Goal ideas
Life goals examples: 60 big goals and the step that starts each
The short answer
Life goals examples are the big things you want over years: learn a language, run a half marathon, write a book, see the northern lights. Pick one life goal, give it a size for this year, then a step you can do before Sunday. A half marathon this year might be a 5K, and this week, three short walk-runs.
In 30 seconds
- A life goal is measured in years, a daily goal in minutes.
- Shrink each goal twice: this year, then this week.
- One life goal at a time is plenty to start.
- A slow year still counts as a year on the list.
Your someday list has been patient for years. Let’s give one item a Tuesday.
Below are 60 big goals, each with a first step small enough for this week.
We make a goal app, so we’re biased. But a pen and the back of a receipt work just as well.
Reading XP0 XP
What counts as a life goal
A life goal (some people call them lifetime goals) is something you’d still be glad you did at 80. It’s measured in years of small steps.
A daily goal is the opposite size: ten pages, or a glass of water. Our examples of goals list covers those near things. This page is about the far ones.
“Learn Spanish” can sit on a list through two jobs and one very ambitious January without anyone touching it, because it doesn’t say what to do on a Wednesday.
So each goal shrinks twice.
- This year’s version: a size you could finish by next December.
- This week’s step: something you could do between dinner and bed.
A life goal needs a step small enough for Wednesday.
8 life goals made small enough to start
Each goal on the left is big on purpose, and that’s fine.
The other two columns shrink it until it fits into an ordinary week, the kind with laundry on a chair and about one free evening.
| Life goal | This year | This week |
|---|---|---|
| Learn Spanish | 10 minutes a day | 2 minutes of words tonight |
| Run a half marathon | Run a 5K | Walk-run 10 minutes, 3 times |
| Write a book | Write 20 short chapters | Write 1 page, any page |
| Visit every state or region | See 2 new ones | Pick the closest one you haven’t seen |
| Play the guitar | Learn 5 songs | Tune it and learn 1 chord |
| Read 100 classics | Read 10 | Read 10 pages of the first |
| Learn to cook family recipes | Learn 6 dishes | Ask for 1 recipe by text |
| Be debt-free | Clear the smallest balance | Write every balance on one page |
The right-hand column looks almost too small to bother with.
Too small? That’s the point. The week’s step is the only one of the three you can do tonight.
And the middle column is the one you check in December. If you only got halfway, you still got halfway.
60 life goals examples by area
Here are 60 life goals ideas in five areas, 12 goals each. Every one comes with a first step for this week.
They read best like a menu, where you skim the whole thing, feel slightly overwhelmed by the desserts, and then order one dish.
You only need one goal to start.
Adventure and travel
- See the northern lights. This week: find out which months they show up where you could go.
- Visit every state or region of your country. This week: list the ones you’ve seen.
- Take a long train trip. This week: look up one route and its length.
- Swim in the sea in a new country. This week: renew or find your passport.
- Sleep under the stars. This week: spend one evening outside after dark.
- Climb a famous mountain. This week: walk the longest hill near home.
- Learn to drive a manual car. This week: ask someone who drives one for a lesson.
- Visit the town your family comes from. This week: ask a relative its name.
- Go somewhere alone for a weekend. This week: pick a place two hours away.
- Learn to sail or paddle a boat. This week: find the nearest lake or club.
- See a total solar eclipse. This week: look up the next one you could reach.
- Take a trip with no phone. This week: try one evening with it in a drawer.
Learning and making
- Learn a second language well enough to chat. This week: learn 10 greetings.
- Write a book. This week: write one page, out of order is fine.
- Play an instrument for friends. This week: practice 10 minutes, 3 times.
- Read 100 classic books. This week: pick the shortest one on a list.
- Learn to draw faces. This week: draw one face a day, badly.
- Build a piece of furniture. This week: build something small, like a shelf.
- Learn to code a small app. This week: finish one free beginner lesson.
- Grow food you eat. This week: plant herbs in a pot.
- Learn to sew your own clothes. This week: sew a button back on.
- Speak at an event. This week: tell a 2-minute story to one friend.
- Learn sign language basics. This week: learn the alphabet.
- Make a short film. This week: film one minute on your phone.
Body and movement
- Run a half marathon. This week: find a 5K date a few months out.
- Learn to swim well. This week: book one lesson or one pool visit.
- Do one pull-up. This week: hang from a bar for 10 seconds.
- Hike a long trail. This week: walk 30 minutes on a path you don’t know.
- Touch your toes. This week: stretch for one song after work.
- Learn to dance at a wedding. This week: learn 8 counts from a video.
- Ride a bike across a city. This week: check the tires and ride around the block.
- Climb a rock wall. This week: visit a climbing gym once.
- Walk 10,000 steps on a normal day. This week: see what a normal day already is.
- Finish a cycling event. This week: ride 20 minutes, twice.
- Learn a martial art. This week: watch one class at a local club.
- Play a team sport again. This week: ask an old teammate what they play now.
Money and home
- Be debt-free. This week: find the smallest balance’s due date.
- Save a fund for a big trip. This week: open a separate savings account.
- Own a home. This week: look up a typical down payment where you live.
