30 examples of life and career goals (with explanation)

Personal objectives are goals or desires that we set ourselves and that we believe will make us feel more happy and fulfilled or, at least, they will help us to achieve other great objectives more complex.

There are a lot of objectives, being related to all aspects of life that we are faced with. come to mind, being achievable in the short, medium and long term and having them more realistic than others.

Then we will see 30 examples of objectives of all kinds and condition, both personal, professional and investigative, explaining some objectives that we can find within themselves and to which area they may be related. Also, in the final section you will find tips on how to write objectives.

• Related article: "15 examples of justification for an investigation"

Types of objectives

An objective is an activity considered key to achieve in order to respond or solve a problem, demand or need. On the other hand, the objectives can be classified into three types:

1. General objectives

As its name indicates, the general objectives are those that

aim to solve a general problem when the problem is being posed or guiding the focus and direction of the investigation.

The general objective must encompass the final purpose, which is to answer the question that led to the desire to initiate the investigation. The normal and preferable thing is that there is only one general objective.

2. Specific objectives

Specific objectives are those that they want to be achieved at the end of the different stages of the investigation and that, achieved together, allow to achieve the general objective. Each of these objectives must be measurable, concrete and focused on a single aspect of the many that make up the research.

3. Unattainable or too broad targets

Last we have the unattainable objectives, which judging by their name we can assume that they are those that we do not want to be raised in an investigation. They would be those that are formulated in a way that is too vague and abstract to be approached scientifically.

An example of an unattainable goal would be phrases such as "that research is useful to the world." That is not a goal, it is simply a wish. Well-formulated objectives clearly delineate how far the work wants to go and what need it wants to satisfy.

30 target examples

Whatever your objectives, it is very important to define them a priori. Among the different advantages of clearly defining our objectives we have:

• Facilitate the design of a strategy to achieve them.
• Greater precision means greater motivation to get there.
• It gives us a sense of perseverance and sacrifice, seeing how we move forward.
• Organize our actions and priorities, guiding us to fulfill them.

That said, let's look at several examples of objectives, distinguishing between personal and those related to research projects.

Examples of personal goals

Next we will see 15 examples of personal goals that will surely inspire us to set some goals in our lives. Some of them are very specific, while others refer to several objectives at the same time. but that all of them are related and are necessary to achieve improvement in a certain area. Likewise, we are going to see them both highlighting their general objective and their more specific objectives.

1. Find love

Course objective: Find love so you don't feel alone.

Specific objectives:

• Getting to find a person in a dating chat.
• Go out with her on multiple dates.
• Ask him to go out on date number 5.
• Find out what he likes.

2. Eat better

General objective: eat better to be healthier, saving visits to the doctor and stop falling ill frequently.

Specific objectives:

• Go to a nutritionist to start a personalized diet.
• Reduce blood sugar.
• Lower cholesterol
• Take 100 gr. protein per day.
• Take less than 50 gr. fat per day
• Stop eating foods with poly and monounsaturated fats.
• Stop eating industrial pastries.

3. Be muscular

General objective: gain muscle mass.

Specific objectives:

• Join the gym.
• Go to the gym ⅔ times a week.
• Take 150 gr. protein per day.
• Reduce percentage of visceral fat.

4. Acquire an advanced level of English

Course objective: acquire the C1 level of English.

Specific objectives:

• Practice conversation once a week.
• Learn 10 new words a day.
• Advance one thematic unit a week.
• Sign up for a language exchange app.
• Practice pronunciation for 20 minutes a day.
• Do level tests every weekend.
• Sign up for the English tests.
• Pass the exam.

5. Learn to play an instrument

Course objective: learn to play the guitar.

Specific objectives:

• Practice ¾ times a week.
• Learn a new chord a week.
• Learn a new song weekly.
• Find a group of guitarists to practice with.

6. Learn traditional cooking

Course objective: learn traditional cooking.

Specific objectives:

• Learn to operate the stove.
• Learn to cut vegetables.
• Learn to make meat at different points.
• Learn to remove the bones from the fish.
• Try a new recipe weekly.
• Make a food diary.

