163 Personal Goals Examples: Find a Goal to Aim At

Personal goals can guide your growth and keep life exciting, especially if you’re unsure what you want to do in life. Personal goals to travel the world, improve your finances, or build lasting friendships will give you the direction you need. In this article, you’ll find 163 personal goal examples, plus practical tips to help you set and achieve them. Let’s dive in!

Personal Development Goals for a Better You

Personal Development Goals

Improve your mindset, emotional intelligence, or resilience by setting and achieving personal development goals this year. These goals will reduce anxiety, increase your self-motivation and confidence, and will support everything else you want to get done. Habits like reading philosophy, self-help, frequent meditation and prayer, and weekly therapy or journal writing will spark profound changes in you and mold you into a stronger, better version of yourself who will be able to Face the Dragons of life and come back home victorious.

3 Simple Personal Growth Goals

  • Use an AI (like ChatGPT or Gemini) as a therapist in voice mode. “You’re a world renowned therapist tasked with optimizing my well-being by uncovering my past traumas, going deep into analysis about them helping me to bring them to the surface by discussing them and offering advice to overcome them and move on.”
  • Download a PKM app and build a second brain.
  • Read “Mindset” by Carol Dweck.
  1. Start a meditation practice
  2. Get therapy
  3. Pray everyday
  4. Read scripture
  5. Take a personality test
  6. Learn to use GTD
  7. Understand what makes you angry
  8. Come to grips with past trauma
  9. Apologize to someone you wronged
  10. Volunteer or do charity work
  11. Find work-life balance
  12. Make someone feel loved
  13. Quit social media for a month
  14. Help someone in need
  15. Discover your life’s purpose
  16. Overcome your fear
  17. Practice patience
  18. Wake up earlier
  19. Let go of beliefs that don’t serve you
  20. Let go of a long-held grudge
  21. Declutter your room or home
  22. Become a minimalist
  23. Make your bed every morning
  24. Create a morning routine
  25. Write a gratitude journal

Academic Goals to Expand Your Mind

Academic Goals

You might be aiming to complete a college degree, to learn a new language or just expand your working knowledge of the world. Sharpen your mind and open new doors to yourself with the academic goals below. LinkedIn’s 2021 Workplace Learning Report shows that continuous learning is one of the best ways to stay competitive in the job market, especially for young adults with less than a decade of experience. So, use the personal academic targets below to increase your earning potential and enhance your critical thinking – how else will you compete with AIs trying to take your job?

Get Smart Now!

  • Use Anki Plugins to supercharge your memory
  • Go Monk Mode in 2025 (with a stack of books)
  • Enroll on an online course – Hillsdale online college courses are free!
  1. Read Homer’s Illiad and Odessey
  2. Read Virgil’s Aeneid
  3. Read The Complete Shakespeare
  4. Read Beowolf
  5. Read the Greek philosophers
  6. Read the whole Bible
  7. Graduate college
  8. Get a master’s degree
  9. Get a doctorate
  10. Read a book a week
  11. Learn to read Latin
  12. Learn to read ancient Greek
  13. Learn a foreign language
  14. Learn Jungian psychology
  15. Read Freud
  16. Relearn high school math
  17. Learn a scripting language (bash, python, p)
  18. Learn a web language (HTML, CSS, PHP, Javascript)
  19. Learn a programming language (C++, Java, .net)
  20. Write a novel
  21. Write a memoir
  22. Publish a poem
  23. Understand Einstein’s theories

Travel Goals for Personal Growth

Travel Goals

The travel goals below will expand your worldview and boost your sense of self while creating once-in-a-lifetime memories you will never forget! A 2019 American Psychological Association study found that international travel can significantly reduce stress and promote mental well-being.

As someone who left home at 20 and spent two decades in Asia, traveling around India, China, Nepal, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Korea, and Indonesia, I know how setting clear travel objectives can aid you in acquiring languages, gaining new perspectives, and building resilience. Even if it seems a pipedream right now, set the goals and start with the three actionable points below.

