With a new year comes new opportunities and experiences afforded you. Though I’m not one to stand for new year resolutions as I think you should start new habits whenever necessary in life.
There is something about a new year that gets people excited to set new goals and accomplish new things.
If you are a public health students whether that be undergraduate or graduate, this article will assist you in setting goals to achieve in 2020.
Setting goals can be a powerful way to keep yourself motivated to achieve something outside of your comfort zone and for this reason.
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(Related: The Guide to Getting a Good Internship in Graduate School (MPH))
Preface
I wanted to preface “Goal Setting” because I think it’s important to understand this.
Though setting a goals can be important for professional and personal growth. You must realize that sometimes goals are outside the scope of our internal controls. Therefore its better to focus on the process or the habits (the daily actions) that will lead you to getting close to that goal.
So work towards your goals but don’t make them the end all of everything. Understand that the process and the things you do will be much more important so that you are always continually growing whether you hit your goal, surpassed it, or just can’t hit it yet.
I also think we prioritize many things over our happiness and in 2020 we need to change this. Set goals that will make you happy as happiness is the most important thing in life.
Why Set Goals?
You may be thinking, “I’m still in school so what’s the point of setting goals?” This is a great question.
No matter what stage of your academic, professional or personal life you are in, goals can really be the driving force helping you to accomplish what you want in the short and long terms.
Picture this:
Student 1: Has no goals and thus just goes along with the flow. Though this student had several different skillsets, does not gain any complimentary skillsets that would be useful to the career path they want.
Student 2: Has goals of wanting to pursue health administration fellowship and makes weekly action plans to achieve goals. They are able to gain complimentary skillsets that align with their career goal and also create meaningful connections. Though they are able to reach the last round of interviewing for a prestigious fellowship before falling short. They land a good job at an organization they have interest in in Washington DC.
Student 3: Has the specific goal of getting into a CDC ORISE Evaluation fellowship after graduating. This student finds out what skills are most needed for this fellowship and reaches out to past fellows as well as other CDC employees to see what they look for in an applicant. Through this the student aligns their internship and the projects they work on to reach these goals and they are able to land the CDC ORISE Evaluation fellowship.
The difference between these three students is that 1 had no plan, 2 had a plan and followed through but wasn’t lucky enough to land the fellowship, and student 3 got really specific about their vision and reached out to see how best to achieve their goals.
There is always an element of luck when it comes to achieving goals especially when they have external factors that are out of your control. Such as when applying to a fellowship or job position.
The best thing you can do is to create processes and habits to help you to work towards the goal. This way you are able to gain important skills and would more than likely have a variety of options after graduating.
5 Questions For Fulfilling Goals
Many times we set goals because our friends or colleagues are. This tends to lead us away from what we want and more towards others interest. This won’t help you be happy so do this exercise in private so you can really think about it introspectively.
5 Questions to ask yourself for feel fulfilling goals:
- Over the past year did I feel feeling I didn’t want to feel? What were those experiences?
- Over the past year did I feel the way I wanted to feel? What were the experiences, people and other experiences that made you feel this way?
- What do I want to be, what do I want to do, and what do I want to have over the next year? The people, experiences and times
- If I were to accomplish and experience everything in #3. How would it change me and impact me as a person?
- Who do I need to become to accomplish all of these experiences and live the life that brings me happiness?
This is essentially another way of doing a self-reflection. It can truly open you up to visualizing which successful goals will make you happy and fulfilled.
(Related: Mid-December: A Time To Reflect)
How to Set Goals
Before you start to think about setting your 2020 goals, go and check out my article on Mid-December: A Time To Reflect. This will give you a foundation to start thinking about what you accomplished last year and how you want to build on it.
S.M.A.R.T. Goals
Whenever you are setting goals you should try to make them S.M.A.R.T. which is to say
S- Specific (Your goal is direct and detailed goals)
M- Measurable (Your goal is quantifiable and you can track progress)
A- Attainable (Your goal is realistic to your circumstances)
R- Relevant (Your goal aligns with your bigger dreams and your core values)
T- Timely (Your goal has a timeline or deadline)
By doing this it allows you to choose a goal with direction and helps you to reach further and helps you to organize and reach them.
Example of S.M.A.R.T. Goal for student
“I’ll be comfortable in job interviewing skills by the end of this semester”
- Specific – Want to improve job interviewing skills.
- Measurable – How comfortable are you now? How many umms do I say before I can answer a question? Measure this or something else that’s relevant.
- Attainable – At the end of this semester I will begin to interviewing and I have 10 weekends that I can practice with a friend to become more confident.
- Relevant – I will need to be able to be comfortable in a job interview to put my best forward and get into the career path I want
- Timely – You want to be comfortable by the end of this semester. Thats a specific timeline.
Setting goals comprises these 4 steps:
- Plan and Prioritize
- Strategize
- Take Action
- Following Through
Plan and Prioritize
When planning out your goals you will need to have an idea for where you want to be in a larger context. With no limitation, what would your ideal career be?
Brainstorming and throwing all the different ideas you have onto paper can really help you to think about the different paths. After you create this list, you should star which goals stand out to you.
You’ll want to think about:
- Which of these do I want to accomplish by the end of the year?
