Discussion Questions about Goals

Goals are defined as objectives that are to be reached. Goals are held by individuals, groups, organizations, and countries.

They can be long-term or short-term such as:

Life goals
Career goals
Educational goals
Personal development and growth goals

Let’s explore some of the most common questions about goals to have an interesting discussion with your students and friends



Questions about Goals

These are some general questions about goals

  • What are your goals?
  • What are your short-term goals?
  • What are your long-term goals?
  • Why should one set both short-term and long-term goals in order to be successful in life?
  • What’s your biggest goal in life?

  • Why should you write my goals?
  • How are goals related to success?
  • Why do we need goals and how can they facilitate our lives?
  • How can one be successful in life without setting goals?
  • What are the different types of goals that we need to set?

  • How can we be sure that the goals that we have set are effective?
  • What are unrealistic goals?
  • How can you measure and evaluate if your goals are reasonable or unreasonable?
  • What are some different types of goals that you have achieved?
  • Do you change your goals as you get older?
  • When do you give up on a goal?

  • How do you track your progress when you set goals?
  • Where do you want to be in five years?
  • Where do you want to be in ten years?
  • Do you feel stressed about your goals?

  • How confident are you in your ability to reach these goals?
  • What challenges prevent you from achieving your goals?
  • What do you want to accomplish this year?
  • What are good goals?
  • Are you working on any personal development goals?

Questions about Types of Goals

These are some examples of questions about different types of goals

  • What is your philosophy of life?
  • Do you have fitness goals?
  • Do you have academic goals?
  • What family goals do you have?
  • What financial goals do you have?
  • Do you have spiritual goals?

  • What are your career goals?
  • What type of goals do you care about the most?
  • What are your health and fitness goals?
  • Are there financial goals that are important to you?
  • What types of goals are the most important for you?
  • What types of goals are the least important for you?
  • What are your top financial goals for the next 5 years?

Questions about Goals and Achievements

These are some questions to explore your achievements of goals

  1. Have you ever achieved fitness goals?
  2. What academic goals have you achieved?
  3. What professional goals have you achieved?
  4. Have you achieved any family goals?
  5. What financial goals have you achieved?
  6. Have you ever set spiritual goals?

Quotes for Discussion

These two quotes can help you discuss the importance of goals even further.

“A year from now you may wish you had started today.”

Karen Lamb

“Goals are dreams with deadlines.”

Diana Scharf

More ESL Conversation Questions

I hope these discuss questions about Goals are useful

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Manuel Campos, English Professor

Manuel Campos

I am Jose Manuel, English professor and creator of EnglishPost.org, a blog whose mission is to share lessons for those who want to learn and improve their English