Actionable & Immediate Travel Goals

  • Start a Travel Savings Jar
  • Go to your local campsite tonight
  • Explore a new part of town
  1. Trek to Everest Base Camp
  2. Walk the Great Wall of China
  3. Visit Buddha’s birthplace in Lumbini
  4. See the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem
  5. Explore Angkor Watt
  6. Explore Machu Picchu
  7. See the Great Pyramid
  8. See the Northern Lights
  9. Discover the culture of Bali
  10. Scale Kilimanjaro in Tanzania
  11. See the Grand Canyon
  12. Visit Stone Henge
  13. Visit Anne Frank’s house in Amsterdam
  14. Visit Cambridge University
  15. Find Platform 9 3/4 in King’s Cross London
  16. Hold up The Leaning Tower of Pisa
  17. Play Golf in Las Vegas
  18. Visit the Colosseum in Rome
  19. Explore the Parthenon in Athens
  20. See the Old Man of Hoy in the Scottish Highlands
  21. Step foot on every continent
  22. Drink coffee with a view of the Eiffel Tower
  23. Smoke a Cuban cigar in Havana
  24. Taste Sushi in Tokyo
  25. Flee from Bulls in Pamplona
  26. Experience Holi in Jaipur
  27. See the Dali Lama in Dharamshala
  28. Awe at Cliffside temples in Bhutan
  29. Spend three days in London
  30. Drink a beer (or two) at Oktoberfest in Munich
  31. Explore the markets of Marakesh
  32. Look down on the world in the Burge Kalifa in Dubai
  33. Explore the ancient Laotian royal capital of Luang Prabang
  34. Get a tattoo in Hong Kong
  35. Look down on Cape Town from Table Mountain
  36. Survive in the Amazon Rainforest
  37. Visit the Sherpa capital of Namche Bazaar in Nepal
  38. Learn kung fu at The Shaolin Temple
  39. Cross the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco
  40. Visit the 9/11 Memorial
  41. Visit Buckingham Palace
  42. Drink a Guinness in Dublin
  43. Tour the Wine growing region in France
  44. Eat Pizza in Napoli
  45. Visit the birthplace of Humanity – Ethiopia
  46. Visit Bob Marley’s house in Jamaica
  47. Visit Hemingway’s house in Cuba
  48. Learn Karate in Okinawa
  49. Visit every country on the planet
  50. See Kangaroos in Australia
  51. Go on a cruise
  52. Camp under the stars

Personal Finance Goals for a Secure Future

Personal Finance Goals

Start with the quick financial wins below – you can do them right now, then look to set some long-term finance goals that will set you up for a future where student loans are paid off, you have no credit card debt, and you have money left over at the end of the month.

Short-term financial objectives like building a $1,000 emergency fund will put you ahead of your peers. Paying off your mortgage early or building a second (or third) income stream

Quick Finance Wins

  • Download a budgeting app like Mint or YNAB
  • Setup an auto-transfer from your current account to your savings account every month on payday
  • Open a brokerage account such as Fidelity, Robinhood, or E-Trade
  1. Be debt free
  2. Pay off your mortgage
  3. Buy a second home
  4. Buy a holiday home
  5. Flip a home for profit
  6. FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early)
  7. Have a $1,000 cash emergency fund
  8. Invest in the stock market
  9. Own a Berkshire Hathaway share
  10. Own a bar of gold
  11. Start a side hustle or side gig
  12. Invest in bitcoin
  13. Track your spending for a month
  14. Earn passive income
  15. Have enough savings to retire
  16. Read 10 personal finance books
  17. Max out your 401(K)
  18. Live on a dollar a day for a year
  19. Give 10% of your salary to charity
  20. Save half of what you earn
  21. Open a savings account for your child’s college tuition
  22. Achieve multiple income streams
  23. Get a raise

Personal Fitness Goals for a Healthier Lifestyle

Fitness Goals

My number one tip for anyone looking to make massive progress in the gym is keep a workout log, measure what matters!

As an experienced competitive kickboxer, I never had much problem staying motivated to work out, however, it wasn’t until I started getting serious about improving my strength with weightlifting that I saw huge changes in ring. Short daily workouts can lead to massive changes with time. Use the personal fitness goals below to stay motivated, build consistency and achieve the healthy lifestyle you always knew you could.

No Thought Required Strength & Fitness Goals You Can Start Now

  • 25,000 pushups in a year
  • Join “Starting Strength” (5×5 program)
  • Choose a Martial Art
  1. Lift a two-plate bench press (225lbs, 100kg)
  2. Squat three plates (315lbs, 140kg)
  3. Set up a home gym
  4. Join a gym
  5. Buy a sauna
  6. Run a marathon
  7. Become a black belt in BJJ
  8. Compete in a boxing/MMA match
  9. Do the front splits
  10. Do the side splits
  11. Run a five-minute mile
  12. Do yoga every day for a year
  13. 1m Box jump
  14. Complete an Iron Man
  15. Start the ketogenic diet
  16. Cycle 100 miles
  17. Get a six-pack
  18. Compete in a bodybuilding competition
  19. Gain 10lbs of muscle in a year
  20. Lose 20lbs of fat in a year
  21. Start a running habit
  22. start a yoga practice

Social Life Goals to Strengthen Relationships

Social Life Goals

Social connections are one of the best predictors of long-term satisfaction and overall health. Harvard came to that conclusion after an 80-year study! Young adults build friendships that often last the rest of their lives, so if you’re 18-35, use the goals below to make more meaningful relationships, and if you’re older, contact some of those friends you made back then – or go make some new ones!

