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Here’s the thing: I don’t like to make long-term goals for myself because I’m afraid that I won’t achieve them.  I’m the first to admit that I’m a perfectionist and I’m easily tripped up when things don’t go how I planned.  I bet a lot of you other bloggers reading this post are perfectionists, too.  Because you don’t write about your life on a website unless you know your life is pretty good.  Thus, goals might scare you, too.

Let’s all work on this, because apparently setting goals and working to reach them is a pretty good habit to get into.  So I’m going to try it.

 

 

This past spring I attended a workshop/seminar/class thingy that taught me a great method for setting good goals.  Here are 5 criteria for setting goals that you can actually achieve.

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The “A” in this chart can stand for attainable or ambitious.  I prefer ambitious because I think attainable and realistic are nearly synonymous with each other.  The rest is pretty self-explanatory.  If your goal don’t satisfy these five criteria, then change it so it does.  Here’s an example.

Bad goal:  I will do all the reading for all my classes.

The main problem with this goal is that it just is not going to happen.  Sorry.

Better goal:  I want to stay caught up on all the required reading for my four classes this quarter.

This might actually happen.  I’ll keep you posted.

 

I tend to make goals for myself that depend on outside factors, which is a bad idea because no matter how hard I work, I might not accomplish my goal and be disappointed.  For example, I’d like to hold an executive position in my sorority.  Other members just might be better candidates for the positions that I want, and I have no control over that.  Thus, this isn’t a good goal.

I’m going to add a Y for “you” because goals for yourself should refer to tasks that you are in control of yourself.  SMARTY goals.  🙂

 

I also neglect to realize that maintaining something I already do can be a good goal, too.  I like where my GPA is at now, so my goal is to maintain or improve it.  If my classes end up being incredibly difficult, then maintaining my GPA is an attainable, realistic goal.

I made a Word document with my goals so I can easily reference and change them if I need to.

Yay!

 

What are some of YOUR goals for Fall?

Any goal-setting or goal-keeping tips?

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