Setting Goals for Purposeful Life

When we think about setting goals, we usually relate to the business context. But aren’t we in need of setting goals for our lives as well? Or is there a difference between setting a goal, setting an objective, maybe setting a direction? That’s a very interesting topic to discuss and I’m having a very great guest to be discussing this topic today, Bruno Morgante. By no coincidence he is talking about goals because he knows a lot about that in his life.

In this episode you will learn:

why setting goals is essential for creating a purposeful life
how clear objectives act as your compass during turbulent times
the difference between outputs, outcomes, and real value in both life and project management
why achieving goals is less important than the transformation you experience along the way
how to start setting realistic yet ambitious objectives that spark growth
what a winning mindset means and how it connects to personal and professional success

When you listen to this conversation, please think about any leader, HR, DEI expert that can benefit from it and share with this person later on. I really care to be reaching the right people with my content, so thank you very much for this in advance.

Three things that I take away as key messages from this conversation:

Setting goals truly matters — they give direction and meaning, making life more purposeful.
Goals act as your compass — keeping them in sight helps you navigate turbulent times like a lighthouse guiding the way.
In a purposeful life, value matters more than delivery — it’s not just about completing tasks, but about the impact and meaning behind them.

I wish you fun and discovery!

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Additional materials:

Connection with goals and objectives

I used to introduce myself by saying, “I solve problems and deliver results.” It sounds funny, but it really is something I’ve done throughout my entire career. Right now, I’m the founder and CEO of Mantegora, a company I started at the end of last year – just a few months ago. Through it, I’m fulfilling my purpose of making the world a better place by empowering people and delivering impact.

Everything we do at Mantegora is driven by the desire to create meaningful change: empowering individuals, elevating teams, and enabling organizations to turn visions into reality. We aim to be that bridge between beautiful ideas and excellent execution.

I’ve spent a little over 20 years in corporate life, across four industries: railway, aerospace, IT, and HR services. Always improving processes, building and leading successful teams, and driving projects, programs, and project management offices. And then, with my other hat – working as a coach and mentor.

The journey and a spark of change

Over the years, I’ve coached and mentored more than 100 brilliant individuals on topics related to leadership, communication, human skills, personal growth, character development, and, of course, project management.

And then there’s another part of my work—as a speaker and facilitator. You’ll often find me delivering keynotes or facilitating workshops. Storytelling is always at the heart of what I do. When I’m on stage or leading a workshop, my goal is always the same: to inspire people and ignite something within them—emotions, motivation, a spark of change. That’s what I strive to achieve every single time.

Project management skills, mindset, and tools in our personal lives

This goes back to one foundational element in the topic of objectives—something I experience every time I’m on stage, especially when I deliver my keynote about the winning mindset, like the one I gave at the Palm Summit. At a certain point, when I started introducing the topic of life objectives, I asked the audience a question: “Raise your hand if you have set your life objectives.” And, as you can imagine, not too many people raised their hands – it was a very small minority.

Then I always add a follow-up question: “Raise your hand if you’ve at least set objectives for the current year.” But even then, the number of people raising their hands is surprisingly low. It’s really just a minority of people. And for me, that’s striking—because everywhere I go, everywhere I speak about this topic, I see the same pattern.

The issue with not having life goals

“I believe this is a fundamental issue we need to address. It’s a little bit scary and, honestly, a little bit sad to me. Why don’t the majority of people have objectives and the willingness to actually make them happen?”

Of course, if you do have them – and if you take a certain approach to setting objectives, which we can touch on in a few minutes – you can use them not only in your professional life but also in your personal life. In project management, for example, it’s essential to have clear objectives, but the same principle applies to real life as well.

And yet, despite all that, the reality is the same: the vast majority of people simply don’t have them. And that’s a pity in my opinion.

Why people don’t lead the purposeful life

I believe one of the main reasons behind why people don’t become aware of it a bit sooner, so that they can lead the purposeful life, is that we’re simply not taught how to do it.

We grow up in schools and families where you rarely hear the concept of “set your objectives.” Instead, it’s more like: “Here are the things to do – just execute and get them done.” That’s how it is at school, in most families, and then again when you enter the world of work. Someone tells you: “These are your tasks, just go and execute them.” And you end up stuck in this endless execution mode.

Breaking the cycle

It becomes a cycle, and you rarely stop or pause for a moment to ask yourself: Why am I even doing the things I’m doing?

When I talk about these topics, what I’m really trying to do is spark something – light a fire in people’s minds. I want them to realize how important it is to set their own objectives and define a personal growth plan.

Setting goals for the younger self

When I was very young, and I didn’t know anything about it—no techniques, no studies, nothing, it just came naturally to me.

When I was just 18 years old, I decided to define the objectives for my life. The following year, I adjusted a couple of them. So by the time I was 19, I had already defined all the objectives for my entire life—not just for the next few years.

