Queen Creek Unified School District academic coaches offer tips to help students accomplish goals every day, but they can also be helpful for New Year's goals, whether personal, professional or academic.
Here are some goal-keeping tips to help your student, and maybe yourself, stay on track:
- Baby steps, baby steps, baby steps
Break your large goals into smaller goals. Chunk them into steps and distribute the mini-goals along a calendar to make them easier to accomplish.
Don’t make too many goals at once. Even if you make a long list of goals, you can add one or two each month. Give yourself a chance to get good at or in the habit of one before working on the next goal. - Tell someone your goals and stay accountable
Make yourself accountable to a friend or family member, or if it is a goal you can share, find a friend to work with on accomplishing your goal and theirs.
Often, when we share our goal with someone else, it helps to hold ourselves accountable. We don’t want to let ourselves down, and we don’t want to disappoint the person with whom we shared our goals. - Planning and tracking
Write down your goal. Putting it on paper makes it real. Outline a plan of how you will complete your goal and track your progress. Keep track of each small success. Something else to keep in mind is to make sure your goal is something that is within your control. A personal goal should not be dependent on other people or rely on factors that are outside of your control. Be realistic about what you can be responsible for. - Keep trying…and then celebrate
If you run out of steam - don’t despair. Start over again. Recommit yourself for 24 hours. You can do anything for 24 hours. The 24-hour increments will soon build on each other, and before you know it, you will be back on track. Celebrate each milestone on the path toward reaching your goal.
