Goal Setting

1. Introduction to Goal Setting

By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals. You can see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless grind.

By setting goals you can:

• Achieve more
• Improve performance
• Increase your motivation to achieve
• Increase your pride and satisfaction in your achievements
• Improve your self-confidence
• Plan to eliminate attitudes that hold you back and cause unhappiness
  

Goal Setting Helps Self-Confidence
By setting goals, and measuring their achievement, you are able to see what you have done and what you are capable of. The process of achieving goals and seeing their achievement gives you the confidence and self-belief that you need that you will be able to achieve higher and more difficult goals.

Setting Goals Effectively

Positive Statement: express your goals positively:
Be Precise: if you set a precise goal, putting in dates, times and amounts so that achievement can be measured, then you know the exact goal to be achieved, and can take complete satisfaction from having completely achieved it.
Set Priorities: where you have several goals, give each a priority. This helps you to avoid feeling overwhelmed by too many goals, and helps to direct your attention to the most important ones.
Write goals down to avoid confusion and give them more force.
Keep Operational Goals Small: Keep the goals you are working towards immediately small and achievable. If a goal is too large, then it can seem that you are not making progress towards it.

2. Important Points
Set Performance, not Outcome Goals
This is very important. You should take care to set goals over which you have as much control as possible - there is nothing as dispiriting as failing to achieve a personal goal for reasons beyond your control such as bad learning environments, poor judging, bad weather, injury, or just plain bad luck. Goals based on outcomes are extremely vulnerable to failure because of things beyond your control.

If you base your goals on personal performance or skills or knowledge to be acquired, then you can keep control over the achievement of your goals and draw satisfaction from them. For example, you might achieve a personal best time in a race, but still be disqualified as a result of a poor judging decision. If you had set an outcome goal of being in the top three, then this will be a defeat. If you set a performance goal of achieving a particular time, then you will have achieved the goal and can draw satisfaction and self-confidence from its achievement.

Another flaw is where outcome goals are based on the rewards of achieving something, whether these are financial or are based on the recognition of colleagues. In early stages these will be highly motivating factors, however as they are achieved, the benefits of further achievement at the same level reduce. You will become progressively less motivated.

Set Specific Goals
Set specific measurable goals. If you achieve all conditions of a measurable goal, then you can be confident and comfortable in its achievement. If you consistently fail to meet a measurable goal, then you can adjust it or analyse the reason for failure and take appropriate action to improve skills.

Set Realistic Goals
Goals may be set unrealistically high for the following reasons:

Other people: Other people (parents, media, society) can set unrealistic goals for you, based on what they want. Often this will be done in ignorance of your goals, desires and ambitions.
Insufficient information: If you do not have a clear, realistic understanding of what you are trying to achieve and of the skills and knowledge to be mastered, it is difficult to set effective and realistic goals.
Always expecting your best performance: Many people base their goals on their best performance, however long ago that was. It is better to set goals that raise your average performance and make it more consistent.
Lack of respect for self: If you do not respect your right to rest, relaxation and pleasure in life then you risk burnout.
Setting Goals Too Low
Alternatively goals can be set too low because of:

Fear of failure: If you are frightened of failure you will not take the risks needed for optimum performance. As you apply goal setting and see the achievement of goals, your self- confidence should increase, helping you to take bigger risks. Know that failure is a positive thing: it shows you areas where you can improve your skills and performance.
Taking it too easy: It is easy to take the reasons for not setting goals unrealistically high as an excuse to set them too low. If you're not prepared to stretch yourself and work hard, then you are extremely unlikely to achieve anything of any real worth.
Setting Goals at the Right Level
Setting goals at the correct level is a skill that is acquired by practice. You should set goals so that they are slightly out of your immediate grasp, but not so far that there is no hope of achieving them: no-one will put serious effort into achieving a goal that they believe is unrealistic. However, remember that the belief that a goal is unrealistic may be incorrect.

Personal factors such as tiredness, other commitments and the need for rest, etc. should be taken into account when goals are set.

Thinking a goal through
When you are thinking about how to achieve goals, asking the following questions can help you to focus on the sub-goals that lead to their achievement:

What skills do I need to achieve this?
What information and knowledge do I need?
What help, assistance, or collaboration do I need?
What resources do I need?
What can block progress?
Am I making any assumptions?
Is there a better way of doing things?

3. Achieving Goals and feedback
Achieving Goals
When you have achieved a goal, take the time to enjoy the satisfaction of having achieved the goal. Absorb the implications of the goal achievement, and observe the progress you have made towards other goals. If the goal was a significant one, or one that you had worked towards for some time, take the opportunity to reward yourself appropriately.

Feedback: Failure
Where you have failed to reach a goal, ensure that you learn the lessons of the failure.

that you didn't try hard enough
that your technique, skills or knowledge were faulty and need to be enhanced
that the goal you set was unrealistic
Use this information to adjust the goal if it was set too high, or to set goals to acquire new skills or knowledge. Feeding back like this turns everything into a positive learning experience - even failing to meet a goal is a step forward towards perfect performance!

Feedback: Success
Where you have achieved a goal this should feed back into your next goals:

If the goal was easily achieved, make your next goals harder
If the goal took a dispiriting length of time to achieve, make the next goals a little easier
If you learned something that would lead you to change goals still outstanding, do so
If while achieving the goal you noticed a deficit in your skills, set goals to fix this.

Set Your Goals:

4. Determine how you spend your time:

Evaluate Your Time Management:
How much time have you set aside to meet your goals (above)?
Does your time allocation reflect the priority of your goals?
Can your uncommitted hours be reallocated to meet your priorities?

5. Make your Semester Schedule:
Calendar or Wallchart:
Project weekly schedule onto your Study Timetable
Actual weekly schedule
Modify and detail the Projected Weekly Schedule

Daily schedule or "To Do List"
Complete the night before or the first thing each morning.
Check off items you have done to give yourself a sense of completion

Benefits of Following a Schedule:
Written plans make responsibilities seem more manageable and less overwhelming
Scheduled tasks are more likely to be completed