Goal Setting
What s Goal Setting
Goal setting is a process that can help you
improve yourself and feel good about who
you are. It is a means of getting yourself
motivated about self-improvement and
establishing a positive lifestyle. In this unit
the concepts regarding short term and long
terms goals will be explored. You must
realize that the entire goal setting process
in establishing these goals is very significant. It will be this process that will help
you to fully understand what you want to
accomplish and how to get there. The goal
setting process itself is not difficult, but it
will take some effort and commitment on
your part.
Goal Setting is Like a Ladder
The establishment of goals can be compared to a ladder. Think of the top rung
as your long-term goal and the rungs
leading to it as your short term goals.
Each rung (your short-term goals) that
you climb will put you in a better position to reach your long-term goal.
Goals should not be too difficult to
achieve. Once you achieve a goal you
will gain an appreciation of accomplishment and success. Reaching even one short term goal
can lead to a self-motivation and will encourage you to continue climbing the ladder to your long range goal. By setting
goals using this ladder analogy you will experience real progress and a sense of confidence. This increase in selfconfidence should inspire you to want to reach higher goals.
It is through this goal setting process, that as you continue to
reach short-term goals and move on to higher goals that you
truly reach your potential.
Long Range Goals
A long range goal would be considered a major accomplishment that you have decided you want to work towards.
Some of your goals might take a long time to reach, perhaps
years. An example of a long-range goal would be to go to
college. Another long range goal might be to work hard
now to save money to buy a car for when you can legally
drive. Understand that long range goals do not necessarily
have to take years to accomplish. You
might have a goal of being an ASB
leader at school sometime during your
time at Heatherwood. What is important to understand about long-range
goals is that they cannot be achieved in
a short period of time. Also, long-range
goals usually have steps you must accomplish prior to meeting your longrange goals. These steps are called
short-range goals.
Short-Range Goals
Short-range goals are goals that can be established to help
you achieve your long-range goal. Short-term goals can
also help you to accomplish something in a short period of
time. Short-range goals are usually very specific and can be
reached in a short amount of time such as a few days or
weeks. These short-range goals are
the building blocks of your longrange goals which take a much longer time and are generally very broad
in scope. An example of a shortrange goal could be studying for a
specific exam. Since your long-range
goal might be to achieve a high
grade in a particular class, your short
-range goals would be to study and
prepare yourself to be successful with the day to day assignments, quizzes and exams.
Desire
Desire is one of the most important factors in goal setting.
Wanting to improve yourself in some way is essential before you can start the goal setting process. Also, keep in
mind that goals are personal and the goals you set should be
something that is important to you. Although other people
can help and advise you on what goals might be important,
it does come down to you as to what goals to set. It is important to realize that while you are working to reach your
goals you will only achieve certain results that will be consistent with your effort. In other words, what you personally
will get from goal setting is directly related to the effort you
put into it.
Confidence
Wanting to make a change and doing something about it are
two different things. You undoubtedly know people who
want to be more successful in school and achieve high
grades but never do. In all probability they simply did not
have the self-confidence that they could actually achieve a
high grade. Perhaps they also did not
have the self-discipline to work hard
and to strive to be successful in all that
it takes to achieve those high grades.
The ability to have self-confidence and
believe you can accomplish your goals
is a very significant part of the goal
setting process. Without this element of
confidence you might lose your selfmotivation when some type of difficulty comes your way as you are working towards meeting your goal. Just
remember to have perseverance and
keep your goal in sight and know that
the sense of accomplishment far out
weighs the difficulties you might experience along the way.
Goal Setting
Analyze Where You Are At
Knowing your starting point is essential to establishing your
short-range and long-range goals. For example if you want to
achieve a high grade in a particular class, you would need to
know what your current grade is. You would also need to
know how to improve your current work habits to improve
your score. Recording assignments and ideas on how to improve in this particular class provide valuable information
needed in identifying the steps you need to take for improvement to occur. Another example would be our fitness class
where we have already taken fitness tests to establish a base
line indicator to measure improvement.
In order to improve your fitness level
then you would want to focus on how
you would increase and improve in
flexibility, cardiovascular endurance,
muscular strength, muscular endurance
and body composition.
Set Realistic Goals
It is important to set goals that are realistic. Understand that a
realistic goal is one that you can reach. If your goals are too
hard to reach, you may be discouraged and give up. If you set
goals that are too easy then you might get board and loose
interest. What is important is to set goals that will stretch you
out of your comfort zone and help you to improve during this
process.
Accomplishing something that has pushed you to a new level
will help to build self-confidence. It will be the development
of this self-confidence that will encourage you to set more
goals and accomplish many more things.
Realistic goal setting is based on an accurate self evaluation
of where you are at right now. For instance you might have a
goal of being able to run the mile under 8 minutes. However,
if you can’t even jog one lap around the track, that might be
unrealistic at this point. Therefore, being realistic in evaluating your current cardiovascular level is significant. Your goal
should be to work towards being able to jog one lap, then
two, then three and four. Once you can jog the whole mile
then you try to gradually lower your time. Eventually you
will reach that point when you can run a mile under 8
minutes. Keep in mind though, it
will take hard work, patience and
perseverance to attain your cardiovascular goal.
Write Your Goals in Detail
Writing your goals down helps you to clarify what you want
to accomplish. When you take the time to think about what
you would be interested in improving, it is more or less a
wish. However, when you take the time to write out your
ideas and establish what you want to improve then you having taken the first step in making that idea happen. Also, by
writing out your goals you allow yourself to get a better picture of what it is you really want to accomplish. In time, you
may find the need to go back and re-read your goal for clarification.
List The Benefits of Your Goals
Identifying how you will benefit from
meeting your goals are also an important
aspect of goal setting. Through the process of writing out your goals and their
benefits you will end up with a list that
will help to motivate you and provide
perseverance when difficulties come up.
Knowing what you want to accomplish,
how to do it and what you receive out of
the process will greatly help out your self
-confidence. Also, keep in mind that the
more benefits you can write out will help
to increase your desire to be successful.
Identify Potential Obstacles
If you have never set goals before you may not be able to
foresee the obstacles that could arise during the process. On
the other hand if you have tried to accomplish something and
have failed then you can fully appreciate various things that
can cause you to doubt your potential success. While some
obstacles may center on you and your attitude to succeed,
some may center on friends. Keep in mind
that there is very little you cannot achieve in
the areas of health and fitness. If you have
good self-confidence and perseverance, then
you have the power to control your own success to shape your lifestyle.
Identify What You Will Need
Wanting something and being able to
achieve it are two very different things.
If you want to reduce the stress in your
life, you cannot wish it away. You will
need to know how to reduce your stress
level before you can actually do it. This
example for the need of knowledge is
common in any type of goal setting.
Create An Action Plan and Time Line
After you have taken sometime to reflect on what you would
like to improve, make a plan. Write out in a step by step
format what your goals are and a strategy for accomplishing
them. Setting your goals within a time frame is also a simple
and effective method to organize and plan your course towards major goals.
Monitor Your Progress
Any type of goal setting process should be accompanied by
continuous monitoring to determine whether your goals are
still reasonable. At times you might find it necessary to adjust or even change your goals. A good monitoring program
will keep you from wasting your time or loosing interest in
the process.