Setting Goals

What is goal setting?

Goal setting is a purposeful and explicit process that starts with identifying a new objective, skill, or project you want to achieve. Afterward, you make a plan for achieving it, and you work to complete it. A true goal requires careful planning, motivation, and discipline. 

Why is goal setting important?

People set goals for various reasons. Some reasons include: wanting to improve in an area, wanting to achieve something, and wanting to create discipline and focus. Setting goals keeps you moving, increases your happiness, and improves your organization. They help you measure your progress, help you from getting off track, build your confidence, and help you gain support from others.

When should you set a goal?

Here are some questions you can ask yourself to determine whether you need to set a goal(s):

• Do I have any personal improvements I need to make?

• Do I often let day-to-day events overtake the improvements I want to make in myself?

• Do I work better when I give myself a specific task to accomplish?

If you answered “yes” to these questions, you would likely benefit from making a goal. 

Identifying Goal Dimensions

Goals have many different dimensions. Here are some different dimensions to think about:

• Focus area

• Time Period

• Consequences

The Focus area represents the general nature of the goal. Typically these can be:

• Academic performance (e.g. GPA, test performance)

• Experience (e.g. internship, job after college)

• Physical fitness/health (e.g. weight loss)

• Financial (e.g. money earned to pay for college)

• Involvement in activities (e.g. leadership)

Goals can also have a duration. The three main time periods are:

• Micro — goals of less than one month

• Short-term — goals from one month to a year

• Long-term — goals of one year or more

Another way of looking at goals is to consider the consequences if the goal isn’t achieved. Consequences can be categorized as:

• Dire — these goals involve life-threatening situations or major changes in life direction if not achieved

• Serious — these goals involve situations that will take considerable effort to recover from if not achieved

• Important — these are goals that involve realizing opportunities if successful

• Discretionary — these are goals that are something a person wants to do, but not achieving them is not critical

When you are setting goals, it’s useful to think of using these three dimensions. These dimensions are also useful in developing your approach to meeting the goal. Be careful, however, that you don’t set too many goals that any one goal gets ignored. You might have one long-term goal and 2-4 short-term goals. Thus, the goals that you set should be ones that are very important to you.

Writing a Goal Statement

Goals must be written down or else they tend to have minimal influence. Written goal statements should have the following components:

• A description of the outcome you want to achieve

• A specific metric to be used

• A time period for achievement

• A description of what you will be doing to achieve your goal

Here is an example of a good goal statement: I will obtain an internship by the beginning of the second semester (1/15). I will do this by devoting an hour a day to my pursuit of an internship.

Here the outcome is getting an internship. The metric is simply whether an internship is obtained. The time period is January 2015. The activity to achieve this goal is a dedicated one hour per day.

An easy way to remember this is using the SMART acronym which stands for:

• Specific

• Measurable

• Attainable

• Realistic

• Time-bound

Here are some precautions to take when writing your goal statement:

• The outcome is the end result you hope to achieve, not the effort you put into the goal.  For example, you might have an outcome goal of a certain Body Mass Index. That’s an outcome. But a goal shouldn’t be simply working out for one hour a day. That is an input.

• The goal needs to be realistic. Do not set yourself up for failure.

• The time horizon for the goal should be just enough to make it something you think about all the time. When you set too long of a time horizon, you won’t make the effort needed to achieve the goal. If your time horizon is too short, you will set yourself up for unrealistic expectations and be discouraged when you fail.

• Make sure the activities you describe align with the outcome you want to achieve. Many activities tend to be more preparatory rather than focused on the outcome. For example, activities associated with preparing a resume, while important in getting an internship, are not sufficient. If you are serious about your goal, your activities need to include actual contacts with employers.

• You might want to divide your goal statement into more bite-size chunks if you feel it is too large. For example, you could set monthly weight loss goals rather than a semester-long weight loss goal.

Once your goal statement is written, post it someplace where you will see it every day (e.g. bathroom mirror, refrigerator). This will keep it on your mind.

Setting Micro Goals

Many of the goals that we set tend to be very short-term (e.g. getting an A on a test).  These goals can be very useful to maintain focus when a lot of things are competing for your time.

Micro goals, unlike short-term and long-term goals, don’t need to be written down. Here are some ways to use micro goals:

• Each night before you go to sleep set 5-7 micro-goals to achieve for the next day.  These can include completing a homework assignment, getting a specific grade on a test, or meeting with a study group. Once you have your list you can include them on your daily checklist.

