How to set your Fulfillment goals

Fulfillment goals are what most people will just refer to as “GOALS” (more on general goal setting process here).

So one would ask why differentiate the Fulfillment goals from other goals?

As in most engineering problems the simple solution is the correct one → because we want to be very accurate with defining “the problem we wish to solve”, without clear definition of the problem the solution may not be the best one.

another question we could ask as an example what’s the difference between an health goal to a fulfillment goal - the only difference is the desire to differentiate the 3 other pillars and set them with their own goals and so they will get prioritized in one’s life (our own experience will show that it’s very easy to forfeit our health, happiness and wisdom in order to gain advancement in our career, financial or social status and any other endeavor).

As in all goals setting let’s address the main questions: Why, What, How and When

Why do we need Fulfillment goals?

We wish to set Fulfillment goals so we may feel fulfilled.

Just setting our goals is enough to increase our Fulfillment and bring us joy, that said it stands to reason that one who will set goals is more likely to achieve more and in so it becomes a positive cycle and so each step (setting goals, working towards goals, Fulfilling goals and repeat) builds on the previous and enhances it we go back to the basic principle - setting and working on our Fulfillment goals makes us Fulfilled.

What our Fulfillment goals should be?

Let’s begin with defining what we are looking for: we are looking for a set of goals that target the satisfaction from achievements as measured in external advances in life or progress against an internal goal, to illustrate let’s examine following examples:

• External goals:

  • Advance to director from a department manager position in 3 years

  • Increase sales YoY (year over year) by 12% 2024 vs 2023

  • Score 95 in the final exam of Algebra at end of semester exam

• Internal goals:

  • Manage a below than 50 average heartbeat during 10 minute meditation by end of year

  • Run 10 miles in less than 60 minutes by January 1st, 2024.

  • Read 50 books during 2025

It’s worth noting that “felling fulfilled” is a very personal experience with a wide range of triggers that both positively and negatively effect the outcome and although in the Fulfillment pillar we are aiming for external result one would be wise to follow the old age advise of the Stoics and Internalizing Your Goals and not focus solely on the external outcome for example for the goal of “being promoted to the next managerial position” check the criteria measured by the organization for consideration of candidates and set goals according to them in that case if there are no position being opened in the desired time frame or for some reason the position was opened and someone else is elected you receive 2 benefits:

1. If the outcome wasn’t achieved due to external factors outside our control we can still fill the fulfillment we aimed for due to the progress and actual results we got

2. We can still measure our results even for a binary outcome measurements

How and when to set our Fulfillment goals?

Follow the guidelines in the setting goal article here .

Now the only thing left to do is set the goals and go get them.