Value-Driven Goal Setting: Improving Motivation and Decision Making

Who Can Benefit?

Value-driven goal setting is particularly beneficial for individuals who struggle with motivation, decision paralysis, perfectionism, or procrastination. This approach focuses on aligning your actions with your core values, helping to simplify decision-making and boost motivation.

How to Create a Value-Driven Goal Board

  1. Identify Your Core Values: If you’re feeling overwhelmed by your responsibilities, take ten minutes to reflect on what truly matters to you. Consider questions like: When are you happiest? What contributes to that happiness? What are you most proud of? Write down these values as they come to mind.
  2. Prioritise Your Values: Review the values you’ve listed. For example, you might write down values like knowledge, wellbeing, achievement, and friendship. Highlight the value that is most important to you right now.
  3. Set Achievable Goals: Based on your prioritised value, come up with five specific, measurable actions you can take to work toward this goal. These steps can be small or large, but they should be realistic and attainable. For example:
    • Knowledge: Read a book or watch a documentary on a topic of interest.
    • Wellbeing: Commit to a daily five-minute meditation or take a ten-minute walk each day.
    • Achievement: Attend all your classes this week or complete an assignment plan.
    • Friendship: Invite a friend to a movie or attend a social event.
  4. Create Your Goal Board: Write down your five goals on a separate piece of paper with your prioritised value at the top. Place this goal board somewhere you can see it daily, such as on your desk or refrigerator.
  5. Track Your Progress: As you complete each goal, cross it off your list. Once you’ve achieved all five goals, reflect on your progress and set new goals that continue to align with your core values.
  6. Expand as Needed: If you’re feeling confident, you can work towards multiple value-driven goal sets at once. However, it’s often best to start with one to avoid feeling overwhelmed.

The Science Behind Value-Driven Goal Setting

Setting and pursuing goals based on your core values engages the prefrontal cortex, which is involved in decision-making and goal-setting. This process helps reduce anxiety by creating clear intentions and overcoming the brain’s tendency to fall into negative routines. By focusing on what’s most important to you, top-down decision making suppresses irrelevant information, enhances focus, and makes decision-making more efficient. Engaging in value-driven goal setting strengthens the prefrontal cortex, helping to rebalance brain regions that can contribute to decision paralysis and procrastination.

Reference

Korb, A. (2015). The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time. New Harbinger Publications.

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