Not All Goals Are Created Equal
American poet Carl Sandberg wrote, “Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.”
What are you doing with your time, with your life? What goals are you pursuing? How would you define what your work is about, and how does that relate to your most important values?
Those questions are inspired by a discussion I had with Ed Deci, psychology professor at the University of Rochester, who studies which goals lead to happiness and which lead to unhappiness. His recent research in The Journal of Research in Personality with Richard Ryan and Christopher Niemiec looks at what happens when people strive for extrinsic goals (money, fame, personal image) versus intrinsic (good relationships, health, community involvement, personal growth.) See today’s Yahoo!Finance column for the full story.
Studies have found that setting goals around amassing money and material goods can have negative implications for mental health – everything from anxiety to depression. Critics have argued that of course someone would experience anxious moments in the quest for riches, because it’s actually pretty hard to amass wealth; once people grasp the brass ring, happiness would follow. (As Oprah recently told Duke’s graduating class: “…anyone that tells you that having your own private jet isn’t great is lying to you.”)
The new study tracked graduating college seniors for two years and looked at what happened when they achieved the extrinsic goals. The impact on well-being? Zero.
The research reminds me of how hard it is to strike a balance between making money and other important goals – health, relationships, community involvement, personal growth – and how easy it is to lose track of what’s important. “It’s the relative attainment of extrinsic versus intrinsic that’s problematic,” says Deci. “The problem really comes into play when the pursuit and attainment of extrinsic ‘American Dream’ goals is out of balance with intrinsic goals.”
What are your three most important goals? You can comment here or email me at laura at laurarowley.com.
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