Goal Setting Worksheets - Increase Your Chance of Goal Success!

Take a look at the carefully designed goal setting worksheets below...

These unique goal setting worksheets can be used to help you think through your hopes and dreams and start the process of turning them into motivational and concrete plans!

This step of writing your goals is one full of so much potential. There is something about taking that step... Are you ready?

Goals in each area of your life worksheet

Long term dreams into Goals and Actions Worksheet

The purpose of Goal Worksheets

Each of the goal setting worksheets you see below, in a different way, can support you in getting clearer about what you want, and help you prepare yourself for what lies ahead. As they say, whoever "they" are... If you fail to prepare... prepare to fail...

These worksheets also guide you to be specific about the kinds of things that will get you where you want to be! They help you dream, and then break things down in multiple ways. They provide you with questions designed to tease out all the important details.

Big respect to you doing this work. What great things will you achieve as you persist in setting big goals, choosing multiple actions, planning priorities and continually pressing forward supported by a thirst for learning and personal development...

Who might use these?

The goal setting worksheets below may be helpful for you if...

You have personal goals you'd like to achieve or progress in and you want do some planning.
You're facing a situation and would like to create perspective, motivation, ideas, and plans.
You're a coach or mentor looking to support your clients.
You're a teacher who wants to support your students to achieve more.
You're in a leadership role in your organisation and want to encourage your team.

What makes these goal worksheets different?

Whatever your reason is, you’ve found something unique here… goal setting worksheets created by a qualified and accredited coach and positive psychologist. The positive psychology bit means I designed these worksheets with your happiness and wellness in mind. So it's me injecting happiness and meaning into the process of setting goals. Achievement and a happy process is what I'm all about.

Whether you're working on your business goals, wellness goals, mental health goals, career goals, or personal development the questions will help you reveal energy, motivation, determination, and perseverance.

I'm not only a big fan of goal setting in my personal life, I also have a Masters Degree in applied positive psychology and coaching psychology from the University of East London, and I'm an accredited positive psychology coach with the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC). So you're in good hands...

List of goal setting worksheets and how to use

1. Set goals in 7 different areas of life (social, family, health, career, finances, learning, character)	2. Set goals in each of your roles (friend, colleague, brother, mother, son etc...)	3. Dreams into goals - Create a list of future achievements and decide short term goals and steps
8. Think through your main goal right now from many angles and plan actions 4. Long term dreams planning sheet - Set 10 long term goals and consider best first steps	5. Take one of your dreams - and think through the process from multiple angles 7. What are your Top 3 goals - Choose your top 3 things to focus on and start planning	6. Yearly goals - Decide on some things you'd like to achieve this year and start planning action steps 9. Pocket-sized daily goal cards - Decide on a goal and carry a reminder

1. Seven Areas of life Goal Setting Worksheet

Are you interested in using a goal setting worksheet that looks at multiple areas of your life? Maybe you're keen on the idea of balance? Or you believe in the potential of finding and focusing on a weaker area?

When to use this worksheet

Firstly, if you're feeling a bit stuck or unsure about how to get started, thinking of things in terms of popular areas may help your ideas begin to flow...

It may be helpful to print a 3-5 copies out and lay them all down together. Let your mind roam freely from area to area writing down goals as they come up. You don't need to worry about realism too much at this stage. You can chunk them to smaller goals etc later down the line.

Secondly, considering potential goals in multiple areas can help you choose what to focus on first, second, third, etc. Seeing all the things you want mapped out like this may support your capacity to prioritise and order. It's always a good idea to first get lots of ideas, and then think about what goes before what and what matters more than what. This is planning in action... making sense of things.

Thirdly, This kind of broad thinking across areas can unlock trapped potential, for example through revealing a significant conflict or a connection you weren't aware of between your various goals. Maybe you see a new opportunity when you spot something in common across the board.

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Some extra questions to help do this worksheet

If you want a little extra prompting to help you while you fill in the worksheets...

Your social life - What past social experience is a good example of what you'd like more of socially? What was it about that example that was so appealing? What would be the most interesting change in your friendships and connections? If anything was possible, what would you like your social life to be like a year from now ?

Your family - What change in your family would be pleasing for everyone? What improvement would pleasantly surprise people? What is your idea of quality time with family?

