We often experience conflict between personal and professional goals. Yet, most of us value family, health, community, and leisure, as well as our careers.
Following are some ideas on how we can create strategic harmony and integration with these various life goals, based on new research reported in Harvard Business Review.
One of the first things we need to do to create Goal Harmony is to change our mindset from “either/or” thinking to an “and/both” approach. Research shows that this mindset is a habit that can be developed over time – so give it a try and keep working at it.
Creating Goal Harmony begins by listing all of our major life goals and the essential activities associated with them. Then we want to look for connections between them. For example:
- Taking care of your health – working out, eating right, getting your rest – will make you more productive at work and feel better about yourself.
- Invite work colleagues to go with you to your favorite sporting event. You will enjoy the game and deepen relationships with colleagues.
- Take your kids with you to community volunteer activities. You all “do good,” they learn the importance of contributing to community and you build your relationship with them. They “might” even stay off their phones for a while.
- You can also create Goal Harmony for sub-goals within the same broad goal, such as health. The less alcohol you drink and earlier you go to bed, the better sleep you get, and the better chance you have of getting up in time to work out the next morning.
Creating Goal Harmony can provide us with more fulfillment from the achievement of our various goals. No longer do we need to feel “guilty” about sacrificing one goal for another. Harmony among our goals also increases the chances that we will really stick to a goal commitment.
Not paying attention to an area of our life that is important to us is like losing a part of ourselves. We don’t need to do that. We can create strategic harmony that integrates our life goals and truly gives us a full, thriving life.
*Ideas for this blog taken from: Wang, J. & Fischbach, A. “How to Create Harmony Between Your Personal and Professional Goals,” Harvard Business Review online, September 19, 2025.
