Setting Goals for the New Year

The importance of goal setting

Before you get around to setting your goals, knowing the role that goals play in your daily life can help you decide what you want to focus on. Many people believe goal setting exists to motivate you to put in the required work and keep your eyes on the future. However, having multiple goals every year that are poorly crafted and failing to achieve them can dampen your spirits, lead you to give up on having any expectations and cause you to lose faith in your abilities. A well-crafted goal will give you clarity of mind, motivate you at every turn and help you make the best use of your resources.

Setting a S.M.A.R.T goal

People often say, "Shoot for the Moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars!". While it is important to dream big, make sure your goals for the year are not too lofty and out of reach! We want our goals to be reasonable so that we can actually take action towards them and enjoy the fruits of our labour. You can use the SMART goal framework to break your goals down and make them easier to approach and tackle. A SMART goal should be: Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant and Time Related. For example, instead of telling yourself to ”improve composition writing skills” you can set a goal that sounds like this: “Every Saturday I will have a 90 minute revision session. I will do outlines for 3 composition topics and look through my notes on creative writing techniques and write down ideas for what I can apply from those to these 3 essays”. This will help you visualise what you are setting out to do!

Translating goals into routines

To get closer to your goals, you have to remain consistent with the actions you’re taking to achieve them. The key to consistency is a strong routine! Setting up routines to align with your goals can help you manage the time you have at your disposal to achieve your biggest dreams. Firstly, bring your goals closer. If your long term goal is to get an A for Science for the year-end examinations, set short term goals that lead up to this. What is your goal for the first term? Use the SMART goal framework to make a list of actions you need to take to reach your short term goal. Once you have an action plan, it’s time to incorporate these actions into your routine! The best way to set up a routine is to attach the actions you hope to take to something you already do everyday. This is called habit stacking. Create multiple habit stacks, and you will end up with a full routine!

Tracking your goals and being flexible

Don’t just rely on just your school’s report card, track your own progress after every test and assignment! Watching yourself improve, no matter the pace, will help you keep working towards your goals. Reward yourself for good progress. Hearing validation from your parents and teachers can be nice but give yourself a pat on the back too! On the flip side, not seeing progress can be disappointing, but nothing is more upsetting in the long run than finding out that you spent most of your time on a method of learning that does not work for you! Facing the reality of your progress (or lack thereof) can help you quickly spot any holes in your plans and make the necessary changes. As you go along, you might also want to adjust your goals to make some of them more reasonable or to push yourself further.

A final piece of advice: be mindful of the way you speak to yourself! Positive self-talk goes a long way in helping you reach your goals. Create good feelings around the actions you are trying to take, and you will be driven to repeat them. Good luck!