7. Learn to crochet

Crochet and other weaving techniques have become fashionable among the youth. A nice way to continue a tradition of our grandmothers and entertain yourself is to learn to crochet, a way relaxing and calm from spending time while we learn to make clothes that we can give to our loved ones dear. There are many courses in this technique, both in book format and in videos, on the Internet.

Course objective: learn to make crochet tablecloths.

Specific objectives:

• Buy the materials.
• Practice embroidery once a day.
• Join a crochet course.
• Practice weekly with Grandma.

8. Get a college degree

Course objective: get a degree in psychology.

Specific objectives:

• Join the race.
• Study one hour a day.
• Plan the semester to study two weeks before each exam.
• Testing from other years.
• Clean the notes daily.

9. Be a more sociable and outgoing person

Course objective: to be a more sociable and outgoing person, having more friends and managing to function in public contexts.

Specific objectives:

• Start psychological therapy.
• Join groups to meet people.
• Practice daily conversation topics of social interest.
• Talk twice a week with the neighbors on the staircase.

10. Rediscover old friends

Main objective: to reconnect with old friends from the institute.

Specific objectives:

• Get the institute's yearbook.
• Make a list of the people you want to see.
• Get their contact numbers from the phone book, social networks or common contacts.
• Organize a reunion dinner.

11. Improve relationships with my family

Course objective: improve relationships with my parents, siblings, uncles, cousins ​​and grandparents.

Specific objectives:

• Spend 3 hours a day with my parents.
• Call grandparents every weekend.
• Organize a family meal every month.
• Organize a group with the cousins ​​to go out for a walk.

12. Save a certain amount of money

General objective: save 10,000 euros.

Specific objectives:

• Save 60% of the monthly salary.
• Reduce unnecessary expenses.
• Compare food prices in different supermarkets.
• Go out to dinner with friends once a month.
• Do not spend more than € 5 every time I go out with friends.
• Get rid of junk before paying by credit card.
• Open a savings account.
• Deactivate the credit card.

13. Travel to a new country

Main objective: travel to Finland.

Specific objectives:

• Save 5,000 euros.
• Learn 500 Finnish words and expressions.
• Learn about the traditions of the country.
• Contact people who have been there previously and ask for recommendations of places to go.

14. Find a good job

Course objective: find a job of what we have studied.

Specific objectives:

• Sign up for an employment agency.
• Distribute 200 resumes throughout the city.
• Recycle while you are not working.
• Find out if there is any knowledge that we have that is out of date.
• Find out what are the problems for which we cannot find work.

15. Redecorate our house

Course objective: to make the house warmer and more welcoming, organizing it according to the feng shui style.

Specific objectives:

• Learn about the feng shui style (buy books, look at resources on the Internet ...)
• Remove outdated and broken furniture that no one uses anymore.
• Paint the walls of the house.
• Make an inventory of objects that are not used but that could be useful for the future.
• Make an inventory of objects that are not used and could be sold or given to relatives.
• Clean the house.

Examples of objectives in research and projects

Next we are going to see 15 examples of objectives in research and projects, that is, both that we could find in a scientific investigation such as those that we could consider ourselves as part of work projects and academics.

Unlike the personal ones, these are delimited in a clearer and more concise way. Most of the objectives below are inspired by the general and specific objectives of actual research and projects, only with some modifications to their content.

1. Pass math

Passing the mathematics course is the general objective (academic project). However, to achieve this, the following specific objectives will have to be met:

• Keep up-to-date with the exercises indicated by the teachers
• Practice with mock exams a week before the actual exams
• Ask the questions that are necessary to understand the new topics.

2. Evaluate creativity in psychotic patients

Course objective: to determine the different artistic characteristics in the creative production of various patients diagnosed with psychotic disorders.

Specific objectives:

• Identify the individual artistic training of each patient evaluated.
• Determine the influence on the artistic abilities of the therapy received.
• Compare the artistic works made among the patients.

3. Evaluate therapeutic response of a vaccine

General objective: to evaluate the humoral and protective immune response of a new vaccine against rabies produced from horticultural vegetables cultivated in poorly fertile soil.

