Have you ever asked someone how they were doing and they responded, “I'm having Groundhog Day”? Or have you ever reacted this way yourself?
This common response signals that you are not getting what you want from life . You are on autopilot and you don’t have a clear idea in which direction to develop.
In the whirlpool of things to do, you could simply forget what you really want, what you are moving towards. Dedicate more time to your family or get a promotion.
You can get carried away by the process and not notice the ups and downs, or passively go with the flow, and even despair of getting what you want from life.
Setting goals in major areas of life is a powerful process for creating an ideal future , and the motivation to turn this idea into reality.
Having a clear idea of what you want to achieve will give you better guidance when deciding where to focus your efforts.
Directing your own internal resources towards results will allow you to do what you love professionally. You will not be distracted by unimportant factors, improving your skills. Thus, the result will be effective.
Concept of life activity
This concept is used in connection with the maintenance and preservation of human life. In this sense, life activity is understood as a set of processes that ensure the flow of biological processes in the human body. However, people are not only biological individuals, but also social beings. Therefore, the concept of life activity is also interpreted as our activity within the framework of public life. From this perspective, various spheres of human life are highlighted. And the concept of life activity is used not only in its literal meaning, but also in an expanded understanding. In this case, it is worth paying attention to the etymology of the term. Its first root denotes the form of existence of matter, but in addition to its biological meaning, it has a broader interpretation. In this case, life refers to the period of someone’s existence (for example, a person’s life from birth to death). There is another meaning for this word - the fullness of the manifestation of spiritual and physical strength. In this sense, life is opposed to existence.
The second root of the term in question is also polysemantic. In psychology, activity is understood as a person’s meaningful and purposeful interaction with the world. There are several main types of activities: communication, work, play, learning. Thus, this term can be interpreted as a person’s interaction with the world, occurring in different forms throughout its existence.
Objectives and plans. When to start working?
Life is determined not only by the internal essence (the human body, soul, intellect, intuition), but also by external factors: resources that reflect capabilities. The full implementation of both most effectively shapes the personality. By filling our being with activity, we strive to acquire values, as well as preserve them. It is they, along with vocation, that determine the true tasks of life. So what is the starting point? Having realized your purpose, you should create your own list of goals in life. And also check what this list means for the meaning of life and begin to implement it.
Biological activity
Within the framework of biology and the theory of life safety, this concept is understood as a set of biological processes that support human life. In this aspect, metabolism is important as a certain set of chemical reactions that supports the flow of life. Another concept that is associated with biological life is homeostasis. It means the system’s ability to self-regulate, to maintain stability and dynamic balance. In this interpretation, the main spheres of human life include production and household areas. In them, a person obtains his means of subsistence and ensures the renewal of his own resources in the process of rest and work.
Social life
In addition to the biological idea of life in the humanities, we can talk about the social aspect of this phenomenon. Within the framework of social relations, population reproduction occurs, and people are provided with the necessary resources to meet their needs. Man is not only a biological system. He also exists in society and this makes him a person with specific needs and requirements. To be satisfied, to develop harmoniously, a person needs various areas to apply his strength. The realization of a person in different spheres is a condition for the fullness of his life and happiness. All spheres of human activity must be harmoniously interconnected.
Goal setting methods
The technology for converting a task from ordinary to smart (SMART) was discussed above. Methods for achieving goals, as well as setting them, are presented in greater variety. Let's look at a number of other popular practices.
- The goal frame connects the unconscious: the intention is processed in a form that is attractive to all facets of a person’s personality (physiology, intelligence, spirituality). The result of understanding the goals is agreement between them. After this, resources are turned on: consciousness and subconsciousness. Efficiency increases significantly, which predetermines rapid progress towards implementation.
- Brian Tracy's methodology is a 7-step training.
- The Jose Silva technique helps control the mind, increasing performance. The technology for processing goals is the joint work of both hemispheres of the brain. The author recommends programming the necessary events and then acting.