Your health - What's your health dream? How healthy can you imagine yourself being? Can you see it? Who is a good example of the kind of health you'd like to have? How often would you like to exercise? How would you like to eat? What improvements would you like to see in your sense of wellness?

Your career - What frustration at work would you like to turn around? What is your top priority when it comes to your career? What would you like to be doing 10 years from now? How good a fit is your current job and why? What are some things you might do to advance your career?

Your finances - What are your beliefs about money? What matters to you when it comes to finances? If you had a certain amount of money, how would it feel? What would be different? What opportunities would become available? What's the relationship between finances and money for you?

Your learning - Are you a lifelong learner? What would be fascinating to learn and master? What learning would help you be more effective at work? Where is the place where you do your best learning? What are your blind spots? What learning, albeit difficult, might make the biggest difference for your life if you persevere?

Your character - What makes you you? What would your friends say are your qualities? What do they like about you? What change, if it were possible, would make the most difference? What might be the benefits of understanding your strengths in multiple areas? What is your most under-used strength? What would happen if you used it more often? How aware are you of your character strengths throughout the day? By the way, you can discover what some of your most important and natural strengths are with this FREE 15 minute strengths survey. I've taken it at least 5 times! My top 5 are "Kindness, Creativity, Love of Learning, Appreciation of Beauty/Excellence, and Spirituality".

2. Roles and Goals Worksheet

Significance of relationships in different roles

Positive and meaningful connections are one large contributor and element of happiness. Multiple models that measure a persons happiness include relationships. The PERMA model (Seligman, 2011), the Psychological Wellbeing model (Ryff, 1989), and many more, include positive relationships as a key part of wellbeing.

You no doubt have many roles in life. You are a friend, a husband, a colleague, a mother, a daughter, a neighbour, a manager...

You may find it enlightening to think about your life in this way. Each person has different levels of self-efficacy and self-esteem in different situations. The more situations, or roles, in which you feel competent the happier and more confident you'll be.

How to use this worksheet

This is an opportunity to think about what change you'd like to see in your relationships... what are some ideas to consider and possibly try later on...

The purpose of this activity is to raise your awareness of how many different opportunities there are. You start to realise, imagine, if things were just 1 or 2 degrees better in each of these areas, how might it feel? what might it lead to?

Of course, there be some areas where an improvement is more distance? It's down to you to decide what an improvement is for you at this time , for the sake of your own happiness and achievement in life.

Some questions to consider might be, which role is going well? What are some easy wins to build momentum? which role is the most stubborn to change and might require a bit more planning? Which role, if you were to see some positive change would have the biggest influence on all the rest?

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3. Long term dreams and short term goals worksheet

Your long term dreams and short term goals

What's your vision for say... 20 years from now?

When your filling in the list of 30 things, try to just write whatever comes to mind without overthinking it. You can add anything that comes up for you. Anything you want to be, have, or do.

There is no wrong answer. This is a kind of brainstorming activity, an exploration rather than a complete and final document.

Questions to help with this worksheet

Some questions to consider to get things moving might be...

Imagine everything in your life has gone as you hoped, you have worked hard and achieved everything you wanted. It's not been easy, there have been many setbacks, but you've got there. You've accomplished all your goals, What do you imagine has happened?

You might think in terms of the popular areas: social, family, health, career, finances, learning, and character. What do you want to be be, do, and have in these areas?

What kind of work would you like to be doing? what will you have learnt? How will your character have developed? What person will you have become? What kinds of things will you being doing each day? What kind of people will you be surrounded by? What contribution to society will you have made? Who will you be working with? What level of financial security will you have? How will this feel? What will your home life be like? How about your health? family?

This activity is about giving yourself time to imagine what might be possible for you. Doing this with the right tools and support, has been linked in research to higher wellbeing and happiness (Hefferon and Boniwell, 2011).

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4. Long term goal planning worksheet (10 dreams and first steps)

Long_term_dreams_planning_worksheet_2022_compressed.jpg

This worksheet encourages you to choose your top ten long term goals. knowing this, even if it may change a little over-time, is a powerful guide. This worksheet helps you move from wide to narrow in a different way. The year of done is your goal year. The year of start helps you think through the order.

As you consider potential actions for each please remember these are just optional things you could do. They will empower you in making stronger choices later. Nothing needs to be done now. This isn't putting pressure on you to do a hundred things. This is goal planning. You are like an architect getting ready for a big project.

