If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves.
~ Thomas Edison ~
It's tough being an adolescent. One minute, your parents and other adults in your life are telling you what to learn, how to act and where to work and the next it's all up to you. You're not totally on your own but, almost overnight, that thing you've longed for since you were five is suddenly yours.
Independence.
Suddenly, people are expecting you to make decisions — what will you study, what career are you aiming for, where is your relationship heading, do you have enough money, when will you start a family ...
Maybe you're nodding and saying, "I've got this." Or maybe you're trying to hide in a corner and whimpering, "I don't know.'
These decisions you're being asked to make all come down to goals. Academic goals. Career goals. Life goals.
Knowing how to set goals is one thing — you've probably been learning about SMART goals and how to set them since you were in primary school.
Knowing why you need to set them — in fact, knowing your why — is something different entirely.
Let's take a look at why setting goals is so crucial and the sorts of goals you'll probably be looking at setting at this stage of your life.
Your Life is Determined by You
Some people believe that our life is mapped out for us. Other people believe our life is what we make of it.
I tend to believe life is a bit of both. Some things are out of our control; they don't go to plan despite our learning, motivation, positive attitude or skills. But other things are fully within our control, which is where goals and goal setting come in.
However, it is important to remember that we can go about setting goals until we're blue in the face but we won't achieve them without taking the time to action them or taking the time to track our progress.
The results of the Mission Australia youth survey, conducted in 2020, are interesting to note. The survey found that 41.8% of young people in Australia felt somewhat confident they would achieve their study or work goals. A little under ten per cent were extremely confident and less than three per cent were not confident at all.
That's only just over 50% of people feeling confident about achieving their goals. What about the other 50%? What is it that they aren't confident about — have they set goals that are too hard, too unrealistic, not specific enough or simply not governed by a time deadline? Are they seeing no progress? Have they lost their motivation somehow?
Chances are if your goals aren't cutting it for you — you've set the wrong goals.
You are in charge of your life and, with that, you are in charge of the life goals you set and you alone are responsible for your progress.
Setting Goals Leads to Success
There are so many areas to focus on that life can become overwhelming for students. There are distractions — friends, social media, relationships — and various personal and academic challenges that may lead to students feeling frustrated and unable to set goals they feel are meaningful.
This is where the SMART acronym can come in handy, especially as it will work for both long term and short term goals.
SMART goals are: Specific, Meaningful, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound
You can check the goals you already have set against the SMART acronym, or you can plan each goal around it. You can also change your current goals to better meet your needs.
Setting goals and achieving them takes both practice and patience. Building up goal-setting skills should happen step by step. Start with a focus on short term goals in only one or two areas, then work your way up to incorporate some long term goals into your process.
At the end of the day, it's important to keep reminding yourself that a carefully set SMART goal, in which you track your progress, is the goal that will lead to long term success.
Personal Goals: It's All About You
Pretty much all goals that you set for yourself are personal goals. Generally, they fall into the broad categories of:
- work or career
- relationships (social)
- money
- family
- health
- personal time and recreation
- experience (or life goals, such as travel)
- education.
Just that list on its own can be a bit daunting but don't feel you have to start by setting a goal for every category. A surefire way of ensuring you don't achieve success is to set yourself too many targets because you won't progress in any of them. Remember, they're personal goals — so they have to mean something to you, you have to be able to achieve them and they need to align with your values.
If you're a student in the middle years of your compulsory schooling, your main focus is probably going to fall in the relationships category or possibly the health or money categories. If that's the case, focus on goals for these areas and don't stress too much about the others for now.
Older students are more likely to have a focus on career or experience, while the focus areas for younger students may be more aligned with family and recreation.
Personal goals are super important to your well-being and personal growth. Achieving success with short term personal goals can also help you stay positive and give you the motivation to succeed with your education goals.
Academic Goals
Remember, people who set goals are more likely to achieve success. In fact, studies have shown that students from primary school and up who set goals in subject areas like maths, improve their overall performance more than students who don't.
A goal gives you something to strive for and an endpoint to focus on. Without that focus, you'll be all over the place and possibly even going around in circles, making no progress at all.
Setting and achieving academic goals can pave the way for the achievement of other personal and life goals as well, including career, money, business relationships and personal management.
As a student, your academic-related goals may be very specific and results-driven: I will achieve an A in Maths by the end of the year.
Or, they may be based more around academic skills, including:
- time management
- positive attitude
- at-home study plan
- team work
- independent learning
- study (work)/life balance.
As students get older and their goals start to centre more around education for career advancement, they may find their goals are becoming more specific with more steps to achievement and a longer time frame in which to achieve success.
Find tips for setting goals before heading back to school on Superprof.
Long Term Life Goals
Generally speaking, life goals can be broken down into two main groups: lifetime goals and life-based goals.
Your life-based goals are actually your personal goals, where the focus can be any one (or more) of areas including career, money, relationships, family, health, business or spirituality.
Lifetime goals are the biggest and best goals — they are your dreams and your ultimate reason for happiness. Your lifetime goals or dreams form the basis of your day-to-day motivation. They are definitely long term goals and are likely to be broken up into numerous short term goals or steps. Simply put, your life (or lifetime) goals are not something you can achieve overnight.
Your life goal is connected with your life dream, as well as your overall vision and purpose in life. It can occur at any point in life — adolescence, early adult life, middle-age, or old age. And the best thing is, there is no limit to what you can set to achieve in your lifetime.
Your life goals are those goals you dream about — continually. They tick quietly away in the back of your mind, chipping away and celebrating each time you're a little step closer.
Setting your life goals should not be difficult. Making sure they're SMART is a good idea. The most difficult part is maintaining your focus on the 'prize' and staying positive even when things look bleak.
Focus on the positive outcomes; celebrate each achievement, no matter how tiny. Once you have the hang of it, be sure to never let a day go by where you're not setting a goal or striving towards a goal.
Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.
~ Arthur Ashe ~
Success will come your way.
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