- The way to achieve your goals is reality transurfing, which gives the process power. A person must choose a version of events, imagine what he wants, and create an intention for implementation. After this, the task is transferred to external targets. And this fact works to create the required events. A person practically does not need to spend working time for implementation. The main thing is to find the desired reality.
Spheres of life
There are several approaches to identifying the basic areas in which a person realizes himself and in which he provides himself with the necessary resources and means for existence. The traditional approach reveals five areas:
- material production;
- axiological;
- scientific, or the production of theoretical knowledge;
- political or management of social processes;
- social sphere of human life.
Each of the identified spheres has its own specific features and plays a different role in human life.
In psychology, it is customary to distinguish the following areas of human activity: physical, social, intellectual and spiritual. Sociologists add legal and political to the above areas. Each of the discovered areas of human activity has a special significance in human life. In the theory of human self-realization, there are 7 key areas of his activity: spiritual and personal growth, health, career, finances, relationships and brightness of life.
Physical sphere
This area is often called the most important, because it is the one that is associated with the continuation of human existence. The basic concept in this area is health. A person must maintain his health and provide his body with the necessary resources. However, by focusing only on the physical aspects of his life, a person will lose the spiritual and social principles that make him human. Therefore, the physical sphere is certainly important, but cannot be called the most important in human development.
Health goals
Setting health goals is a critical part of living a long and fulfilling life. It is important to understand that there are many factors that affect your overall health. You should set goals for your physical health, eating habits, stress levels and life balance.
You must first evaluate where you are right now in all of these areas of overall health, and then determine where you want to be. Maybe you want to lose 50 kg or stop eating fast food or even spend one day a week “unplugged” from all technology to relax.
Start by looking at your current physical health statistics: sleep and exercise, fitness levels, nutrition, emotional well-being, illnesses, bad habits you may have (such as smoking or drinking alcohol).
Look at the areas that need improvement and do some research on the topic to create effective goals. Losing 50 pounds in one month is neither realistic nor sustainable, let alone a healthy lifestyle, and with the right research you will not achieve such a goal that will not last long.
Your research will also help you have realistic expectations. For example, if your goal is to quit smoking, you can learn what it might take for the craving to go away within about three months. With this information in hand, you can be more mentally prepared for this battle.
If you can take an objective look at where you are versus where you want to be in regards to your health, you will do what it takes to live a longer, more comfortable life.
Social sphere
This area includes relationships between people, groups, classes, and institutions. Traditionally, the social sphere is associated with public institutions: social services, education systems, housing and communal services, healthcare, etc. The production and reproduction of people requires the satisfaction of various needs. And for this, a person needs various benefits created in various spheres of life. Society is the environment in which we spend our entire lives. Therefore, the social aspects of human activity are associated with the functioning of basic institutions, with the social roles of a person, with his belonging to certain classes and groups. However, society as a sphere of human life is connected, first of all, with relationships between people, although interaction with institutions is of great importance. For human development, it is extremely important to build harmonious connections with others.
Career goals
The average person spends 90,000 hours working over the course of their life . So this is a critical area of your life where satisfaction is key. This is the part of your life where you need to break down your big goal (like becoming a lawyer) into much smaller goals. Create a career plan and then write down the short-term actions you need to take to complete that plan.
For example, if you want to eventually become a lawyer, some short-term goals associated with this would include studying, developing skills, practicing, gaining experience, and obtaining all the necessary degrees.
Each of these short-term goals is then broken down into several tasks. When it comes to learning, you can start talking to three experienced lawyers over the next week to come up with a list of recommended books to read, famous cases to study, seminars to attend, etc.
When it comes to skill development, set a goal to spend at least 30 minutes a day working on self-improvement . This can be either an individual motivation or communication or borrowing experience. Planning can be done by reading books on lateral thinking, the Five Whys technique (which can lead to the creation of a continuous improvement habit), or working on developing a problem-solving mindset (which includes objectivity, developing a plan, creativity, and flexibility).
The point is that each step towards achieving your ultimate goal of becoming a lawyer will include many mini-goals that can be checked off as you achieve them so that you can stay motivated and feel like you are making progress.
