VALUES AND GOAL SETTING Plan and achieve life goals

TYPES OF GOALS Short term These can be reached in a couple of days or weeks. Achieving these encourages you to keep going and to remain motivated. Medium term These take months to achieve. Examples: Increasing your marks in a subject or improving your performance in a sport. Long term These take years to complete and form part of the process of developing a personal growth plan. They are usually broken down into a series of short term and medium term goals.

THEY SHOULD ALL FIT TOGETHER… You should have a personal development plan, a big picture, a life dream and you should be working towards that. Your short and medium term goals are all steps in that direction. Every time you have to make a decision a part of the process should be you asking the question: Does this take me a step closer towards achieving my personal development plan or does it take me a step further away?

1. PLANNING You need to determine: Exactly what you want to achieve; Why you want to achieve it; How you will achieve it; When you want to achieve it.

We need to set SMART goals… People set goals often but then we: FORGET ABOUT THEM GIVE UP ON THEM GET TOO BUSY ARE DISAPPOINTED MAKE NEW ONES THAT ARE EASIER TO ACCOMPLISH This is often because the goals we set in the first place were not very smart. We need to set SMART goals… S – Specific Clear specific goals creates something precise to aim towards M – measurable If you able to measure your goal, you can break it down into milestones & track your progress A – achievable Demotivating if you can reach your goal. R – Realistic Realistic & achievable T – timebound Without a deadline, goals become things we mean to acvhieve

2. SMART GOAL SETTING You have all dealt with SMART goals over the past couple of years. Just a reminder: SPECIFIC You have to be specific – decide exactly what the goal is and what the exact things are that you will do to achieve that goal. It is not good enough to say that you will do better at school. You need to be specific about how much better and how you will achieve this. MEASURABLE Include number or steps that you can evaluate and measure. There are always steps that you can take to reach your goals – these need to be measurable so that you can tick them off as you achieve them. ACHIEVABLE It can be very demotivating if your goal is too far from your reach. Goals need to be achievable, not too easy to achieve but also not too difficult. REALISTIC Small increments have greater chance of success. Do not aim to underachieve but you must be realistic and know that it is possible for you to achieve your particular goal. TIME Give yourself a realistic time frame in which to achieve your goal. Re-evaluate from time to time and do something different if necessary.

GOAL AND VALUES You must align your goals to your values.

Influences on: Goal Setting CULTURE RELATIONSHIPS MEDIA Culture: Norms, practices, Language, Nationality Role Models: Personal, Famous Religious Relationship: Family, Friends, Boyfriend/girlfriend Education: Access to resources, Junior school, High school, Educational beliefs Media: Print media, social media Groups of two jot down external factors you think would influence you, and why? (Compile a google doc together) RELIGIOUS BELIEFS ROLE MODELS EDUCATION

Obstacles to Achieving Goals

LIFE IS HARD Problem solving While you have every intention of achieving your goals when you first make them unexpected problems might come up and you will need to use problem solving skills. Perseverance and Persistence There will be obstacles. Expect them and persevere through them. “I am convinced that about half of what separates the successful person from the non-successful person is pure perseverance.” Steve Jobs Prioritising Prioritising goals involves planning your actions so that the most important things get done first and get the majority of your time.

Goal Setting across