Keys to Achievement

4 Strategies for Achievement  Take Reasonable Risk –Set goals that are challenging but attainable –Break tasks down into small, manageable steps  Take responsibility for your outcomes –Believe in your own effort and capability –Build a plan  Search the environment –Ask questions –Build models  Use Feedback –Monitor your actions –Give yourself instructions

4 Strategies for Achievement  Take Reasonable Risk –Set goals that are challenging but attainable –Break tasks down into small, manageable steps  Take responsibility for your outcomes –Believe in your own effort and capability –Build a plan  Search the environment –Ask questions –Build models  Use Feedback –Monitor your actions –Give yourself instructions Go for Goal Bite size Pieces Think Positive Plan Just ask Visualize It Keep Track Tell Yourself

Take Reasonable Risk  Set goals that are challenging but attainable –Go the middle road Take time to think about the path you plan to take –What are the obstacles –What are the challenges –What can help on the way  Easy path can have little or no risk –Thus little or no challenges –Little to learn  Hard path may have great risk –Thus have greater challenges than you are ready to face –You may not learn anything and lose the confidence that a lesson in problem solving can give

Go for the Goal  Set a goal  Make the goal challenging but comfortable –The point of setting a goal is to reach it and receive the reward offered by completing that goal  What are some examples of challenging yet comfortable goals?  How are the new habits you are learning in this class challenging yet comfortable goals?

Bite-Size Pieces  Adjust the risk of the task by adjusting the size of the task  Break the goal down into smaller parts that lead to the final completion of the goal  See the smaller parts as steps to take in completing the goal  Reward yourself

Take responsibility  What people think has a profound influence on how they perform  Believe that you can do something about it  You have the tools to do the task and to do it right area of influence area of concern

Think Positive  ‘How well I do is up to me’  ‘I’ve got what it takes to do it well’  Reward yourself for thinking positive –You are the only one who fully knows what it takes –So be your best friend in a support role

Plan  There is no other link between thought and the outcome other than action  Action without a plan is not part of a goal –It is reaction not proaction  A plan can include modification  Action can include re-evaluation  Responsibility is always part of the action  Remember we are working towards completion of a goal. The outcome may look very different than what was planned but you are still responsible to yourself to complete what you are setting out to do.  Test the plan - if I do this will it result in the outcome I am looking for?

Search the environment  Start the action prepared  Know what tools you can use when you are in action  Know what tools you have in reserve if the action is re-evaluated  These tools can be found in the environment you just have to look

Just ask  Asking for information while searching the environment may give you the very tools you are looking for  But then again it might help only a little or not at all  Maybe you are asking the wrong questions  Maybe you are asking the wrong source  You will not know until you ask

Visualize it  Logic is part of the left-brain, visualizing uses both sides of the brain in problem solving  “That is a half brain idea” –It is only partially thought out  Seeing the problem in your “mind’s eye” can give you a larger picture of not only the problem but the plan and the outcome and even the reward

Use Feedback  This is also part of asking  Feedback works with the plan and action and outcome  You have been your own best friend but you only have one prospective to draw from  Use the wealth of knowledge in the environment to add to what you can learn from the goal  Improvement can only come with understanding of what can be improved

Keep Track  Self-monitoring –Watch yourself to see if you are following the target of the goal you have set out to do  Is this what I planned to do?  Does this make sense to what I am trying to do?  Is this action being effective?  Record what you are doing so that you can track your improvements or what needs to be improved

Tell yourself  Instruct yourself in the steps you need to take to complete the goal  You are your own task master  Reward yourself for completing the step and direct yourself to the next step  Use feedback to tell yourself where you are to the outcome of the goal and how well you are doing-take responsibility and think positive