I'm not good enough to...?

 5. Are your assumed goals accurate? That is, have you analyzed why you want each goal For example, instead of wanting a clean house, maybe you want to impress others withth your competence. That's very different (said Emily Latella).

 6. Have you explored how you work on your goals? Perhaps there are more effective,  creative ways to achieve what you really want. E.g. impress others with your  competence by excelling on a few very important tasks.

 7. Do you have a clear sense of priorities? Are you channeling your limited time   and energy into the things that really matter to you?

 8. Are you achieving a balance of keeping a perspective on the "big picture" and the detailed strategy planning? Are you lining up the intentions of your "beats" with the "throughlines" for your scenes and the "superobjective" for your play/life?