To Achieve Success In Study, How Important Are Targets And Goals?
Planning for a successful outcome is the basic requirement of any endeavour. Today’s football superstars didn’t get to become multi-millionaires without years of dedication to practice, planning and targets. For any life-changing event to happen, planning and goal-setting are paramount.
Prior to commencing your training course, take the time to think about your personal goals, and work out a study programme with targets or indicators of success along the way. To help you get started, use the acronym Smart to qualify the goals you plan to achieve. Smart stands for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and targeted.
Make a personal contract based on the following 5 D’s to immerse yourself in the positive outcome of your studies. This contract should be written down, and signed.
DEFINE (what you want out of it) e.g. the exact car, house, number and type of holidays, income level for partner to give up work etc. Be specific or you won’t know when you’ve achieved it. Re-enforce it with photographs and put them up around where you plan to work.
DESIRE. Explore your emotions for this one, and dig deep to discover why your studies are important. Is it to prove to yourself or others that you are an achiever, and that you deserve better things? Perhaps you want more control in your life, or maybe it’s a personal challenge.
Commitment or DEDICATION. Announce to yourself and those close to you that you’re dedicated to your studies by writing up a timetable and sticking with it. However much time you choose to study each week, have it written on a calendar planner that you can cross off once you’ve completed it. Put it in a prominent place so it’s at the forefront of your mind (at least until it becomes a habit). All things that are important get prioritised, so let your friends and family know that this is a priority to you for perhaps ten hours a week for a set number of months. Once your timetable has become established, you’ll take pride in your dedication, and study all the better for it.
A contract illustrates your DETERMINATION to see this thing through. Having a written document about the positive direction of your life makes it harder to bottle out of it.
Having a plan and targets to work towards gives you a DISCIPLINE that helps you to power through the tough times that will occasionally strike you.
Your contract is a working document designed to assist and strengthen you through the change in your life. Keep it close by, and take time to look at it regularly. Add inspiring thoughts and ideas to it that will keep you on track and spur you on. The more emotionally involved you get with the results of completing your course, the sooner you’ll get through it. Expectation of good things, along with planning and goal-setting, have proven time after time to bring the desired results to fruition.