Coaching practices for How to Find Goals You Care About

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For How to Find Goals You Care About, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• Every time I set goals they end up being what I think I’m supposed to want
• There’s a goal I keep flogging myself to pursue and it just won’t stick
• I’ve got this whole list of goals and I honestly can’t tell anymore which ones are mine versus which I took on to look right or quiet the guilt
• I keep telling myself I should be into this thing
• The moment a goal gets hard I lose all sense of why I’m even doing it

Practices that may help

1. Excavate core values before writing goals
   Identify what you most fundamentally care about before deciding what you want — or goals will be other people’s.
   The Life Crafting Intervention: Scripting Your Future Self
2. Using your ranked values as a coaching north star
   Return to your ranked values list every time a goal, project, or decision feels off-track.
   Values Card Sort
3. Audit why you are pursuing each goal
   Check whether each goal is driven by interest and values or by guilt and external pressure.
   Self-Concordant Goals, Made Practical
4. Distinguish genuine interest from performed interest
   Separate goals you are genuinely curious about from ones you believe you should be curious about.
   Self-Concordant Goals, Made Practical
5. Anchor each goal to a named, personal value
   Make the goal an expression of a specific value so it stays motivating when difficulty peaks.
   Self-Concordant Goals, Made Practical
6. Relevant — anchor it to what you actually want
   Confirm the goal serves a value or larger aim you genuinely hold.
   SMART Goals That Actually Move
7. Self-Concordant Goals, Made Practical
   Self-concordant goals, from Kennon Sheldon, are goals you pursue because they express who you genuinely are or what truly interests you — not because of guilt, social pressure, or external reward. Research finds that self-concordant goals are pursued with more sustained effort and produce greater well-being when achieved, even when the objective difficulty is held constant.
8. Design multifinal means — activities that serve several goals at once
   Activities that advance multiple goals feel more energising and are more likely to be started.
   Goal Systems Theory: How Goals Work Together (and Against Each Other)
9. Values clarification
   Name the directions you want your life to move in, distinct from goals you can check off.
   Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Made Practical
10. Review your goal hierarchy to ensure lower goals serve higher ones
    When daily tasks are disconnected from values, motivation mysteriously evaporates — close the hierarchy gap.
    Goal Systems Theory: How Goals Work Together (and Against Each Other)

Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.