You might want to select your 10 most interesting from worksheet 3 above and put them in this one. What this is doing is giving you a focus. By continually going from broad to narrow - you are creating more and more of a clear picture. More important connections, more self-awareness, more opportunities.

When you're courageous and take this step... when you plan in this way without worrying about the "reality" too much, you are making a profound cause. You are doing something that will, eventually, unlock immense power and potential.

It can be helpful in terms of goal planning and goal strategy to see everything in one place like this. It can also help shift your mindset a little just knowing there are options for action steps that can be taken at some point. As you continue to go through your daily life will you see something differently? Will you notice something you wouldn't have otherwise?

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5. Long-term goal setting worksheet

This worksheet is for beginning to plan one of your long term dreams. You could do one of these for each of your ten dreams above.

Like all the worksheets, it contains a selection of some of my favourite coaching questions. Questions that, when I ask them, cause my clients to reveal to me such rich and wonderful descriptions. It's fascinating to me how often I ask a question and clients are taken aback.

For example the dream might be financial. The client might express the great wish to get to a point where they will never worry about finances again, where they can freely spend and take opportunities when they arise.

When I ask what is it about this goal that matters to you (another version of why does this goal mean the world to you), the responses are so wonderful and meaningful and rich. They really show something special about the client. The heart of their intention.

It's the hundreds of experiences like this that are behind this question being chosen for the worksheet. I hope you can have a somewhat similar experience. Always, if you want to write more, and I hope you do, continue on a separate page.

A exercise in long term goal planning

This can be thought of as a planning exercise. You don't necessarily have to do anything after filling it out. It's more a kind of preparing. You're thinking through certain details to move all of it a little closer to reality. You don't need to jump into action straight away. In fact it may not wise to do so. Moving things from fantasy to reality is a process that includes many key steps...

To go from not even considering something to starting to consider it as a possibility...
To go from just occasionally considering it taking it more seriously... or seriously thinking about doing something
To go from considering to preparing yourself for action
Then to planning so the action you take makes sense for you
Then of course action and more action

This process is a cycle that is disrupted when action doesn't work out and then you re-join the earlier stages again. You can re-join by going back to preparation again, or planning, or you may need to re-consider everything going back to contemplation again.

I hope you realise as you read this that positive personal change is a process. Understanding this, seeing where you are, sets you up for success. Jumping from consideration to action without giving time for learning, pondering, thinking things through, preparing and making concrete plans is a recipe for disaster. And disaster sadly leads to stuckness, low energy, procrastination, excuses and avoidance.

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6. This year's goal setting worksheet

A year is a long time. 365 days. 8760 hours. It makes sense to spend some time thinking about and planning where you'd like to go... what you'd like to change... outcomes you'd be pleased to see...

There is something about the start of a new year... It naturally feels like it could be a fresh start.

Maybe you start to think about what your new year's resolutions are... spend a little time thinking about your year ahead...

There is often more than the average motivation and hope around at the beginning of the year... and this is potentially a great opportunity!

The stats are certainly worrying when it comes to new years resolutions. One study found that only 8% of those who made a resolution reached their goal. Worrying stuff!

I guess the problem is, life can be messy and complex, and when the hopeful honeymoon of new year passes, life carries on. Detailed planning can help with this. Harnessing support from capable and knowledgeable others, understanding internal obstacles, thinking through multiple pathways, many key elements to success are often missing.

How to use this "my goals for this year" worksheet

When using the worksheet above you'll be able to set 5 goals. Feel free to set less and leave some blank or print out two and set more. While using the worksheet above you can bring into focus:

what 5 things are most important for you to focus on this year

when do you hope to see some positive result in each goal

what action steps / possible steps could you potentially take that will cause progress?

you can also tick the box when you've done an action to create a reminder that "I'm doing it" and "I've done well" Keeping in mind the changes you have made is motivational!

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7. Three short term goals worksheet

It's normal and natural to have a many overlapping goals... Many things you want to do, learn, achieve... There are many things that matter to us.

There are lots of ways you can use this worksheet. Here are a few ideas:

Use this as a subgoals worksheet

If you have decided what your main goal is. Let's say for example you decide to go to the gym a certain number of times this year. It's recommended, as part of the planning process to break your goal down into sub-goals. This makes everything feel more real - Which is vital when it comes to knowing what and how much to do and how.

