Build Your Confidence and Boost Your Achievement with SMART Goals

What is the point of setting goals?

Goals help you focus. They help you measure your progress, motivate you and keep you accountable to yourself.

But a lot of the time, goal setting doesn’t work. What goals did you set in January this year?

• To do better in your classes?
• To do better on tests?
• To meet with your instructors more?
• To enrol in a class that’s outside your comfort zone?

How many of those things have you achieved, or worked on, so far?

The big problem most of us have with achieving New Year’s resolutions, probably the most common type of goal-setting we partake in throughout life, is the vagueness. What does ‘meeting with your instructors more’ actually look like? What is your measure of success?

If you want goal-setting to work, to make a genuine difference in your postsecondary success, SMART goals are the way.

What are SMART goals?

SMART goals are:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Action-oriented
• Realistic
• Time-bound

You can still set the same goals as before, you just have to look at them differently.

This approach can work with anything you want to achieve. It’s only a matter of taking a little time to evaluate your perspective toward your goals and aligning yourself with the SMART angle.

How about some examples!

Goal: I want to do better in my classes

SMART goal: I want an average grade of at least 80 per cent in each of my classes.

Of course you want to do better! Who doesn’t? The SMART goal identifies exactly how you’re going to do better in your classes, and how to measure success.

Let’s say you get 70 per cent in everything you do. That means everything you do right now is enough to get an average of 70 per cent. So write down what you usually do for assignments, class work and tests. How do you prepare? How much time do you spend on research for your essays?

You probably don’t know these things off the top of your head. So, the next time you do any work for one of your classes, start a timer on your phone to track exactly how much time you put into it.

Then figure out what you need to do to improve.

You might achieve your average grade of 80per cent by just using the SMART goal below.

Goal: I want to meet with my instructors more.

SMART goal: I want to meet every Thursday with each of my instructors.

Meeting with your instructors every Thursday, or Monday (the day doesn’t matter), can help improve your academic performance.

The important part is your accountability. Set up the meeting early and make it official. When you talk to your instructor and book these meetings for the entire year into their schedule, you are accountable to them.

Meeting with your instructors more could mean anything. Meeting with your instructors every Thursday is very specific, and you can know after just one week if you’re on track to achieve this goal or not.

Goal: I want to do better on tests.

SMART goal: I want to study one hour daily, seven days before every test.

Maybe you spent the last 10 years just winging it on tests. You were in class and you participated, so you could get by on them. If you want to do better, give yourself an action-oriented way to make it happen. You can add study time to your daily schedule for seven days before a test, for example, and return to your regular routine after the test is complete. It’s a temporary detour from your regular life, and you can get a double boost of confidence from it – better results on your tests and the success of sticking to your plan.

Goal: I want to enrol in a class that’s outside my comfort zone.

SMART goal: I will take Lifestyle Management this fall.

If you want to explore education that you aren’t familiar with, be intentional about it. Look at the list of available general education classes and find the course that’s least in-line with your current program. Then sign up for it. You’ve achieved your goal just like that!

Choosing your postsecondary institution right now?

Yes, SMART goals can even help you choose the right postsecondary institution.

Smart goal: I want to learn about five campuses in the next three months before sending my postsecondary applications out.

You can start by calling your Lakehead-Georgian recruiter. Your postsecondary experience will impact the rest of your life, so it makes sense to approach this decision with a clear goal in mind.

We can’t wait to talk to you!