Goal Setting

I remember back in middle school sometime during the first week or so back at school my homeroom teacher would make us all sit down and fill out a goal sheet. At the time I thought it was dumb. What was the point of writing down my goals. Of course I wanted to do well in all my classes. Why couldn't she just accept that and move on? Why did I have to be so specific as to what I wanted my grades to be like? At the time I didn't understand the importance of goal setting and making sure that I was setting SMART (Specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely) goals. By putting pen to paper and reflecting on what I want to or need to accomplish is very powerful for me. I can take the time to determine what has to get done and what I need to do in order to achieve that. For myself personally Specific and Timely are two very important things. I can say I want to do well in a class but what does that really mean? Being specific helps me get things accomplished. Timely is important too, it allows for me to follow up with my goals at certain time increments. With classes time is somewhat built in, I can determine how well I am doing after a test or a midterm and reevaluate and readjust from there. For personal goals I need to be more diligent in setting time to evaluate them.

Do you set goals? If so, what is important to you in goal setting?

Jaclyn

PS. Here is my free printable goal setting template.