Goal Setting
Defining Our Goals
Below is a set of questions we can ask ourselves at any turn to help focus on personal goals:
- What are my top-priority goals?
- Which of my skills and interests make my goals realistic for me?
- What makes my goals believable and possible?
- Are my goals measurable? How long will it take me to reach them? How will I know if I have achieved them?
- Are my goals flexible? What will I do if I experience a setback?
- Are my goal controllable? Can I achieve them on my own?
- Are my goals in sync with my values?
Determining You Values
Values are the basic beliefs that guide our thinking and actions. Whether we are consciously aware of them or not, values influence both our attitudes and our actions. They help us determine what is important and what makes us happy. It is important to think about and reflect on your values, especially as you make decisions.
To begin to identify some of your personal values, consider the examples listed below. As a first step, select the five that you find most important, that bring you the greatest happiness, or that make you feel the most proud. Then, rank those five values in order of importance. Feel encouraged to write in other options that are relevant to you.
| Achievement | Efficiency | Hard Work | Positivity |
| Adventure | Empathy | Health | Security |
| Ambition | Equality | Honesty | Selflessness |
| Balance | Excellence | Honor | Service |
| Belonging | Exploration | Humility | Simplicity |
| Calm | Fairness | Independence | Spontaneity |
| Challenge | Faith | Intelligence | Stability |
| Commitment | Family | Joy | Strength |
| Community | Fitness | Justice | Success |
| Competition | Flexibility | Love | Trustworthiness |
| Contribution | Freedom | Loyalty | Understanding |
| Control | Friends | Making a Difference | Uniqueness |
| Creativity | Fun | Merit | |
| Curiosity | Generosity | Openness | |
| Dependability | Growth | Originality | |
| Diversity | Happiness | Perfection |
Another way to recognize the important influence of values is to consider if you have ever made a decision that you later regretted. Did you reflect on your values prior to making that choice? Sometimes others ask us to do things that are inconsistent with our values. Knowing what you value and making plans accordingly is an important effort to help you stay on track toward your goals.
Goals and Planning
Have you ever put together a jigsaw puzzle? Many people start by looking for the edge and corner pieces to assemble the border. Some will then group pieces with similar colors, while others just try to fit in new pieces as they pick them up. Regardless of strategy, a jigsaw puzzle is most easily solved when people have a picture to reference. When you know what the picture should look like, you can gauge your progress and avoid making mistakes. If you were to put a puzzle together facedown (cardboard side up, rather than picture side up), you could still connect the pieces, but it would take you much longer to understand how it should fit together. Your attempts, beyond the border, would be mostly by trial and error. Pursuing anything without goals and a plan is like putting together an upside-down puzzle. You can still finish, or get to where you’re meant to be, but it will take you much longer to determine your steps along the way.
Long-Term Goals
Long-term goals are future goals that often take years to complete. An example of a long-term goal might be to complete a bachelor of arts degree within four years. Another example might be purchasing a home or running a marathon. While this chapter focuses on academic and career planning, long-term goals are not exclusive to these areas of your life. You might set long-term goals related to fitness, wellness, spirituality, and relationships, among many others. When you set a long-term goal in any aspect of your life, you are demonstrating a commitment to dedicate time and effort toward making progress in that area. Because of this commitment, it is important that your long-term goals are aligned with your values.
Short-Term Goals
Setting short-term goals helps you consider the necessary steps you’ll need to take, but it also helps to chunk a larger effort into smaller, more manageable tasks. It’s easier to stay focused and you’ll become less overwhelmed in the process of completing short-term goals.
You might assume that short-term and long-term goals are different goals that vary in the length of time they take to complete. Given this assumption, you might give the example of a long-term goal of learning how to create an app and a short-term goal of remembering to pay your cell phone bill this weekend. These are valid goals, but they don’t exactly demonstrate the intention of short- and long-term goals for the purposes of effective planning.
Instead of just being bound by the difference of time, short-term goals are the action steps that take less time to complete than a long-term goal, but that help you work toward your long-term goals. To determine your best degree option, it might make sense to do some research to determine what kind of career you’re most interested in pursuing. Or, if you recall that short-term goal of paying your cell phone bill this weekend, perhaps this short-term goal is related to a longer-term goal of learning how to better manage your budgeting and finances.
Planning for Adjustments
Far too often, we set goals with the best of intentions but then fail to keep track of our progress or adjust our short-term goals if they’re not helping us to progress as quickly as we’d like. When setting goals, the most successful planners also consider when they will evaluate their progress. At that time, perhaps after each short-term goal should have been met, they may reflect on the following:
- Am I meeting my short-term goals as planned?
- If so, celebrate!
- If not, you may want to additionally consider:
- Are my short-term goals still planned across time in a way where they will meet my long-term goals?
- If so, continue on your path.
- If not, reconsider the steps you need to take to meet your long-term goal. If you’ve gotten off track or if you’ve learned that other steps must be taken, set new short-term goals with timelines appropriate to each step. You may also want to seek some additional advice from others who have successfully met long-term goals that are similar to your own.
- Are my long-term goals still relevant, or have my values changed since I set my goals?
- If your goals are still relevant to your interests and values, then continue on your path, seeking advice and support as needed to stay on track.
- If your goals are no longer relevant or aligned with your values, give careful consideration to setting new goals.
While departing from your original goals may seem like a failure, taking the time to reflect on goals before you set them aside to develop new ones is a success. Pivoting from a goal to new, better-fitting goal involves increased self-awareness and increased knowledge about the processes surrounding your specific goal (such as the details of a college transfer, for example). With careful reflection and information seeking, your change in plans may even demonstrate learning and increased maturity!
Remixed with:
Baldwin, Amy. “Defining Values and Setting Goals.” College Success, OpenStax, https://openstax.org/books/college-success/pages/4-1-defining-values-and-setting-goals.
Bruce, Linda. “Defining Goals.” College Success, Lumen Learning, https://courses.lumenlearning.com/lumencollegesuccessxtraining3/chapter/defining-goals/.
