What is a goal? A goal is something you are aiming to achieve. It can be a short-term goal which is something you want to accomplish within the near future, or it could be a longer term goal. One example of a short-term goal would be to complete an assignment on time, or to keep to your study schedule for a week (this would be a weekly renewable short-term goal!), or even to submit your homework on time each week.

Longer term goals require more commitment and can be such things as completely a large report on time, or even further into the future and either being accepted into a prestigious college, or graduating from a program that will give you the opportunity of being able to quickly find employment in your chosen career path.

The first stage to setting goals is to define exactly what the goal is. Most people have multiple goals, but the important thing is that each goal must be very specific about what it is you want to achieve and by when. It's not imperative that the "when" is specific because this could change depending on your life circumstances, but giving some kind of date means that you are setting up some kind of boundary as to how long you expect this goal to take to accomplish. In short, what you must do for each goal you set is to state what you want to accomplish, and when you will do it - I will complete the book report before the January 30th deadline.

It's imperative when setting goals that you do not have a goal that is dependent upon something that someone else will or won't do. Your goals must be 100% dependent only on your own efforts. The reason for this is that other people may not succeed in doing what you need them to do and this means your goal is doomed for failure.

For example, don't have a goal that says you are going to be part of the winning team at the state final. First of all your team may not get to the state final, and secondly even if it did, you may not be part of it for a number of reasons of which injury would only be one. What you can say is that your goal is to attend every football practice (injured or not) and play to the best of your ability for the entire season.

This goal only focuses on what you will do and it's completely dependent upon your own actions to achieve. Goals may be imposed upon you from time to time by teachers (assignment deadlines), parents (curfew after social activities) etc. Accept these goals as being set by people who are only interested in you achieving the very best from life. The teacher doesn't get any real reward from you passing the assignment, but you get a higher grade that may count towards an academic goal of your own.

Setting goals as a student will help you focus your thoughts on the future, both immediate and in the longer term, which will help towards you succeeding in what you hope to achieve in life. It will also help you learn a skill that will benefit you greatly once you leave the school environment and enter a workplace one.