Natural implementation of the OKR metod

With the passing of time, looking back many years later in retrospect, I realized that what I had done was very similar – almost comparable – to the OKR method. The idea of having an objective, a long-term goal (the what you want to reach), and then key results, short or mid-term milestones you need to achieve in order to get there.

So, without knowing it, I basically set them up in that way. I had a series of objectives, and for each one I went a level deeper to identify what I needed to accomplish in order to reach it.

Of course, I couldn’t do this in 20 minutes. It took me a week or two, and then I followed up the next year, adjusting where needed. That’s the way I set them up, kept them for myself, and reviewed them periodically—asking: Am I progressing? Do I need to adjust anything? That’s how I approached it.

A few years later I became a project manager. And again, it was not designed, it happened, but I’m so happy that it happened.

How having goals as a teenager impact your life

In fact, it completely impacted my life – 100%. I would never be the person I am today, nor in the personal and professional situation I’m in now, without having defined those objectives.

There are two aspects to this. One is about actually achieving them – which I have already done. But before even getting to the achievement, simply having those objectives didn’t mean that everything I did every day, every moment of my life, was directly related to them. Of course not. Of course, there are always things you do that aren’t directly related to your goals. But there was always this guidance, this sense that I knew where I wanted to go and what I wanted to have in life.

Everything I worked on, everything I built, had to be aligned with those objectives. Did it make me more efficient? Maybe. But for sure, it made me more focused on what I wanted to do in life—that’s certain.

Focus – important skill in today’s world of constant distractions

For me, it always comes back to this: if you’re doing something, ask yourself: why am I doing it? What’s the reason that led me to this action?

And if you don’t have an answer, then you should try to find one. If the answer turns out to be meaningless, then maybe it’s better to use your time in a different way. That’s where focus really comes into play – along with efficiency.

Because again, you might realize: Okay, I’m doing this thing…but what for? Why am I doing it? Just for the sake of doing it? And sure, it’s absolutely fine to have those moments now and then. But I don’t think you should spend your whole life just doing things for the sake of doing them. I believe there should be a higher purpose in life.

Meaning of achieving goals

I remember perfectly that evening when I crossed off the last item on my objectives list. I marked it as completed – and in that moment, and for the next couple of weeks, I was probably the happiest person on the planet. It was fantastic. That feeling of fulfillment, of achievement – it was beautiful. Until it wasn’t. Because what came next turned out to be a terrible moment.

Losing the point in life

I describe it as the worst nine months of my life. Just after reaching my life objectives—by the way, I was 35 when I achieved all of them—I realized that achieving the objectives was not the point. Instead, I was faced with a “Now what?” moment. I felt without guidance, lost. I started questioning everything I had done—the choices I had made in my life, the situation I was in. It was tough. Really tough.

It felt like I was in a deep hole. During that time, I had to reflect on many things, talk to people, seek help. But slowly, gradually, I managed to climb out of it. Eventually, I was able to redefine what I wanted to do, what I wanted to achieve for the rest of my life. And that’s what I always share with people when I talk about this topic.

What really matters

It’s an apparently simple, yet often overlooked concept: it’s not the moment of achieving your goals that truly matters, but the journey itself.

The person who sets the goals is never the same as the person who achieves them. That transformation – that growth along the way – is the real added value.

The person you become while walking toward your goals—that’s what you should truly aim for. It’s powerful. And again, it’s simple. It’s not rocket science.

Setting life goals now is different

How I set life goals now compared to earlier in my life? It’s different. Definitely now they are the objectives of a much more mature person. There are many years of life and work experience in between.

I believe the biggest difference between the objectives I set early in my life and the ones I defined later is the shift toward purpose and inspiration. The first ones were the kind of objectives a young adult would give themselves – simple goals like, “Okay, I want to achieve that.” or “I want to be able to do this”.

How objectives change

My objectives are different. Now they carry meaning and a higher purpose. They’re connected to the vision I have for my life – a vision of a better world that we may never fully achieve, but one we will keep striving for until the end. There’s something bigger behind them.

And I’m proud of this evolution. It’s a beautiful thing. I’m so happy that, for whatever reason, many years ago – when I was just 18 – I came up with the idea of setting the objectives I wanted to achieve.

These were the things I wanted to achieve in life. And even if, looking back now, I see that they weren’t truly life objectives, they still helped me. For roughly the next 15 years, they gave me a structured way to move through life – and that’s something I’m particularly proud of.

How well-defined, mature goals help us navigate personal or business changes in turbulent times

I think goals are incredibly important because they help you look ahead – they give you direction. They should guide you not only in your professional life but also in your personal life. That’s something I often discuss with my coachees during our coaching sessions. Goals really help you define where you want to go and in which direction you’re heading.

Now, imagine you’re standing in the middle of a wide green field. Around you, in every direction – 360 degrees – you see different landscapes: mountains on one side, a forest over there, and water on the other side. I’m not saying you need to identify the exact spot where you want to go. But you do need to understand the direction.

