Goal 

/ɡōl/

The object of a person’s ambition or effort; an aim or desired result. 

College students are busy. It’s a given fact, but that doesn’t mean you should forget the importance of setting goals and rewarding yourself.

Goal setting should be a normal routine in daily lives for many reasons. I believe the most crucial reason for goal setting is to feel a sense of accomplishment.

According to the University of Central Florida, mastering this skill comes with many benefits. Without a clear definition of what success means to you, how will you ever know what you achieve?

Maybe it’s conceited. Maybe it should be a boost of confidence. The only person who can tell you what you are capable of is you, and nothing is more rewarding than experiencing that first hand. 

Motivation is an indispensable element in life. Expecting to experience motivation will be difficult if you fall out of reach to many things. It could be something as simple as setting a daily goal by doing your laundry. As soon as you accomplish that goal, it will give you the motivation to set more. 

It’s effortless to mentally introduce goals into your lifestyle, but journaling and writing them down hold you accountable. This could be on sticky notes on your bathroom mirror, a separate journal you leave open on your desk, or even in your planner.

Speaking of your planner, did you know you set goals every day in it? It might look something like “COMM 275 homework” or “email professor about registration.” Whether you believe it or not, those are all goals. 

You won’t always attain your goals every single day, but putting them into words makes a good start; they crossed your mind, and that’s the point. My planner follows me everywhere, and I write down everything. I write down everything because it is extremely gratifying to cross something out, saying, ‘I did that.’

Short term goals lead to long term goals. They serve as a progress report for life, your semester academic status, or your mental health. Looking back two years ago, I never would have been able to accomplish the things I do in a day.

As much as achieving is fulfilling, it could also be dissatisfying. Children, students, and adults experience stagnation daily. Not everyone is capable of crushing 17 goals every day, or even one for that matter. There are some days where I accomplish none, and that’s okay because I know I have some for tomorrow that I can go get.

Goal setting is good for reminding yourself to relax as much as to be proactive throughout your day. From experience, I find it difficult to relax when I have a paper due in two weeks because I could definitely be working on it and end up guilt-tripping myself into attempting this paper I have no motivation for. Before you even ask, yes, I set reminders to cut myself some slack and give myself a break.

It’s easy to forget that as much as you want to goal set, not all of them are attainable day in and day out. Remember to give yourself breaks, remind yourself of all you’ve managed to accomplish that day, and do your best not to beat yourself up. 

My intention was to encourage you to remind yourself daily how proud you are of how far you’ve come and to maybe invest in a planner. A pack of sticky notes would do fine if you aren’t a commitment person. 

Taking 16 credit hours, playing a sport, co-chair of this organization, member of that organization, social media coordinator for this, Dean’s List, volunteer at this shelter, all while a global pandemic turns our lives around. 

Family and business professionals ask us how we do it. We say it’s because we have ambition, but ambition stems from motivation, follows goal setting.