Specific objectives:

• Obtain horticultural plants resistant to arid environments.
• Identify which vegetables have therapeutic potential.
• Manufacture a vaccine prototype.
• Test the vaccine prototype in laboratory animals.
• Evaluate therapeutic capacity in laboratory animals.
• Test the vaccine in human volunteers.
• Assess advantages and disadvantages of using this new vaccine and not the one already in force.

4. Identify environmental awareness in companies

General objective: to identify the existence of awareness and action on the issue of environmental sustainability in the European business sector, to through the opinion of managers, subordinates and operational workers of the companies and representatives of the main organizations in the EU.

Specific objectives:

• Analyze the degree of sustainability awareness among workers of European companies that allows recognizing the impact of the efforts made on this issue by the company.
• Identify sustainable measures applied in European companies that demonstrate involvement and concern for the health of the planet.
• Identify if there are sustainability measures proposed in the companies but rejected by some level of the organizational structure.
• Analyze whether the pro-sustainability actions of the most committed companies in the sector are applicable to the rest and what has prevented them from being the case.

5. Take advantage of the remains of crustaceans to preserve fruits

Course objective: to determine the efficacy of coatings made from chitin and chitosan biomolecules extracted from crustacean remains to protect and preserve red fruits.

Specific objectives:

• Determine physicochemical parameters: acidity, pH value, percentage of soluble solids, vitamin C content, moisture loss and conservation at room temperature.
• Extract chitin from shellfish remains to convert it into a biochemical solution.
• Apply the biofilm on strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries and analyze to what degree it adheres.
• Evaluate the degree of conservation of the fruits at room temperature for 6, 12, 24 and 48 hours.

6. Determine the relationship between the climate and the vegetation of the north of the Iberian Peninsula

Main objective: to characterize the climate on a local scale of the Cantabrian coast and northern half of the Iberian plateau and relate it to its vegetation.

Specific objectives:

• Prepare climate cartography based on data from meteorological stations
• Prepare the vegetal cartography of the regions

7. Know the level of customer satisfaction in a restaurant

Main objective: to know the level of satisfaction of the customers who come to the restaurant "La Caldereta ”to determine the areas where diners consider that their expectations of the service.

Specific objectives:

• Conduct market research for a month in which customers will be given a survey after they finish eating.
• Code the surveys by locating those areas that require more attention.
• Call a meeting in which to specify the areas that require improvement and agree on the actions to be carried out as well as the estimated time of application.
• Apply the improvements agreed in the meeting.

8. Determine professional performance factors in Spanish graphic artists

Course objective: to determine the factors that influence the professional performance profile of graphic artists in Spain.

Specific objectives:

• Define the factors that influence such performance.
• Develop an instrumental proposal for the measurement and assessment of these defined factors.
• Apply the theoretical, methodical and practical results and conclusions obtained from the development of the instruments.

9. Build a mental health assessment scale

Course objective: construct a scale to evaluate the mental health positive, offering a perspective that contrasts with most of the conceptions of health in psychology from the perspective of the absence of it (negative perspective of health).

Specific objectives:

• Claim the positive aspects of psychology.
• Make operational and evaluate the positive mental health model proposed by Marie Jahoda.
• Construct and analyze the psychometric properties of the designed scale.

10. Establish and reduce costs in a company

General objectives: establish a standard costing system in order to better control the use of resources and reduce costs and increase the productivity and efficiency of the company.

Specific objectives:

• Identify the costs that occur in the company.
• Identify the services and those involved in the costs.
• Determine what percentage of those costs are due to problems in communication and management of the company.
• Eliminate communication and management problems.
• Reduce unnecessary costs.
• Evaluate the functionality of the company as a whole.

11. Evaluate benefits of music in cancer patients

Main objective: to evaluate the benefit of music therapy as an add-on treatment to standard cancer therapy.

Specific objectives:

• Compare cancer therapy with and without other conventional treatments.
• Compare cancer therapy with and without music therapy.
• Comparison of cancer patients who listen to 30 mins, 1h and 2h of music daily.
• Evaluate possible benefits associated with music therapy.

12. Evaluate usefulness of manipulative materials to teach mathematics

Main objective: to evaluate if the use of manipulative materials and recreational resources contribute positively to the teaching of mathematics in primary school, being applied constantly.