Let’s say you decide to head toward the mountains. You start walking in that direction – which is the most important thing: to start moving.

Because only by moving do you realize whether this is truly the right direction for you or not.

And as you move, life happens. That’s where the famous “Okay, we’ve set a goal… now what?” comes in. Something always happens – sometimes it’s an external factor, sometimes it’s an internal one.

Being open to changing your plans on the go

You might realize that this isn’t what you thought it was. Maybe the path toward the mountains looked promising, but in reality, it isn’t. Or maybe, along the way, you encounter obstacles – say a group of wild animals – and you realize it’s better to take a detour. That’s exactly how having defined objectives helps in life. Because life happens. But at least you know the direction you want to move in.

It’s very similar to project management. Even when you’re managing just a single task – not the whole project – if you know what you need to achieve, then every time something goes wrong, you’ll find a way to make it work. That solution might be outside your immediate reach: maybe you need help, need to escalate, talk to a colleague, or involve the sponsor. But you’ll still make it happen.

Without clear objectives, the risk is the opposite – you try, it doesn’t work, and you just move on randomly. And that leaves you stuck, going in circles, without really moving forward.

Long-term objectives and a big-picture direction in a turbulent environment

It is important to set long-term objectives and a big-picture direction, especially in a turbulent environment of project management where plans must stay adaptive. Having the mindset of getting things done is absolutely necessary – especially when we talk about project management.

A lot of young project managers ask me, “Okay, Bruno, if I need to focus on just one thing in a project, what is it?” And my answer is always the same: the number one thing is that you need to make it happen. You need to get things done – one way or another. Without it, everything else might look beautiful, but it means nothing. So it’s important to put that on the table first.

But then comes the biggest risk – in projects and in life as well. If you only focus on the things you have to deliver, the tasks you need to get done, then even if you’re very good at it, you risk becoming just a delivery machine. Delivering, delivering, delivering.

What really provides the value

That’s why, in project management, we often talk about the different levels: output, outcome, and benefits. And while we could spend hours on this topic, in simple terms it always comes back to the same question: Why are you doing what you’re doing?

If you start a project – or if you’re assigned to one – the very first thing you should try to understand is: What are we trying to achieve?

And in project management, “achieve” is not the same as deliver. Delivering the new tool, or replacing the old one with a new one – that’s just the output. But what do we actually want to achieve with this new tool? Is it helping colleagues work better? Saving time? Increasing sales? Reducing costs? Whatever it is, you need to understand it – because that’s what you should aim for.

And this brings us back to objectives. The similarity is clear: you always need something bigger to aim for, and you need to know what that is.

It’s very important to structure your objectives so you can follow them step by step to achieve bigger goals.

The difference between SMART goals and wise, value-driven goals

It’s hard to translate value into concrete actions. That’s always the challenge.

When you look at a company from the top down, they have a vision, then a mission, and then a strategy. And usually—unfortunately—the strategy becomes this fluffy gray area that should be crystal clear. It should tell people: “Here’s what you do in your day-to-day tasks, and here’s how that helps us move toward our vision.” But very often, that clarity is missing.

Focusing on right things

It’s the same here: if you only focus on completing the task, you risk losing sight of what’s truly important – the actual result in the end.

I’ve managed hundreds of projects – either directly or through my PMOs. When I was leading PMOs, we had hundreds of projects every year. Many of them were delivered on target, on time, and on budget. But the question is: for what? What was actually delivered? Did it truly impact the organization? Was it adopted by the people? Did it make a significant difference? And unfortunately, in too many projects, the answer was no. You deliver something… and then what?

That’s why it’s so much better to ask those questions early—just as mentioned with that project manager. If you ask at the beginning, you may realize that some things don’t even need to be done, while others deserve much more focus.

Advice on setting relevant and valuable goals in life

At least start. Your objectives don’t have to be the most inspirational, significant, or purpose-driven ones right away. But set some objectives for yourself, then identify the steps you need to take to reach them, and start working toward them. Walk in that direction. Do what’s needed until you can say, “Okay, this objective is achieved.”

That process alone will already change something within you. It will help you get used to the idea that you’re not just working because someone above told you to, but because you’ve given yourself a meaningful goal. You’re saying, “I chose this objective, and I want to achieve it in life.”

This will trigger so many beautiful things within you. You’ll step into the territory of a growth mindset. And beyond that—what I call a winning mindset, of which growth mindset is only one part. There’s so much more you can achieve once you start.

That’s one of the very first steps that can help you begin this transformational journey. It might seem simple, but it matters.

When you set an objective, don’t aim right away to save the world or completely change your company – that might be impossible. Instead, aim for something achievable, but also challenging enough to push you forward. Realistic, yet ambitious. Start with that. Because even a modest goal is far better than having no goal at all. Even just a simple objective. It’s better than not having any.

Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

Setting Goals for Purposeful Life - ASA 021