Selecting Goals: Your Pathway to Success
Start off the upcoming New Year with direction, focus, and renewed sense of purpose.
By Scott Cohen, Graduate Student, Temple University
With the end of term fast approaching, like most students, you’re probably more focused on studying for finals or completing holiday shopping than considering future goals. Still, a little time spent in some extracurricular goal setting while you’re on break can really pay off. Effective goal setting can help you find direction, maintain motivation, and benchmark progress throughout their academic and professional careers. It can be a great way to start the new year. Setting goals is also psychologically healthy—it makes you feel more purposeful, and that helps stave off mental health issues such as depression.
A Student Health 101 survey of 551 students found that about three-quarters reported setting goals for themselves, and 88% found it motivating to get things done. Students described aims like wanting to get good grades, develop a career, find a relationship, continue schooling, move to a desired city, and raise a family—all examples of fine long-term goals.
Setting Smaller Objectives to Reach Bigger Dreams
“The challenge for students,” says Dr. Ellen Gillooly, professor of psychology at Glendale Community College, in California, “is to find the intermediate and short-term goals that can help their intentions become realities; goal setting is a valuable skill that students will use throughout their lives.”
In her psychology classes, Dr. Gillooly encourages students to do a personal experiment in goal setting using scientific principles of reinforcement and conditioning. “Some students discover that they are engaging in behaviors which interfere with goal achievement, such as watching too much TV, partying, or surfing the Internet. These can serve as positive rewards for desired behavior, but students need to be realistic; 20 minutes of studying followed by an hour of partying probably won’t have the desired effect.”
Instead, she suggests gradually increasing the amount of studying time necessary to earn the desired reward. You might start out reading a textbook for 30 minutes to earn 10 minutes of Angry Birds or Facebooking. Next time bump it up to 40 minutes, then an hour, and so on until you are able to realistically accomplish your goal.
Be Realistic and Honest With Yourself
Rachel Brown, director of the Career Center at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, considers goal setting an essential component of effective life management. “Setting goals starts with self-awareness,” says Brown. “Deciding what’s important today can help achieve the things you really want in your future career development.”
She suggests that students begin thinking about their values, aspirations, and abilities by asking themselves:
• What matters to me?
• What gives me satisfaction?
• What am I good at?
• Where would I like to be?
As important as it can be to answer these questions, it’s also important to discover why these things matter to you. Then the challenge is to break long-term ambitions down into shorter-term, achievable objectives.
Marchelle Roberts, a senior at Temple majoring in broadcast journalism, claims that “setting goals is [her] way of life.” Roberts wants to become a journalist and has set her sights on an internship at CBS Radio. In order to accomplish this goal she knows that she will need to work very hard. She focuses on short-term goals. “I set goals every day,” Roberts says. “I usually write them down so I can see them in front of me. This helps me keep track of things that I do and want to do.”
Brown agrees that writing down your goals is a good idea; that way you can remember them and also evaluate their reasonableness.
The SMART Approach
Practical goals are usually specific, measurable, and time-limited. They allow you to evaluate progress and make any necessary adjustments. One commonly used acronym for designing practical goals is SMART (see box on page 21). Some people have even tried to improve on SMART goals by adding Evaluation and Reward.
Julian Otis, a senior music major at Temple, wants to be a vocal performer. He relies on role models to help inspire his goals. “I usually receive advice from people I respect and admire and look at the results of the goals they have set,” Otis says. “Then I go off and do research on my own before committing to a specific goal.” Both Roberts and Otis have taken advantage of the extensive student advising resources available at Temple.
“There’s no such thing as a bad goal,” says Dr. Gillooly. “Every goal provides an opportunity for students to learn more about themselves. When something doesn’t go as planned, it is important not only to look at the goal but your attitude toward it. Was it really valuable to you? What got in the way? Did you break it down into small enough pieces?”
Turn to Others for Help
She reminds her students to use all of their resources, including advisors, friends, and family: “Sometimes it helps to have a friend monitor your success—or take away your telephone for a few hours.” Otis’s mother advised him to write down his long-term goals on a piece of paper. A few months later he used the document to measure his success. As the first in her family to go to college, Roberts notes that her family has been an inspiration to help her juggle school and other priorities.
Three Types of Goals
In their 2007 study of college student self-efficacy and goal orientation, titled “A Closer Look at College Students,” Peggy Hsieh, Jeremy Sullivan, and Norma Guerra of The University of Texas at San Antonio, found that different types of goals had a diverse impact on student motivation and sense of accomplishment. They found three main categories:
Mastery goals are things you are eager to learn or accomplish—you’d take that class even if it weren’t a requirement.
Performance-achievement goals are those things you do for an external reward like good grades.
Performance-avoidance goals are the goals you set in order to save face, like avoiding bad grades.
As a busy college student you already know a lot about accomplishing goals. A little time spent reflecting on how well your goals fit you can help you take charge of your achievement. Developing practical goals is still one of the best ways to secure the foundations of your academic and personal success.
SCOTT COHEN WORKS AS DIRECTOR OF PREVENTION EDUCATION FOR THE BURN FOUNDATION IN PHILADELPHIA AND INTERACTS WITH PROFESSORS AS A GRADUATE STUDENT IN SOCIAL WORK AT TEMPLE UNIVERSITY.
Find Out More
Click for a great resource on motivation and goal setting from the Cuesta College's website.
Click for the more great goal setting tools and resources from the Brookhaven College Counseling Center website.
Choosing SMART(ER) Goals
Specific
Measurable
Active
Realistic
Time-limited
Evaluate them
Reward yourself