Sticking with the example, 3 subgoals that get you closer to going to the gym a certain number of times might be...

1. Start working one day less a week by this date to create extra time for the gym

2. Come up with a meal prep plan that creates more time for going to the gym

3. Watch 20 videos on gym and design my own personalised workout

Of course these could be anything. The point is to keep breaking things down into smaller steps for the sake of planning and prep. Then smaller steps again. This process makes action happen easily without all the pressure many heap on themselves.

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8. Your main goal worksheet

This goal setting worksheet will energise you toward something that's important to you. Once you've selected the one goal that takes top priority right now this is the worksheet to use.

What do you feel is the most important thing for you to take on? Is there something, if you were to achieve soon, that would open the path wide to your hopeful future?

The other worksheets above will set you up nicely to make this choice. Of all the worksheets, this is the one that I hope will lead to action. Your next best steps in this worksheet might be considered the beginning of your action plan.

You may need to break each action down further into things you can do right now. You can do this on a separate piece of paper.

Each section of this worksheet, each question, is designed to cause you feel motivate and persevere. I want to feel happy, productive, and energetic when you strive for your goal.

The question, "what will be different when you achieve your goal?" for example, is intended to help you paint a picture about what exactly will be appealing about the end point. A deeper and broader emotional connection to that outcome, it's significance, what it leads to, who it impacts, these details all create motivation, drive, and creativity.

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9. Daily Goal Setting Cards

These little printable cards can can be cut out and used to remind and motivate you about the movement you want to achieve each day.

You may also use them after setting your main goal to break it down into days.

I've heard it said by many great speakers that your goal should be the thing that is foremost in your mind. You should be thinking about it all the time, talking about it, talking to yourself about it positively... All of this contributes to your progress.

It would be wonderful if you were able to take the time each morning to do some goal setting. Most the worlds top earners and leaders are continually setting goals for themselves and reflecting on them. They set goals for themselves most days.

In the morning, if you write down all the things you would like to achieve, choose one for that day, and work assiduously toward your goal, overtime, you're sure to get closer and closer.

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Recommended order of worksheets

Some authors/philosophers have advocated beginning with the end in mind. For example the wonderful Steven Covey in his 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. This means focusing on the long term first - get the vision clear - so you make sure you go in the right direction today. He likens this to being your own CEO - to self-leadership.

Perhaps most concerned about not leaving anyone behind, other writers/philosophers have said it's ok if you really have no idea what you want to achieve in the future. If you're in this boat you can just start by assiduously tackling some task in the here and now, and an understanding and vision of what matters to you will eventually unfold.

At different times in my life I have used different approaches. I'm interested in both of these approaches. I think being flexible and responding to what you need at various stages of life is a key skill. Remember, move forward from where you are now, on your own two feet. Everything depends on you and you alone. You're determination, your creativity, your effort, your learning, you planning... It all comes from you. You have the power and potential within to do incredible things and become happy without fail.

Last updated: 05/4/24

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Debt Reduction Goal Worksheet

Has the time come to pay off your debts?

You can get super organised with this spreadsheet and work out exactly where you currently stand debt wise.

You can play around with different time-frames of payment and land at a plan that works for you.

Personal Goal Worksheet.

If you're keen to think about the many areas in life you can set personal goals in this worksheet might be useful. You can use this worksheet to brainstorm lots of different ideas. Topics include career, family, friends, health, home, learning, love, money, development, physical, and social.

Read this article to find out how to download the printable PDF.

Budgeting Goal Worksheet.

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Goal Setting Worksheets

References

Downey, M (2014). Effective Modern Coaching: The principles and art of successful business coaching. LID Publishing.

Hefferon, K., & Boniwell, I. (2011). Positive psychology: Theory, research and applications. London: McGraw-Hill.

King, L. (2002). The Health Benefits of Writing about Life Goals. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 27(7):798-807.

Ryff CD. Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being. J Pers Soc Psychol. 1989;57:1069–1081

Seligman, M. E. P. (2011). Flourish: A visionary new understanding of happiness and well-being. Free Press.

Seligman, M. E. P., Steen, T. A., Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2005). Positive psychology progress: Empirical validation of interventions. American Psychologist, 60, 410.