This will get you to think about goals that are possible to reach in 1 year - Why do I want to achieve this goal?
The ‘WHY’ is the most important as this has to do with how you feel about your goal - What is the impact of my goal?
This will show how much this goal positively impacts your life - Which of these goals most scare me?
This will get you to think outside of your comfort zone and help you to grow immensely
Once you narrow down on your goals. You should repeat this for the different aspects of your life (e.g. academic, career, health, relationship, etc.).
Note that your goals could change at anytime as you learn and have new experiences. Nonetheless its good to have an ultimate goal just so that you have a little direction in your life.
Another consideration is that you have to make sure your goals are in your sphere of control.
Like for example, the goals I have for my blog are to post every Monday (which is in my control) as oppose to having a certain amount of views (out of my control).
Strategize
The strategizing step is where you realize the resources you have to achieve the goals that you have set. And what are the different paths that could help you to reach those goals.
Resources could be people, classes, online courses, internships, or anything that can help you along your journey.
You should write down the end goals and fill in a list of what you need to get there and see what is available to you from that list.
There are also so many resources that you can use since the internet has unlimited possibilities to help you reach your goals.
Take action
Once you figure out your goals you need to take action ASAP! You will need to make promises that you know you can keep to yourself.
Outline your actionable steps ensuring that they start with small steps first.
Once you have been able to complete your small steps then you can work towards bigger ones. This is just another way of being realistic with how much you do on a consistent basis to reach your goals. achieve
Think to yourself: What daily action do I need to commit to? What weekly action do I need to commit to?
You will want to act very proactively when doing these actions. You’ll want to track your progress so you know how much more you need to do to reach the goal.
The best way to ensure that you are achieving your small goals is to get accountability.
Let someone know what you are trying to accomplish so they can keep you motivated and accountable to reach those goals.
Following Through
This step is essentially ensuring that you are following through on what you need to achieve.
This also related to if you aren’t able to achieve your goal, you will need to continue to work on yourself.
You probably have learnt and grew so much over the last year even if you haven’t achieved your ultimate goal. The process that has gotten you to where you are now has worked and you have achieved so many wins along the way.
It’s important to remember that life is bigger than the goals we set, and many times goals are completely out of our control so ensure that you are building the processes and habits that keep you learning and growing no matter what the goal.
Types of Goals to Set
As a student, its important that you are trying to set goals that better both your professional and personal lives.
Setting the right goals as a student will help you to better transition your life once you have finally graduated. If you master goal setting as a student, you will be able to leverage this skill to better your career also.
Though I’m going to outline many different types of goals, these can be combined. When it comes to goal setting it’s better to err on the side of less goals.
Academic
This is a standard goal for any student. Whether you are trying to get all A’s or get inducted into your colleges honor society.
Academic goals are the standard foundation of a student and thus I tend to recommend you think less about this and more about skills and experiences you need coupled with good grades
Career
A career goal could either be to research different career to know which 3 career paths best speak to you or you knowing what career you want thus setting it as your goal.
When you learn about a career you want to pursue, it’s best to start to reach out to professionals in that field so that they can give you mentorship on how to reach where they are. One thing I think we all undervalue is the power of a good story of someone’s journey. There is much to learn and insights to gain.
Remember you can figure out which skills and experiences you need gain throughout university to better get you to your career goal by looking at job descriptions.
Skills
Skills are going to be your greatest asset in your professional life coupled with your experiences. Different career paths require different skillset. The sooner you figure out which ones are best suited to advance your career ensure that either through your coursework or experiences (i.e. work experience, internship, volunteering).
Put yourself into positions where you will be able to show employers how you used a skillset to solve a problem during you academic time or in an internship.
Growing Experiences
As a student there are many different growing experiences you can take on and set goals for. This could be presenting at a conference, competing in a case competition, doing research, and much much more.
New experiences can help you not only grow academically but also will help you to step outside of your comfort zone and grow.
Physical and Mental Health
Physical and mental health are both vitally important for us to achieve all that we want to achieve. Having goals around these should be at the foundation of your life. Creating healthy habits and goals around physical and mental health will help surely trickle into bettering your daily lives.
If you are only just starting out then you should set small goals such as working out once a week, going to yoga class biweekly, going to a counselor, meditating once a week, etc. Ensure whatever stage of life you are that you are setting time aside for your health.
Relationship
Apart from these goals, I think it is also important to make sure you have goals for your relationships in your life. Life happens and it can happen so fast that we forget to check in on the ones we love.
Don’t let you other goals get in the way of making meaningful time for the ones that are important to your life. Set time aside to call your parents or take your partner out on a date.
Conclusion
In conclusion, 2020 is a brand new year with new opportunities. It is important to have goals that you are trying to achieve as well as a plan of actionable steps to get there.
You should aim to set S.M.A.R.T. goals and try to achieve them in the different aspects of your life.
Continuous daily action to achieve your goals is going to be the most important factor in you reaching your goals. However, you should ensure that you are aiming to reach goals that are in your sphere of control.
Goals are important, but you must remember that the process to achieve those goals is a lot more important. By focusing on the processes and habits you create, you will always ensure that you are growing and learning in your current stage in life.
What is one of your 2020 goals?