After that, you must follow your career plan. You will find that it constantly requires revision, improvement and development. You may encounter bumps in the road or need to switch to some activities that don't necessarily work for you. This is part of the stages of assessing and adjusting to smarter goals that are important when you are looking to build a career.
Intellectual sphere
When considering the spheres of human life, it is impossible to ignore the area of production of thoughts, ideas, and images. The intellectual sphere usually includes professional development, setting life goals, reflection on the meaning of life, working with emotions, cognitive and creative activities. This area is also associated with the consumption of intellectual products produced by other people. A person must develop his thinking, since satisfaction with the existing state of affairs, its values, and the meaningfulness of life depend on this.
Spiritual realm
If you ask the question about which areas of human life are the most significant, then perhaps this area should be put in first place. It includes relationships and activities in the process of creating and consuming spiritual values, as well as their distribution and preservation. This area includes cultural institutions: theaters, museums, educational institutions, libraries. The components of spiritual activity are considered to be values and needs of a higher order. Within the framework of this form of activity, a person generates new images, ideas, produces works of art, new theories and views, and norms. This area also includes spiritual connections between people.
List of goals
Having become familiar with the directions, let’s consider what the tasks themselves might be. There is SMART technology, the name of which is translated from English as “smart”. That is, intentions should not be vague, they must be clearly formulated. If you form them using the SMART method, and also coordinate with each other, they will compare favorably with ordinary “vague” desires.
The list of intentions created regarding the areas of life and activity identified as paramount and necessary will turn into an intellectual program. Such an action plan (achieving goals, a step-by-step system) will help correlate the assigned tasks with reality. And also consider the degree of their ambition.
One example is the common desire to lose weight. To turn it into a SMART goal, you need to give yourself an account of the existing initial circumstances. If a man, at his height, has an excessive body weight of 100 kg, he should know what weight he needs to reach. Next, the time it takes to lose weight to 85 kg (the required value) is calculated. Taking into account individual capabilities, self-control and holidays with feasts, the man expects that he needs 4 months.
The goal became measurable and oriented, as did its new formulation. Namely: “My weight by such and such a date should be 85 kg or less.” Having finished forming a goal regarding physiology, we move on to well-being. For example, the goal “I need to improve housing for my family” is not well defined. To register it using SMART technology, we indicate what we currently have and what kind of housing we want to get. We also evaluate our financial capabilities.
In this way, you can correlate all your claims with the reality of the present and future, putting them into a single list in the most important areas of existence.
Legal area
The condition for preserving society is respect for the rights of citizens and responsibility for their violation. Legal relations are established between people, as well as in relations between a person and the state. They are designed to regulate relations between citizens, protect their rights and freedoms, and ensure social justice. Regulatory mechanisms are divided into prohibitive and permissive. Elements of law penetrate into many other areas of human activity. According to spheres of life, human rights are divided into civil, social, political, economic and cultural. Respect for rights ensures the legal status of the individual and forms in citizens a responsible attitude towards various types of their activities.
Some clarifications
Selection of spheres. The suggested number and composition of spheres are suitable for most people. However, someone can choose their own areas if their life priorities differ from those proposed.
Sector sizes. In the figure, the sizes of the sectors are the same. But in reality, each person has his own “sizes”. For example, the career sector may matter more than the environment sector. In this case, you can draw them in different sizes so that when looking at the drawing the priorities are clear.
Don't downplay the unpleasant. A common mistake is not being honest with yourself and downplaying unpleasant moments. However, it is worth being realistic in your assessments and this is what will help you set the right goals and correct shortcomings.
Incorrect estimates. This is the opposite of the previous point. For example, if you have non-dangerous stomach problems, say gastritis, but otherwise your health is more or less normal, then you should not give yourself a low rating in this sector. That is, take into account a small number of factors. Your arms, legs, head and much more remain healthy and this needs to be taken into account.
Periodic review. It is advisable to review the wheel periodically so you can see your progress. Additionally, your priorities and values may change over time.
