Coaching practices for Self Directed Goal Setting
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Self Directed Goal Setting, 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
- I sit down to study with no real aim beyond "put in some time," so I drift, and an hour later I’ve technically been at it but couldn’t tell you what I can actually do now that I couldn’t before.
- Someone else handed me this goal and I’ve been quietly resenting it as not mine, doing the bare minimum out of spite
- This used to be something I wanted, but ever since my boss started tracking it and someone’s always checking in, it’s curdled into a chore I do for them
- I’m fired up about this new goal and certain this time is different, but I’ve started enough of these to know something in me usually derails it
Practices that may help
- 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 - Forethought goal-setting
Set a specific, challenging learning goal before each study session.
Self-Regulated Learning: Taking Control of How You Learn - Internalize goals you did not choose
Move externally set goals along the spectrum from "have to" toward "value".
Self-Determination Theory, Made Usable - Protect your sense of autonomy while pursuing the goal
Keep the goal yours even when a coach, boss, or partner is involved in it.
Self-Concordant Goals, Made Practical - Pre-mortem your personal goals
Apply the technique solo to a habit, project, or life decision.
The Pre-Mortem: Imagine It Already Failed - Use learning goals instead of performance goals on novel tasks
When the skill is new, a "figure out how to do X" goal outperforms "achieve X by date."
Stretch Goals: When Ambitious Targets Help and When They Backfire - Use self-regulatory goals and progress monitoring
Set specific goals, monitor your progress toward them, and adjust based on the gap.
Social Cognitive Theory - Replace specific goals with a guiding direction
A compass bearing keeps you moving without closing off the exact route or destination.
Goal-Free Living: When Process Beats Destination - 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 - 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
Related concerns
- Compass Goals
Keep the goal yours even when a coach, boss, or partner is involved in it.
Protect your sense of autonomy while pursuing the goal
- Identity And Goals
Make the goal an expression of a specific value so it stays motivating when difficulty peaks.
Anchor each goal to a named, personal value
- Internalize Goals
Move externally set goals along the spectrum from "have to" toward "value".
Internalize goals you did not choose
- Self Concordant Goals During A Big Change
As you grow, some formerly self-concordant goals become misaligned — review them deliberately.
Review goal-self fit at regular intervals
- Self Concordant Goals For My Teenager
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.
- Self Concordant Goals When Starting Out
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.
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