Quick Wins for Social Bliss

  • Call an elderly family member now
  • Delete Facebook friends you don’t know
  • Add birthday reminders to your calendar
  1. Get Married
  2. Have Children
  3. Meet new people
  4. Teach your child to read
  5. Become a better listener
  6. Wear matching outfits with your partner
  7. Build a treehouse for your children
  8. Take your parents away on vacation
  9. Go into business with a friend
  10. Spend more time with your family
  11. Create a Sunday dinner tradition at your house for your extended family/friends
  12. Choose your children over work
  13. Make a new friend
  14. Homeschool your children
  15. Remove the toxic people from your life
  16. Start a weekly tradition with your friends
  17. Reconnect with an old friend
  18. Arrange a reunion for your school friends

Essential Tips to Set and Achieve Your Personal Goals

How to Use the SMART Framework for Personal Goals

The SMART goal framework (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Timely) has been embraced by productivity experts for decades because it transforms vague wishes into actionable plans. Originating from a 1981 paper by George T. Doran, the SMART method proves its worth in everything from personal development to corporate objectives.

A SMART goal is one that is:

  • Specific
  • Measurable
  • Actionable
  • Realistic
  • Timely

SMART Goal Example in Action

To turn an idea into a SMART goal, go through these steps. Let’s use the idea of:

“I want to lose weight.”

  1. Make it Specific – I want to lose belly fat
  2. Make it Measurable – I want to lose 40lbs of belly fat
  3. Make it Actionable – I want to go on the ketogenic diet until I’ve lost 40lbs of belly fat
  4. Make it Realistic – I want to go on the ketogenic diet until I’ve lost 20lbs of belly fat
  5. Make it Timely – I want to go on the ketogenic diet until I’ve lost 20lbs of belly fat, starting today

Of course, you don’t need to use the SMART system for every goal you set, instead use it as a framework to improve your goals. When you set a new goal, go through the five steps and ask yourself, would this goal be better if it was more specific, measurable, etc?

Of the five steps, the most effective by far is Actionable; it’s so easy to set a goal like traveling morereading the classics, or starting a business, but a goal like this isn’t very easy to put into action. It’s hard to see what doing those goals actually looks like, and so, when you try to work on them, you may fall at the first hurdle.

Changing those goals to actionable goals like visiting Rome, reading Paradise Lost, or starting a blog about cats makes it much more likely that you’ll achieve them.

Balancing Short-Term and Long-Term Personal Goals

You need a good mix of long and short-term goals to keep you motivated and making progress. Don’t make too many goals that require ten or more years to achieve. While it’s great to have an endpoint in mind, goals that seem too far off lack the motivating energy to work hard at them today.

Instead, use goal milestones that you want to hit on the way to your long-term goal. If your goal is to retire in ten years, that’s great, but will that keep you working hard every day for the next ten years? Perhaps an intermediate goal, such as setting up a passive income stream this year or saving $25k this year, would add some urgency and energy and still keep you on track for your long-term vision.

How Many Personal Goals Should You Focus on at Once?

I think you should have at least one goal for each area of your life, if you don’t then either you are completely satisfied in that area or you’ve lost all hope that that area of your life will ever improve.

Warren Buffet supposedly recommends having only 5 goals to work on at any one time, which I think is good advice if you want to make massive progress on your goals. Too many goals will spread you too thin, and too few will make you one-dimensional.

Remember, you don’t need to be actively working on all your goals. You may have a goal to learn to juggle or speak Spanish, but that doesn’t mean you should be working on it now. Keeping a someday maybe list with goals for the future can be freeing and let you record all the things you want to do without the burden of feeling that you need to be doing them all. Make a bucket list with personal goals you want to check off before you die if that’s more your style.

Take Action on Your Personal Goals Today

So go through the different areas of your life or the topics above, and pick some goals that you want to achieve. Then when you’re done, decide on which goals to work on this year.

Gregory J. Gaynor

Meet Gregory, the writer & brains behind Face Dragons. He's the go-to guy for getting things done.

Gregory's been living the digital nomad life in Asia for as long as anyone can remember, helping clients smash their goals. He writes on topics like software, personal knowledge management (PKM), and personal development. When he's not writing, you'll catch him at the local MMA gym, nose buried in a book, or just chilling with the family.