The Connection Between Your Goals and Your Psychological Health
Your goals and your psychological health have a direct connection. Not in a way you don’t control either. There connected in a specific way that will allow you to improve your mental health if you choose. Specifically, this connection is through the type of goals you choose to pursue.
Researchers from the University of Rochester found a significant difference between two types of goals: intrinsic goals and extrinsic goals.
- Intrinsic Goal Examples: Personal growth, close relationships, community involvement, physical health
- Extrinsic Goal Examples: Money, job titles, fame, material goods
What these researchers found was simple. Those who attain intrinsic goals have better psychological health than those who only attain extrinsic goals. In the conclusion of the research it states:
Attainment of the intrinsic aspirations for personal growth, close relationships, community involvement, and physical health related positively to basic psychological need satisfaction and psychological health.
In contrast, attainment of the extrinsic aspirations for money, fame, and image was unrelated to basic psychological need satisfaction and related slightly negatively to psychological health. Thus, the importance of providing need-supportive contexts that allow for the development of intrinsic aspirations and the facilitation of psychological health is apparent.
Indeed, if this is news to you the takeaway is clear. If you value your mental health, which I assume you do, don’t let yourself get caught up in chasing money, fame, and materials. Instead, for every extrinsic goal you set, make sure it connects directly to a related intrinsic goal. Then focus on the intrinsic goal as the priority and let the extrinsic goal come naturally.