Some of you might have made some new resolutions for the new year. I stopped doing that a long time ago, when I realised that I had forgotten half of them by April or did not follow through with a lot of them. I want to challenge you to go beyond making new year resolutions and to develop goals and action steps for yourself for 2014. It will help you achieve much better. If you do not have a plan to guide your actions, the chances are good that you will not be focusing your energy on the areas that really matter. If you do not have a map to guide you, you will find it difficult to reach your desired destination.

The new year tends to pass quite quickly. You need to be ready to tackle the year with a well- developed plan. The following three points could assist you to develop goals for success.

  1. Be serious about your intentions for the year. Think about what you would like to achieve.  Develop realistic and measurable goals. You should not have too many goals (4 to 5 are sufficient), but they should focus on the important aspects of your life. Examples are: Academic and study activities, leisure activities, developing yourself, and personal relationships.
  2. Develop a written plan for the year that would guide your actions. Once it is written down, you can start to monitor and measure your outcomes and make adjustments as needed. A written plan acts as a map to guide you and you can use it to visualise how you will achieve your goals.
  3. Finally, you have to be willing to take the necessary action steps. See your goals as a project and commit to it on an intellectual, emotional and spiritual level. Successful people are always busy executing their plans and taking the steps to reach the desired outcomes. This is a way of developing and establishing good habits.

No matter what happened in the past, the new year provides us with the opportunity to start afresh.  If you have clear goals, with focused activity, it will help you maintain motivation. So often we are busy with unfocused activity, which can leave us unsatisfied. Clear and defined goals give us purpose. Remember, it takes effort and discipline to work towards your goals, but it is worth it when you achieve them.  So keep your life exciting and interesting by setting goals for success.

The secret of success is constancy of purpose – Benjamin Disraeli

Contact Student Counselling for more information on Setting Goals or to speak to a counsellor.

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Submitted by Abie De Villiers (HOD, Student Counselling, Bellville)

Article source: CPUT Blogs