What You Need to Know About Goal Achievement – Hope & Types of Goals (PsyCap 6)

Have you ever wanted something, but felt there is no point in trying? Or maybe you knew what to do but didn’t have the mental energy or motivation to act. Perhaps there was a time when you had no idea how to handle a particular situation and wanted to give up. In this article we cover a PsyCap component called hope. With hope you not only have the motivational energy to take action, but will also be confident in your ability to handle situations and succeed with goal achievement.

Hope is a positive goal-oriented, motivational state comprised of agency and pathway thoughts. Both components are crucial for goal achievement.

1.) Agency refers to one’s belief in their ability to reach their goals. This motivational component of hope provides the mental energy needed to begin a course of action (willpower).

2.) Pathway refers to one’s ability to map out the steps and if necessary alternative routes for goal achievement (waypower).

Hope is similar to a train running on tracks. Pathway thoughts are like train tracks that lead to your destination. Agency thoughts are the train itself. If you have a well-defined pathway, it is of no avail unless you have the motivation to act. You need both for goal achievement.

Poweful benefits of hope include:

• Stronger sense of meaning in life
• More positive emotions
• Less depression and anxiety
• Academic success – hope is even a better predictor of academic success than intelligence, previous academic performance or personality
• More productivity at work – hope accounts for about 14% of work productivity, which is even more than intelligence, optimism or self-efficacy. This means high hope individuals get about 1 hour more of work done per day than those who are less hopeful
• Longer life expectancy

Common Goal Frameworks for Goal Achievement

To enhance hopeful thinking, it is crucial to understand what kinds of goals there are. Furthermore, it is important to consider which of these goals are most likely to unleash the motivational power necessary for goal achievement in your situation.

There are several frameworks that categorize the kinds of goals that exist. The following is a simple overview of the main categorizations in the business and psychology literature. We will use these as a basis for the hope development exercises covered in the next lessons.

Approach, Avoidance, Maintenance and Enhancement Goals

Approach Goals

Such goals refer to attaining to a new outcome – What do you want to achieve that you currently do not have? For example, my goal is to be team lead and gain my first leadership experience.

Avoidance Goals

These goals refer to deterring things that you don’t want to take place – What is something that you do not have and that you do not want? For example, I do not want to miss my quarterly target.

Maintenance Goals

Such goals refer to sustaining what has already been achieved or maintaining the status quo – What is something that you have that you would like to keep? For example, I am satisfied with the number of hours I work and do not want to do overtime.

Enhancement Goals

These goals refer to reaching a new level or making further progress in a particular area. Have you achieved something and now want to continue even further? For example, I reached a certain level of language proficiency and would like to advance to the next level.

Promotion and Prevention Goals for Goal Achievement

Promotion goals tend to focus on achievement, accomplishment, or growth. They are about maximizing gains and doing what is necessary to move towards a desired outcome.

Prevention goals on the other hand are more about steering clear of danger and fulfilling responsibilities to prevent negative outcomes. It is more about what not to do so you don’t end up in trouble.

For example, a promotion focused manager may regularly give feedback and actively develop their team members’ skills so that they can reach their full potential and perform better. A prevention focused manager may aim to eliminate red tape or make sure that the workload is not overwhelming so that employees do not quit. Both strategies can be beneficial and are not mutually exclusive. However, a manager who focuses on developing their employees will probably have better results than a manager who merely aims to keep their employees from quitting.

Promotion focused employees may do a good job and overperform so that they can reach a desired outcome. This may be a financial reward or gaining more responsibility. By contrast, prevention focused employees may aim to reach their targets to avoid a poor performance review.

Performance and Learning (Mastery) Goals

Performance goals as the name implies focus on task performance. They direct attention, energy, and effort towards reaching a measurable outcome. For example, increasing market share by 10% or decreasing the time it takes to carry out a task by 20%.

Learning goals (also known as mastery goals) in contrast do not focus on the outcome or end-result, but rather acquiring skills and knowledge or identifying strategies necessary for reaching desired outcomes. Hence, attention, energy and effort is directed towards learning. For example, your company would like to build up a strong presence on social media. A learning goal would be to research the social media platforms and corresponding strategies that best fit your company’s profile and target group.

