Goal-Setting Part 1

When I talk to others about my college experience, the first thing I explain is that I wandered around aimlessly for several years as a senior. The first three years of college went quickly, but, after I started my senior year, I got stuck. This is due to the increased responsibilities of motherhood. Each time I had a child, the pressures increased and I lost focus. It was tough to manage school and home life.
After awhile, I got frustrated with school and only took a class here and there. There was no consistency, so graduating always seemed so far away. At this point, no one had ever taught me how to set and reach goals. This was the missing factor in my college experience. Success was at my fingertips. All it would take is a pen and piece of paper, but for a long time my goals went unwritten.

Even after I began to study goal-setting, it took some time for me to realize that I should apply goal-setting to my education. Sure, I used it for my career and home management, but I didn't use it to complete my college degree. It wasn't until I had an “ah hah” moment that I realized how beneficial goal-setting would be to my education.

What many of us do not realize is that when planned, almost anything can be accomplished. Even when the desired goal is long-term and takes many years, we can set goals in such a way that the time seems to pass by quickly. When we are focused on a goal and break it down in to smaller goals, it is almost as though time speeds up, but, truthfully, we are just distracted by reaching the smaller goals. Suddenly, we finish the last smaller goal and we have reached the bigger goal that was so far away.

When I said time seemed to pass by quickly, I used the word seemed. This is due to the fact that time doesn’t speed up or slow down. Time only seems to speed up, because we are focused on accomplishing each goal. It can become a game as we set and reach goals. The ones who find it fun and exciting go on to set and reach many goals. After they get done with one goal, they are off looking for the next goal they can reach.

For example, if my children are bored and the day seems to go by slow, I suggest they help me clean house and suddenly they proclaim they aren’t bored anymore. Well, that is because, when I suggest they help me clean the house, they found something else that was constructive and distracted them. Now, if only I could get them to take me up on my cleaning offer.




One day, I decided to apply my goal-setting knowledge to my degree, and I made a degree plan that would change my life and increase my self-confidence exponentially. I had made small plans, but this time it was more elaborate. This goal had detail and helped me visualize exactly what I desired, and I also became aware of why I wanted my college degree.

It wasn't just about what and why, but my plan also explained the when, where, and who. Every day, I would look at my plan to motivate myself. Many times, I would visualize myself walking across the stage receiving my diploma. This visualization also included how I would feel and how much fun we would have at the graduation party.
Before I wrote my plan, I decided I wanted my degree to increase personal development, increase income and career opportunities, and to set an example for my children. Next, I wrote out every class I needed to complete my degree plan. At this time, I decided to write a deadline for each class. In the following paragraphs, I have written exactly how I designed my college plan, and I’ve also included an example of a goal plan. This goal plan is simple, because not everyone has time or the need for a complicated goal plan. Sometimes, we can become so complicated that we get to caught up in the actual plan and lose focus of our ultimate goal.

When we create our goal plans, we need to have detailed information that will help as we work toward our goal. First, we need to state our goal in specific terms, such as a Bachelors of Art in Literature. If we write down a college degree, we are less likely to visual a degree in our hands. It is important to know exactly what you want, so you can stay focused on the desired goal. One of my problems in the past was vacillating between degrees, so, when I wrote down a specific degree, I stopped hopping from one degree plan to the next. This is a major reason why I actually reached my goal, because I had it written down and could read it whenever I felt overwhelmed or ready to give up.

Second, I calculated how many hours I needed to complete my senior year. Next, I divided the hours needed by 3, because each class was 3 hours. This gave me the number of classes I needed to complete my degree. We are more likely to complete a goal if we know the specific steps needed. In college, each class is a step we take to move closer to our goal. In working toward receiving a promotion at work, specific tasks are steps we can take to reach our goals. These steps are actions that move us closer and closer to our ultimate goal.

Third, I examined what I had accomplished in the past and wrote the hours already completed. Sometimes, if we don’t feel close to completion, we are unable to see what we have already done toward our goals. There may be small things that you have done already, which can make a huge difference. When we add up all the small steps already taken, we usually realize how close we really are to reaching our goals. There is no such thing as an unimportant goal, so we need to take each goal into account.

Fourth, I wrote down the hours left to complete. For other goals this could be the tasks or steps that we need to reach the main goal. This is an important step, because we need to know how far away we are from the finish line. As we accomplish a goal, we can mark the number out and make it smaller until it is at zero. Once it is at zero, we have completed the goal and ready for a new challenge.

Fifth, I wrote down the classes that I needed to take. In my university, there were several that you could take for a specific degree plan. Although I could choice at the time of enrollment what I wanted to take, I decided to write all the classes I wanted before I enrolled in the first class. This way, I didn’t give myself any room for excuses. Sometimes, when we don’t plan, we can find excuses for not accomplishing a goal. When enrollment came around, I could say, “Oh, well, I just don’t know what class to take, so I’m not taking a class this session.” This eliminated the time wasted looking through the class list each session. At the time of registration, I sent in my paperwork without hesitation, because I knew exactly what I was taking at that time.