Setting goals
A goal is an objective you have set out to work toward. Goal-Centered decision-making is making decisions based on the goals you have set for yourself. For instance, if your goal is to make it on the soccer varsity team and you have an option to play around all summer or to go to the gym, you will make the decision to go to the gym because you want to achieve your goal of being on the soccer varsity team in the fall.
- Figuring out what your goals are takes some self-reflection and time. To get started, ask yourself who you want to become? What are you passionate about? That cheesy old question, “what do you want to be when you grow up”, is worthy thinking about? What do you want to do? What are your desires?
- Once you’ve figured out what you want to do, you can start figuring out what goals you need to set in order to get where you want to go.
Achieving goals
There are six things that you can do to help you achieve your goals:Set a specific goal, something that is measurable
Example: If my goal is to be a professional basketball player, I might set making the high school basketball team a specific goal.Set a specific time for the completion of your goal
Example: If my goal is to make the high school basketball team, then I need to know when tryouts are, so that I can adequately prepare.-
Write it down
You are less likely to forget something that you put on paper; it goes from being a thought to something that you can visually see as a possibility for your life. Develop a plan to achieve
Example: If my goal is to make the basketball team then I need to train, I need to have a training schedule that will help me to stay focused and achieve my goal.Decide what price you are willing to pay to achieve your goal
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Think about your goal everyday
Top influences
Who influences you?
The top four influences of teens are:- Media
- Peers
- Parents
- Religion
How do these groups influence your decisions?
A Side Note on Sex & Media: Media used to be 3 television stations, a few radio shows and newspapers. Now we have over 100 channels to pick from, various types of computers, CD players, DVD’s, video games, the Internet, magazines and more. Everywhere we turn, wherever we look, there is a message being sent out to us through mass media and to be quite frank, not all of it is quality information. Media in itself is not bad, however some of its content is. Most of us get our information from media particularly from the television and one of the common messages we receive from media is about sex. There are so many sexual references or images on television and it taints our reality of what sex is all about. Sex is used to sell things and to lure viewer’s attention and thus making some viewers think that Sex is a casual affair, everyone is doing it and there is nothing absolutely wrong with having sex. The media is right by saying there is nothing wrong in having sex, however it is best to have sex when you are married and not before. There are too many risks involved with premarital sex and the media doesn’t share all of them with you. Please know the facts, educate yourself, gain knowledge despite Media’s hype and make a wise choice to be abstinent.
How media saturated are you? Take our quiz!
How to Set Goals
Before you make decisions centered on your goals, here are some guidelines on how to set goals for yourself effectively.The 4P’s of Goal Setting
Plan: There is a saying that goes “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail” In order to achieve your goals, you have to find out what exactly your goal is and plan for it. Write down what you want to achieve. This will help remind you what you set out to achieve and it will help you from being discourages when you don’t see immediate results. Make sure you can answer the following questions when writing down your goal:
- Is it specific?
- Does it have a time frame?
- Is it a long term goal (over a few months)
- Is it a short term goal (for a few months or weeks)
- Can it be measured and how?
If you have an answer to all of these questions in your goal, you are on the right track, if not, you may want to go back over your written goal and fill in the blanks.
Prepare: Sometimes, achieving goals may require a lifestyle change and if that were the case you may want to plan ahead. Here are some questions from the www.mindtools.com you can ask yourself to help you know what necessary adjustments you need to take to achieve your goal. Be honest with yourself.
- What skills do I need to achieve this?
- What information and knowledge do I need?
- What help, assistance, or collaboration do I need?
- What resources do I need?
- What can block progress?
- Am I making any assumptions?
- Is there a better way of doing things?
Write down the answers to these questions and hopefully, this will prepare you with any adjustments that need to be made. After you are done, you may come up with a strategic plan to help you achieve your goal
Persist: Persist with your plan even if you do not see immediate results. This is the hardest aspect of achieving goals. Often times, many will quite because they do not see immediate results. Be committed and learn to deal with challenges or obstacles that cannot be avoided. Persevere.
Produce: This should be the end of the time frame you set to achieve your goal. Take time and evaluate if you achieved your goal. If you followed all the steps and did not achieve your goal do not be discouraged. Assess your plan and see what can be changed for the future. Remember there are factors that may have hindered your from achieving your goal which cannot be controlled.
Setting goals is fun and exciting when you have accomplished them. It develops your confidence in how to set goals and makes you feel great about your self.
Goal: abstinence
Feel like you need help setting goals? HOPE can help you. Fill out the Ask HOPE form and we will send you some more information and worksheets about setting goals.