On Strategic Life Goals

Strategic life goals are those fuzzy goals that are hard to quantify, like “better humanity” and “create a legacy.” They’re your purpose in life. Everyone’s goals are different, and they may change overtime. Some folks even choose not to have broad overarching goals, and that’s fine. Me however, I need them. I need autonomy and I need to occupy myself on things I believe somehow matter. Goals create a road map for your life.

Strategic goals should not be confused with tactical goals. Tactical goals are things like “climb a mountain” whereas a strategic goal might be “experience nature to the fullest.” The tactic and act of climbing a mountain helps you achieve your broader strategic goal of experiencing nature to the fullest.

Everyones life goals will be different because we all have different world views, but here are some examples of broad strategic goals to get you thinking.

  • Feed the world’s hungry
  • Become exceedingly wealthy
  • Affect peoples lives with art
  • Entertain people
  • Help people
  • Rule the world
  • Be happy

You can probably think of much better examples than me, but you get the point.

Take the time to write down your life’s strategic goals, and reflect often on how you are achieving them. It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day grind and to-do lists and forget what you’re really trying to achieve.

In my attempt to measure my progress towards my strategic life goals, I’ve created a dashboard that attempts to mimic the behavior of unlocking achievements and leveling up in a video game. It’s certainly a work in progress, but you’re welcome to check it out on my Strategic Life Goals page.

What are your goals? How do you measure your success in achieving them?

7 thoughts on “On Strategic Life Goals

  1. This is very inspiring. I’m going to make a list myself and maybe even start a blog because of it. It’s very important for me to have life goals as well and I try breaking it down to tactical goals. I guess that’s the programmer mentality in us. I like the visuals associated with your goals too – makes them seem more tangible.

  2. For someone like me who hates making lists of goals, strategic or otherwise, this is pretty intimidating. I’m consoled by the fact that I totally kick your ass at travel so far.

  3. @Lee, Right on! Thanks. Yeah, could be the programer gene. 🙂

    @Alison, Man I love thinking about goals and making lists! :p Your road trip around the US probably puts you well ahead, and if we keep doing these group friend trips, I’m likely to never catch up!

  4. REALLY like that you did this and love the visual approach too. so, is your next step creating a list of tactical goals to achieve the strategic goals or do you prefer to let the strategic goals stand alone and guide you along the way?

  5. @David, Thanks! Yes, with the high level strategic goals in place, the next step is creating tactical goals that line up. However, my tactical goals tend to change often. The strategic goals are more static. My tactical goals are suitable for pen and pad. I probably won’t publish them like I did these strategic goals.

    Though, it might be kinda’ cool to plug in the things I want to do in my strategic goals dashboard, and fade them out. Like fake covers to books I want to write, and logos to web apps I want to make.

  6. I just bought your book on Amazon, and decided to check out your blog. This post couldn’t have hit me at a better time. I turned 35 the day after you posted this, and since then a lot has been going through my head about achieving my goals.

    Simple things like, I play guitar, but I want to play jazz guitar. I can’t read music, so I got a book, and am teaching myself.

    But this one “My goal is to make enough money that it becomes a non-issue to me and my family.” Really hit me. Money has always been an issue for us. I am a programmer, so I work on the side a lot, but it never seems like its enough. I always just planned on a web app taking off and making me rich. LOL. But seriously, I think what you said is a really good goal. To make money a non-issue.

    Looking forward to the book!

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