This pilot study is intended to broadly investigate context around the topic of “self-determined pursuits”, by sending out a questionnaire to provide further context before beginning research. This study does not intend nor is designed to conduct high quality detailed responses, and therefore contains limitations in its methods when producing general insight instead of emperical data.
Open-text responses gathered from the survey appear to have challenges in producing high quality data due to questions being broad and non-specific, the demographic not being targeted, as well as limitations around the interpretation of the questions themselves. Open-text responses have been manually tokenized based on extracted themes (i.e. “ADHD”, “OCD”, “Anxiety”, have been converted into “MentalHealth”) to enter the results into a word frequency counter.
Speculations and potential insights below are based on the frequency of these themes appearing per question.
<aside> 📊 How important is it for you to progress your personal ambitions? 26/32 (78.8%) respondants rated the importance of progressing their personal ambitions as 6 out of 7 or higher (1=not important, 7=very important).
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<aside> 💡 Results 78% of the 32 participants responded indicating that they consider progressing personal ambitions to be important to them. This aligns with literature findings claiming the importance of [] and [] according to self-determination theory (SDT).
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<aside> 💡 Note: these results are not directly relevant to the research study.
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What do you perceive as the top major sources of distraction that take you away from progressing your ambitions?
Among Working Professionals (23):
work: 7 (30%) socialmedia: 6 (26%) mentalhealth: 4 (17%) finances: 2 (9%) socializing: 2 (9%) family: 2 (9%) children: 2 (9%) chores: 2 (9%) burnout: 2 (9%)
Among Students (7):
mentalhealth: 3 (43%) environment: 3 (43%)
<aside> 💡 Insights
Among the participants, 30% of working professionals reported “work” as a major source of distraction from progressing their personal ambitions, with 26% reporting “social media” as a major source of distraction.
Both students and working professionals noted “mental health” (17% among working professionals, 43% among students) as a major source of distraction. Based on the literature review and the connection between progressing ambitions and well being, it is curious to wonder if mental health is what prevents progress, or if the lack of progress is what is affecting the state of the mental health.
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What are some common tips, or commonly accepted techniques you have heard of that can help one progress towards their ambitions/goals
accountability: 8 (24%) goal setting: 5 (15%) time block: 5 (15%) todo list: 4 (12%) eliminate distractions: 4 (12%) small goals: 4 (12%) just do it: 3 (9%) pomodoro: 3 (9%)
<aside> 💡 Discussion
According to the literature review, many individuals set goals but struggle to achieve those goals. Those who create specific and actionable goals, i.e. SMART goals, tend to have an increase of success towards goal congruent behavior []. The questionnaire shows an awareness of techniques beyond just goal-setting consistent with findings of the literature review (i.e. carving out time in one’s schedule, accountability for awareness towards the goal, eliminating distractions) however respondants still report struggles with progress. This suggests a discrepency between theory on the topic of progress, and actual practice itself.
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<aside> 💡 Note: these results are not directly relevant to the research study.
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