Specific objectives:

• Check if the use of manipulative resources and materials improves the understanding of mathematical operations in elementary school students.
• Check if the use of these materials change students' perceptions towards mathematics in case they feel aversion prior to the subject.
• Develop inductive-deductive thinking in elementary school students.
• Create research habits in children from the material use of physical resources.

13. Increase citizen participation in a municipality

General objectives: generate community participation processes in the city that introduce changes in different areas of competence of the city council, taking advantage of the potential represented by its citizens.

Specific objectives:

• Introduce attractive strategies in the main community spaces of the city.
• Survey citizens to find out their opinions, motivations and concerns about the functioning of the city.
• Find out if there are sectors strongly dissatisfied with any of the way of managing the city.
• Carry out a campaign to motivate citizens to take an active part in the processes of their municipality.

14. Improve roads

General objective: to avoid accidents associated with the angle of deflection on the roads, which can pose a problem for the perception of drivers, it is intended Establish regulations that establish the development or minimum radii when paving the roads and make them noticeable by drivers at medium distances and improve the roads.

Specific objectives:

• Analyze the subjective perception of the sections at medium distance.
• Characterize the response of conventional road users to curves with a low deflection angle.
• Based on the information obtained, obtain design recommendations for this type of curves.

15. Determine the characteristics of the gardens of the Iberian Mediterranean coast

Course objective: to determine the characteristics of the gardens of the Mediterranean coast, associated with socio-economic, cultural, educational and climatic aspects.

Specific objectives:

• Identify the main characteristics of the gardens of the Iberian Mediterranean coast.
• Determine the volume of domestic water consumed by the garden at home.
• Determine the percentage of food vegetables grown.
• Determine the percentage of decorative vegetables planted.
• Determine the percentage of plants cultivated for illicit purposes.

How are research objectives written?

Although what we will see below is also applicable to those personal goals that we set ourselves, it is especially It is necessary to take it into account when considering the objectives of an investigation or when considering the foundations of a draft. The objectives cannot be formulated in any way; It is necessary to take into account some very specific aspects:

1. Write them using an infinitive verb

The general recommendation is to formulate the objectives of an investigation using a single infinitive verb at the beginning of the sentence. This verb should reflect the action most in line with the problem posed in the scientific work or the project.

Some suitable verbs to formulate objectives are: analyze, apply, search, compare, check, contrast, demonstrate, differentiate, design, discover, establish, evaluate, explain, examine, formulate, identify, test, observe, reformulate, transform, validate ...

All of these verbs are useful for both general and specific objectives.

2. Be clear and concise

You have to be clear and concise, avoiding vague terms how to seek, understand, try to achieve, try to discover ...

3. Raise achievable possibilities

The objectives set must be realistic, that is, consider feasible possibilities.

4. Focus on concrete achievements

The objectives are concrete achievements to be made, should not focus on processes or activities as achievements in themselves, but as complete actions that you want to fulfill.

Bibliographic references:

• Rykovanov, V. (s. F.). 50 goals of a person's life. The list of vital goals. 50 examples of human life goals.
• Morote, Álvaro & Hernández, M.. (2016). The use and consumption of water in the gardens of single-family homes on the Alicante coast. Geography Notebooks. 98. 29-44.
• Ulpiano Cogollos, JL.; Camacho Torregrosa, FJ.; García García, A. (2016). Analysis of the behavior of conductors in curves with a low angle of deflection. In XII Congress of transport engineering. June 7, 8 and 9, Valencia (Spain). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 1294-1304. https://doi.org/10.4995/CIT2016.2016.4118
• Bilbao City Council (s. f.) Bilbao, a friendly city for the elderly. Bilbao City Council, Spain.
• Sarabia-Bañuelos, P. et al (2015) Comprehensive use of crustaceans: obtaining chitin and chitosan from their cephalothorax and exoskeleton by ecological methods and carotenoproteins for human consumption. (Doctoral thesis) National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico D.F.
• Rojas-Anaya, E. (2009) Expression of the G protein of the rabies virus in carrots and corn and its evaluation as an oral immunogen (doctoral thesis) Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México D.F.
• García, José; Sotos, María (2015). Algorithms at your fingertips. A manipulative methodological approach. Epsilon Magazine, 32 (91), pp. 41-60