Settin Goals

Time Bound

To measure progress—and maintain motivation—you need a clear time frame. "I'm going to do better in math" is vague. But "I will bring my math average up to a B by semester's end" gives a calendar date to plan toward.

Barriers to Meeting Goals

With any goal, there are real obstacles that can stand in your way. Think about Jeff, from the previous lesson. If he decides to take guitar lessons while maintaining his B average, he could face some real barriers. He may not own a guitar. Or he may not be able to afford lessons, or find a place to practice. Or Jeff may realize he doesn't have time for guitar, schoolwork, and his other activities. Sometimes people allow false or imagined roadblocks to keep them from achieving success. Before starting guitar, Jeff might imagine that he lacks the ability or talent to do well, or may feel that no one believes in him. After a few lessons, he might conclude that it's just too hard and he'll never learn, or he'll never be as good as his idol. Jeff can benefit from setting milestone goals ("play these chords by winter" or "play this song for Megan's birthday"), so he feels that he's actually getting better and does not feel discouraged.

Definition of criteria

standards, rules, or principles used in evaluating or judging something.

Measurable

SMART goals let you track progress as you move forward. General goals leave doubt as to where you stand, and even when or whether goals are met.

Relevant

SMART goals will be relevant to your other goals and immediate or long-term plans.

Attainable

Set challenging, but realistic goals. SMART goals should be within your reach.

Specific

This kind of goal is more clearly defined than a general goal. "I will keep up with my homework" is fuzzy. "I will spend one hour on each subject Monday through Friday, the rest of the term" is better.

goal-oriented

exhibiting high motivation and strong organizational skills in working towards the completion of a specific task

Setting Yourself Up for Success

Consider whether meeting a particular goal is entirely within your power. For example, if you plan to lose 10 pounds through exercise and healthier eating, but your busy family eats a lot of pizza or fast food, their actions may come between you and your goal. Part of your plan should include talking over your weight-loss goal with your parents. Sharing your goals with others does help you achieve them, especially if you find supportive friends and family to encourage you. Often adults say things such as "I always wanted to host a radio show but never told anyone about it," or "I told a friend I wanted a career in law but she said I wasn't smart enough, and should do something else instead." Share your goals with supportive friends, family, or mentors.

Creating Long-Term Goals

For the next part of the exercise, we'll turn to long-term goals. Again, keep in mind that the goals should be realistic and specific; don't engage in "wishful thinking," but don't sell yourself short. Come up with a list of three long-term academic goals and three long-term personal goals. Then rank these goals in order of the importance they might have in your adult life. Now choose one goal from each category and imagine how each might be related to a career you are interested in. Then take these two goals that you chose and work backward, setting milestones or intermediate goals that will help you reach your desired end result. As before, make a separate list of the barriers you might face on the path to achieving your goals. Finally, pick one of the goals from your list to work on later in this activity

Why Set Goals?

Goals—big and small, long-term and immediate—are a part of everyone's lives. Setting goals and creating a plan for meeting them will help you focus your attention and efforts on the goal.

Learning Goals

Learning goals let you maintain a positive attitude while you work toward them. If your goal is to learn French rather than get an A in French, you won't get discouraged by the occasional B or C along the way. You know you're still making progress toward your goal. On the other hand, if your only goal was to start at right wing in soccer and someone else beat you out for that position, you might feel a sense of failure. What if, instead, your goal had been to improve your soccer skills over the course of the season? That puts you in the position of setting the standards for measuring your progress and deciding whether you have achieved your goal.

Your Goals and Your Career

Now choose one short-term academic goal and one short-term personal goal from your list. Imagine how those goals might relate to your potential career choices. This part of the exercise is hypothetical; no one expects you to have your future career path locked in at this point. Next, make a list of actions that you can take now to help you achieve your goals. Remembering what you learned in the last lesson about barriers, make a separate list of the things that might stand in the way of your reaching those goals.

Creating Short-Term Goals

Now it's time to put into practice what you learned about setting goals. In the first step of this process, you're going to brainstorm some personal and academic short-term goals. They should be challenging, but within your reach. Try to include a mix of performance goals and learning, or mastery, goals. Make a written list that includes 6 short-term academic goals and 6 short-term personal goals. Next, rank all 12 goals in the order of their importance to you. Then rank the 12 goals in order of their long-term impact on your future.

The Importance of Milestones

Popular culture has a saying: "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." Big, long-term goals can be overwhelming; but to stay motivated—and to reach the goal—you must set up smaller objectives or checkpoints along the way. These checkpoints are short-range or mid-range "mini" goals. The checkpoints are not ends unto themselves, but rather ways to measure your progress toward that final goal. Another way to think of them is as milestones on an extended road trip. If you view your goal as one unbroken stretch of road ahead, that goal may seem daunting; you might think you'll never get there. But if you can count off milestones along the way, it will give you reassurance that you're actually moving forward—and that you're on the right road. You'll enjoy life's journey and the satisfaction of achieving a goal and enjoying the benefits.

Creating and Fulfilling Long-Term Goals

Some of the goals that you set now in high school may take months or even years to achieve. In those cases you need to plan backward.

What Are SMART Goals?

Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely Making your goals "SMART goals" can help you achieve them.

Decision Making and Goals

You can use the decision-making process to set goals and make plans to reach them. First, you need enough good information to start with. For example, setting your sights on getting into a particular college would be difficult without knowing most, if not all, of the requirements for admission. You should avoid "wishful thinking," or ignoring information that doesn't fit your plan but which may affect your ability to achieve your goal. If the college you have in mind does not offer the degree you want, either the school goal or the degree goal may need reconsideration.

High School Academics

You decide that you want to have Calculus under your belt before starting college. You write down your goal: "Take Calculus in senior year." You learn that you need a B in Pre-Calculus/Trigonometry, plus two years of Algebra to qualify. You write: "Pass Pre-Calculus in junior year with B average." Working backward, you then write: "Take Algebra II in sophomore year." Finally, you decide that rather than taking Algebra I, you should take Honors Algebra I in your freshman year as the first step toward your long-term goal.

Performance Goals

You want goals to challenge you—but you also want them to be realistic. It is your awareness of those goals, the way you lay them out and work toward their achievement, that determines whether you succeed, and whether you, too, can be called "goal-oriented." Consider goals related to your immediate future. It is easy to focus too strongly on a certain type of goal—for example, getting an A in English Lit, or starting at right wing on the soccer team, or scoring a 2100 on the SAT. These goals are called performance goals, and they are fine—in their place. But there is another kind of goal that is just as important. It may even be more valuable in the long term and may improve your chances of success. Learning, or mastery, goals are all about increasing your knowledge and skills—goals such as becoming proficient in French, or learning to read music, or walking a balance beam.

Career Planning

You've always been interested in medicine and you love football, so you decide the perfect career for you is to be an athletic trainer in the NFL. You get to help keep players healthy and treat them when they're injured. In gathering information, you find that trainers on pro teams have master's degrees in sports medicine, so that would be your last intermediate step on the way to meeting your career goal. Working backward, you would make a note to get a bachelor's degree in the same field or a related field, such as physiology. Finally, you list the steps you could take while still in high school—taking anatomy and other science courses, job shadowing, working with the school's teams—that will put you on track to achieving your ultimate goal. You might contact someone in this field to get their ideas for creating your goal plan.

milestone

a marker that indicates a certain position has been reached

Definition of Attainable

possible or achievable in a practical sense.