• When you begin an assignment, set a micro goal for how long you plan to spend on the assignment.

• Set micro goals for using your time between classes.

• Set micro goals for personal needs such as:

  • Sleep – amount and consistency

  • Food intake – quantity, quality

  • Drinking – consumption amounts

  • Exercise – time spent

• Set micro goals for study/fun ratios.

• Set micro goals for meeting new people.

• Set micro goals for getting involved in campus activities.

• Set micro goals for meeting with faculty or your advisor.

Setting Short-Term Goals

Short-term goals are generally attainable between one month to one year. These tend to be the goals you set at the beginning of a new year, a new semester, or when something new is happening in your life.

Short-term goals are often not met for a variety of reasons:

• The time frame is too long to sustain the goal focus

• The goal is unrealistic

• You give up on the goal once you have a setback

Here are some suggestions for setting and achieving short-term goals.

• Shorten the time frames – while setting a GPA goal for the semester is good, you can be more effective in setting goals for the next test or assignment in each of your classes.

• For each short-term goal you set, create a very specific list of what it will take to achieve the goal. Then check each item on the list as you complete them.

• Make the goal something you can realistically achieve not something you hope to do. Having a goal that is unrealistic, often results in simply giving up on the goal itself as soon as you encounter the first setback.

• Don’t treat goals as Achieved/Not Achieved. Think of goals as a continuum. What you don’t want to do is to set yourself up for failure should you not meet a specific numerical goal or a smaller task within the goal.

• Goal setting can be learned through experience. Once you have been through one cycle of setting short-term goals see how you can change or improve your goal-setting skills.

Setting Long-Term Goals

Long-term goals are longer than a year. An example of a long-term goal is to graduate with a specific degree. Another long-term goal is to secure a good job when you graduate.

There are two types of long-term goals:

• Type 1: Those that you expect to occur during your life’s journey (e.g. a degree, a job, a home, a family). These goals are easy to set. The challenge comes from how specific you want to make them.

• Type 2: Those that define you as a person. These goals are special to you. For example, you might have a long-term goal of becoming the person that others look to for inspiration. These goals require a lot of personal reflection about who you are and what you want to be noted for. It is ok if you do not know that now.

Here are some suggestions for setting long-term goals:

• Set 3-4 Type 1 long-term goals. Specify dates for achieving these goals.

• If you have some personal things you want to achieve in your life, describe these as goals. These don’t have to be very specific. They can be broad statements, but try to do them in terms that are specific to you. “Be successful in my career” is too broad “Be selected as a top leader in the organization where I work” is a much better goal.

• Write down the goals and put these with personal papers that are very important to you.

• Identify one day each year (e.g. your birthday, new year) to review your long-term goals. Over time, type 1 goals will be achieved and type 2 goals will become more important to you.

It is important to set long-term goals while you are in college since many of your long-term goals will be enabled by what you do in college. It’s important to have these long-term goals in mind as you are dealing with the challenges in college and to use them as an overall guide for your short-term and micro goals.

Measuring Goal Achievement:

If you are serious about your goals, you need to develop a way to measure and track your progress. Here are ways you can do this:

• Numerical Values – If your goal is related to earning a certain grade in a class, you can keep a record of your grades as your measure.

• Yes/No Values – Some goals relate to something you plan to do or not do. For example, if you have a goal of exercising each day, then you can keep a record of days you exercised (Yes) or didn’t (No). 

• Sense of achievement – Some goals are more intangible (e.g. reduction in stress). For goals like this, the best way to measure them is to write a recap each day of how you felt about your goal. 

No matter how you decide to measure your goals, you need to display your measurement in a visual way and keep track of it. Just having a visual in a permanent location can be the reminder you need.

Challenges to Goal Setting and Achievement:

There are many reasons why we ignore goals including:

• We don’t know how to set goals

• We don’t know the value of having goals

• We have set goals in the past but they didn’t help

• We feel that we don’t have control over our lives to achieve personal goals

While these challenges are real, they aren’t unconquerable. Setting goals is an acquired ability.

The best way to learn to set goals is to just start. Set a goal for a week related to something you know you need to do but haven’t been successful in accomplishing. This could be something academic, health-related, or social. Then build on it. 

One valuable asset in goal setting is to have a mentor to who you can talk about your goals. A mentor can help keep you on track with your goal achievement, suggest other goals, and review your goal statements to see how realistic they are.