- Have 3 months of expenses saved. This week: add up one normal month.
- Learn how taxes work for you. This week: find last year’s tax papers.
- Start a small side business. This week: write down 3 things people ask you for.
- Give a set amount to a cause each year. This week: choose the cause.
- Fix up a room yourself. This week: clear one shelf.
- Retire with a plan. This week: find out what retirement savings you already have.
- Buy something you’ve wanted for years, with cash. This week: name it and price it.
- Own fewer things. This week: give away one bag.
- Keep a budget for a full year. This week: track one week of spending.
People and giving back
- Record a grandparent’s stories. This week: ask one question and save the voice note.
- Learn the family recipes. This week: offer to help cook one dish and take notes.
- Volunteer every month for a year. This week: find one place that needs help.
- Mentor someone starting out. This week: answer one question in your field.
- Write letters to the people who shaped you. This week: write one card.
- Host a dinner for friends each season. This week: pick a date.
- Make a friend in a new city. This week: say yes to one invite.
- Make up with someone you drifted from. This week: send a short hello.
- Plant trees with your kids. This week: find out where a tree can go.
- Build a family photo album. This week: print 10 photos.
- Teach a child a skill you love. This week: show them the first part.
- Be someone people can call at 2 am. This week: call one friend for no reason.
None of these come with a deadline. “Be debt-free” might take two years or ten, and the list won’t mind.
A real life list from 1940
In 1940, a 15-year-old named John Goddard wrote down 127 goals for his life.
His life list (opens in a new tab) ran from climbing Kilimanjaro and exploring long rivers all the way to writing a book, getting married and having children. Flying a plane was goal 40.
When he died in 2013, his nephew said he’d checked off 120 of them, as KSL reported (opens in a new tab). That’s his family’s count. Yours can have three goals, not 127.
What’s useful about his list is how ordinary items sat right next to the wild ones. A family belongs on the same list as a mountain.
How to keep a life goal alive between years
How do big goals stop? Usually with a gap: a busy spring, a move, a winter where the guitar case turns into a shelf for mail.
So each life goal gets one small weekly step, on the same day every week. That might be Sunday evening, or the first free hour after a shift.
Small’s the whole idea here. Our guide to small goals goes further on how tiny a step can get.
A pen does this job fine. On a paper calendar, it’d look like this:
- The goal’s step goes on the same weekday for the next 4 weeks.
- Each one gets crossed off when it’s done, with a line about how it went.
But a step is easier to keep when there’s somewhere to write how it went. That’s how Yumemira, the small-steps journal for iPhone, works.
You pick one of the 26 ready goals, like Learn a language, or tap Make your own and name it.
Each day brings one small step. Tap Mark done, and Mira, the app’s star, cheers.
Then tap Say how it went and write a line about it.
For a ten-year goal, a year of those lines shows how far the slow part got.
If you’d like that step waiting on your phone, 
try it in Yumemira.
When a goal keeps slipping, the step’s too big. Make it smaller.
Our guide on how to stay consistent has more on weeks like that.
How to make your own life goals list
Three to five goals is a good start for a lifetime goals list.
A list of 127 worked for one teenager in 1940, but most of us have dishes to wash, a job and a phone that needs charging by morning.
Three is fine. One goal from each area that pulls at you is enough. Then ask yourself: which one would you be sorriest to never start?
And that one gets a step this week.
| If the goal is… | This week’s step could be… |
|---|---|
| A place | “Look up the cheapest way to get there.” |
| A skill | “Practice for 10 minutes, 3 times.” |
| A big project | “Write the first page, badly.” |
| About money | “Write every number on one page.” |
| About a person | “Send one short hello.” |
| About your body | “Do the smallest version, twice.” |
Before you add a goal to your list
Ticks stay in this browser. Nothing is sent.
Some goals will change. You might drop “climb a mountain” at 40 and add “learn to bake bread” at 41.
So the list gets edited. A list you edit is a list you’re still using.
The someday list can keep the rest. One item just got its Tuesday.
Questions people ask
What are some examples of life goals?
Common life goals include learning a language, running a half marathon, writing a book, visiting every region of your country, getting out of debt and recording a grandparent’s stories. They take years, so each one needs a small step for this week.
What are good goals to have in life?
Good life goals are ones you’d still want in ten years, and ones you picked yourself. A mix of adventure, learning, body, money and people works for many lists. Start with the one you’d be sorriest to never begin.
What are lifetime goals?
Lifetime goals are things you want to do or become over your whole life, like learning an instrument or owning a home. They differ from daily goals, which you can finish today. Most become doable once you set a version for this year.
How many life goals should I have?
Three to five is a good start. A short list is easier to look at every week, and you can add more later. Work on one goal at a time and give it one small step each week.
How do I make a life goals list?
Write down every big thing you’d like to do, then keep three to five you’d still want in ten years. For each, write this year’s version and one step for this week. Do the step before adding anything new.
Sources
TopicGoal ideas
You earned the Someday, Started badge
You read all 60. Now give one life goal a step for this week.
0 XP
Yumemira is an iPhone app (iOS 18 or later).
See the 26 goalsYumemira is free to start. iPhone, iOS 18 or later.