Striving for the Sacred: Personal Goals, Life Meaning, and Religion

Religion invests human existence with meaning by establishing goals and value systems that potentially pertain to all aspects of a persons’ life. A goals approach provides a general unifying framework to capture the dynamic aspect of religion in people’s lives. Empirical research on the measurement of spirituality and religion through personal goals is described. To illustrate the application of the goals framework, data from the author’s research program on personal goals and quality of life in persons with neuromuscular diseases are described. Framing subjective quality-of-life outcomes in terms of goals can lead to new possibilities for understanding adaptation to physical disabilities and in particular, the understanding of the religious and spiritual dimensions of disability and rehabilitation.