Political sphere
Human life requires interaction with the state. To exist effectively, society needs management and power. The political sphere of activity is associated with pressure on people in order to submit to established norms and rules. The content of this sphere is considered to be the interaction of subjects (state, political elites, people) in order to satisfy people's needs for order, protection, and security. Also, the political sphere is associated with the implementation of the rights and freedoms of citizens. The components of this sphere are political institutions, political consciousness, rights and norms, and political actions.
Financial goals
Setting financial goals is a critical part of achieving financial security. Without setting specific goals, you risk being reckless with your money. This can lead to problems when you face unexpected expenses or prepare to retire.
Reviewing your financial goals each year and updating them as needed will help you track your progress from the previous year and stay in a strong financial position that will eliminate the stress associated with life's inevitable expenses.
When it comes to finances, it's important to set short-, medium- and long-term goals . Setting short-term goals will provide you with the fundamental knowledge you need to have to achieve your long-term goals.
Creating a budget and determining a target amount of money to be in your emergency fund over the next 6 months is a good place to start. When you sit down and look at your income versus your expenses, you may be surprised at how much money you spend (or waste) in a certain area of your life. You can track expenses and funds to pay off any debt obligations in X months.
Once you get your finances in order and earn more than you spend each month, you can start with more moderate goals, such as paying off student loans or buying life insurance. Or you could set a goal to buy a home within the next year—these are things to keep in mind when considering your medium-term financial goals. Moderate planning will help you see the future more clearly.
To achieve your long-term financial goals, you really want to think about retirement. For example, there are plans to open a business.
How much will it cost you each year to live the life you want to live? At what age do you want to retire? What strategies can you use to increase your retirement savings?
These are all things to consider when making your long-term financial goals, and it's often helpful to consult with a financial advisor to get some guidance on these decisions.
Although you may not make steady progress when it comes to achieving your financial goals, it is important to be consistent in your efforts. You may have to adjust your plan if you lose your job or face a high medical bill, but as long as you get back on track, you'll be making progress toward your financial goals.
Sphere of material production
For a prosperous existence, people need many material items that provide comfort and satisfaction of basic needs. The material sphere of human life is characterized by a variety of activities in the production of consumer goods, without which human life would be under threat. This area is often synonymous with the concept of “work activity”. It is possible to highlight the technical and technological aspect and production relations. The first is associated with the use of practical human skills to create various objects and products. And the latter are a social form of labor, which makes the production process itself possible. This area is interesting because within its framework a person not only provides himself with the necessary things and products, but also achieves self-realization and development of his potential.
Sphere of production of theoretical knowledge
When asking the question of what spheres of human activity modern society includes, one cannot help but mention a special sphere - scientific. Since the 17th century, scientific knowledge and exploration of the world has become an increasingly important area of application of human intellectual potential. Scientific knowledge is necessary in order to describe the current state of affairs, find its causes and make predictions. Scientific knowledge allows a person to comprehend the objective laws of the surrounding world. As a field of activity, science is also an area in which a person can realize and develop his potential and achieve self-realization. Science also aims to offer new ways to meet people's urgent needs.
Household purposes
If your home situation is in disarray, you most likely live in a constant state of stress or rush. You can help yourself stay on track with organizing goals to get your life in order and make sure it stays that way.
An example of an organizational goal is to spend 3 hours a month cleaning your home: closet, kitchen, office, living room, garage, car, any space where you spend a lot of time and things start to accumulate. You can keep a calendar to ensure you stay on track with organizational goals to help you organize your daily life.
Think about a physical area that is causing stress. You may be afraid of not having time or not being able to solve all everyday issues. Because of this, things pile up, and you need to start with the little things. Cleaning the windowsill will stimulate inspiration to do a long-delayed bathroom renovation.
Axiological sphere
Acting in various spheres of life, people are also engaged in creating values and evaluating the results of work, the process of activity, and relationships between people. A person in various spheres of life determines the significance of certain phenomena and things. He evaluates how much they contribute to meeting the needs of the individual and society, how they help people realize their potential and achieve their life goals. Activities for the formation of values usually take place in groups, but the formulated values influence the life of each individual person. They enable people to make their lives meaningful and meaningful.
