Assessment of Core Goals (ACG)

The Assessment of Core Goals (ACG)© was created at John F. Kennedy University over 35 years ago and then further developed at Stanford University. The ACG is designed to help you define your core personal goals in your own words through a guided exploration of the best moments in your life. It is a companion measure to the Assessment of Personal Goals (APG)©.

Instructions

The ACG is a 4-step guided personal reflection protocol that invites you to identify 25 “highlight reel” life episodes that were especially gratifying and memorable, and then try to pinpoint the particular moment within each episode during which you experienced a peak level of emotional satisfaction or fulfillment.

The next step (which may be self-guided or guided by a counselor) is to extract and define common themes across multiple episodes.  You can then attach your own personally meaningful labels to each identified “core personal goal.” In the typical case between 1 and 4 core goals emerge from this exercise.

The ACG process is intended to reveal motivational cornerstones that are often hard to discern without insightful pattern recognition. The objective is to reveal the core personal goals that direct and organize your most consequential thoughts and actions. The challenge is that, while it is relatively easy to identify surface-level goals like those commonly used in agendas and to-do lists, the personal goals that define the core of your underlying identity and personality often operate outside our awareness. The ACG addresses this challenge in a deeply meaningful way.