It is a mistake to set high performance goals when the skills or knowledge needed for reaching these are lacking or insufficient. It is more effective to first set learning goals that enable one to reach the performance goals.

Meaningful Goals

You can set goals that align with your core values, important relationships, fundamental beliefs, attitudes, or identity. Having goals that are meaningful or important to you increases your commitment and thereby the probability of success. For example, if you are passionate about sharing knowledge, the prospect of taking on a mentor role will be much more motivating for you than for someone who is more focused on reaching their own performance targets.

Outcome, Performance and Process Goals

This framework originally comes from the field of athletics but can also be applied to the business context or personal development.

Outcome goals focus on the results of a particular event in which success is often based on social comparison. For example, being selected as employee of the year or winning a competition. Other outcome goals may include reaching a yearly revenue target or developing a new vaccine faster than the competition.

Performance goals are based on achieving standards that are needed to reach the outcome goal. These standards are absolute in nature and include things like reaching your monthly revenue target or completing a certain number of vaccine trials.

Process goals refer to behaviors or actions that are implemented when pursuing performance goals. They support performance goals and are completely under your control. Process goals can be considered the tiny steps that make huge difference in the end. These may include conducting a certain number of cold calls per day to pitch your product. In the case of developing a vaccine, this may include recruiting participants for the clinical trial.

These three kinds of goals have a linear relationship. Process goals are needed to achieve performance goals which in turn lead to reaching outcome goals. The following example links these three kinds of goals together.

Let’s say your outcome goal is to be promoted from regular level to senior level. Performance goals may included showing leadership potential by mentoring two junior employees and always giving meaningful contributions in team meetings. Process goals may inclued meeting with those you are mentoring twice a week and spending 30 minutes to prepare for each team meeting.

Setting Goals Based on Perceived Difficulty and Factors in Your Environment

Another important consideration when aiming to increase hopeful thinking is your perception of the goal’s difficulty. Goals that are too easy or seem too difficult are not very motivating. On the other hand, ambitious, but nevertheless realistic goals are most likely to energize you. With such goals you feel motivated to exert effort as there is a high probability of growth and success.

Environmental factors to consider include:

1. Potential obstacles and distractions
2. Support network
3. Access to necessary resources
4. Amount of time you can dedicate
5. Potential conflicting goals or immediate needs that would make achieving this goal unlikely

Summary

In this post we covered hope and its two components of agency and pathway thoughts. By developing this personal resource, you will feel more motivated to reach your goals (willpower). Furthermore, you will also feel more equipped for goal achievement (waypower). If you want to reach a goal, it can be helpful to consider what kind of goal it is. For this reason, we reviewed some of the most popular goal frameworks. By identifying the nature of the goal, you can better plan how to reach this goal and avoid possible pitfalls. In the next article, we will learn how to set goals so that success is the most likely outcome!

Resources

Cheavens, J. S., Feldman, D. B., Woodward, J. T., & Snyder, C. R. (2006). Hope in cognitive psychotherapies: On working with client strengths. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy, 20, 135–145.

Dekker, J., V. de Groot, A.M. Ter Steeg, J. Vloothuis, J. Holla, E. Collette, T. Satink, L. Post, S. Doodeman, and E. Littooij. 2020. Setting meaningful goals in rehabilitation: Rationale and practical tool. Clinical Rehabilitation 34 (1): 3–12.

Kingston, K. M., & Hardy, L. (1997). The effects of different types of goals on the processes that support performance. The Sport Psychologist, 11, 277–293.

Molden, D. C., & Dweck, C. S. (2006). Finding “meaning” in psychology. A lay theories approach to self-regulation, social perception, and social development. American Psychologist, 61, 192–203.

Seijts G.H., & Latham G.P. 2005. Learning versus performance goals: When should each be used? Academy of Management Executive, 19: 124-131.

Snyder, C. R., Feldman, D. B., Taylor, J. D., Schroeder, L L, & Adams III, V. (2000). The roles of hopeful thinking in preventing problems and promoting strengths. Applied & Preventive Psychology: Current Scientific Perspectives, 9, 249-26