A successful college life isn’t about where you go. While landing a slot at your dream college sounds like the perfect next stage, your college shouldn’t define you. Rather, what’s more important is to consider your future goals. What are you getting out of it? Where do you see yourself in five or ten years? What do you want to do? What do you want to pursue in the long term? Which college will help you achieve and support your goals? The answers to these questions will help you figure out what goals you’ll want to set for your final year.
With long-term career and life goals, you’ll see college as a stepping-stone to achieving what you want out of life. That helps strengthen your motivation so that you’ll try harder.
Here are some tips to help you with your goal setting as you enjoy your last year in one of the best Indian schools in Abu Dhabi.
Have a Positive Target
Set goals that are approach-oriented rather than avoidance-oriented. These two could essentially mean the same thing. The only difference between them is the mindset they promote. For instance, the approach-oriented goal will be: “I want to get more than 80 percent in Math this week” whereas the avoidance-oriented goal will be: “I want to avoid getting less than 80 percent in Math this week.” People who do the first one—who focus on a positive target—report better results. Go with that.
Choose Freely
When you set certain goals, make sure they’re freely chosen. These are goals that represent what you want to happen, that promote your well-being, that support the plan you have for your future. Many goals are a product of external or situation-specific pressures. Some of these are your parent’s expectations or those of society. But trying to achieve goals that others set for you will only lead to stress and anxiety especially if they aren’t aligned with your own goals. Even if you make any progress with those goals, your well-being won’t improve, not in the way that achieving goals that you set for yourself will make you happy. That said, make sure your goals are meaningful to you when you set out and not to anyone else’s.
Be Specific
Are your goals specific enough? Setting a goal as general as: “Try hard to get better grades in Math” isn’t likely to get you the kind of results that something like: “Set aside four hours every week to get an 80 percent grade in Math” will get you. Be specific as much as you can. Give yourself more mental cues. That will help you keep track of what’s happening and help you monitor any sort of progress you’re making or if you are even moving forward at all.
Set Smaller Goals
You should also include smaller goals. Make a list of things that will help you reach a particular goal. For instance, one way to help your study plans is to include smaller goals like “two hours of study tonight” or “completion of these projects means you can finally watch that Netflix show you’ve been wanting to see.” Getting those smaller goals done will also give you a sense of accomplishment, which leads to a psychological boost, the kind that motivates you to work harder and better. You’re encouraged by the small wins, so you keep going and that has a positive impact on the outcome you want to achieve.
Flexibility Helps
If you have inflexible goals, or if you have no give within a set of goals, then you might be setting yourself up for failure. Set realistic goals and by that we mean goals that you can adjust so that they become achievable. That’s not to say that you’ll go easy on yourself. Rather, it’s recognizing the fact that situations change. Sometimes, you’ll need to juggle some of the items on your to-do list, and knowing when to be flexible with your goals will help you sort that out.
Set Other Goals Too
Don’t just focus on goals that involve your academic success. It’s your final year in high school, so you’ll want to set goals beyond your academic aspirations. You need to look after your health and emotional wellbeing as well. Are you ready for how your life will change when you’re in college? Make time for leisure and relationships. Having friends and connections will be good for your well-being and can make your last year in high school more memorable and fun. Years later, you’ll cherish those memories even more. Also, the friendships you make during this year could turn into lifelong connections, if you only take the time to nurture them.
By careful planning, you should have enough time to live your life and have fun while you prepare for college.
