Setting goals to make your best better
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EmailLearn the importance of setting goals and five key aspects of beneficial goals.
4-H encourages you to know yourself, identify your strengths and weaknesses, and make efforts to be the best version of yourself; to make your best better. These characteristics make up the foundations of setting goals. A goal is a specific outcome or achievement that an individual or group seeks to accomplish through effort and planning. Practicing intentional goal-setting helps you craft a clear, overarching picture of your ideal future, much like creating a vision statement for your life.
Goal-setting is one of the life skills youth can cultivate by participating in 4-H. One benefit of setting goals is that you acknowledge specifically where you want to be and what you want to accomplish. Goals complement your work toward a long-term vision for yourself while providing short-term motivation. Framing your goals in a way that has measurable outcomes to determine success is best. An example of a goal would be, "I would like to improve my grade in Algebra this semester."
When you set a measurable goal, it is helpful to determine whether it is a short-term or long-term goal. If you've set a long-term goal, often taking six months or longer to achieve, you can set mini-goals based on some of the phases or things you need to accomplish on the path of your long-term goal. Breaking up goals with smaller, easier to attain goals provides a sense of success and encouragement and can help you stay committed to the long-term goal. Forward progress of your achievements will raise your self-confidence and can create forward momentum.
Setting goals also allows you to identify needs, resources and skills you need to successfully reach your goal. Often, the resources end up being people. You don't have to work alone to achieve your goals. When you ask others for help, you build relationships, learn new things, and sometimes finish the process even quicker!
You can create goals in a variety of areas of your life. Think about school, college, careers, family, attitude, hobbies, health, activities you enjoy, and public service. Would you like to achieve anything in these areas? We all have dreams and places we hope to be someday. Goals help us create a plan for achieving our dreams. One tool to help you set goals is the SMART method:
- Specific: Set detailed goals.
- Measurable: Set goals with objectives you can quantify to monitor your success.
- Agreed to: Important if your goals impact or involve other people.
- Realistic and Relevant: Think about your strengths and skills and set mini-goals to help you get to bigger ones.
- Timely: Put a timeline on achieving your goals so you know when to measure your success.
These tips and tools are as relevant to youth as they are to adults. If you have young people in your life, use these tips to help them make SMART goals. Guiding youth through the goal-setting process while they’re young gives them good practice and skills to continue making long-term goals in the future. For more examples of 4-H goal-setting, read “Five tips for building youth’s leadership skills – Part 4: Setting Goals” by Michigan State University Extension.
