For this blog assignment I want you to choose a real goal that you have. Make it a medium to long term goal (so something at least 1 year away or longer). Using what you know from Chapter 8, how could you go about making it more likely that you will achieve that goal? Be specific in terms of the concepts from chapter 8 and how your application of them to your goal.
The only semi long-term goal I can think of is that I want to move out of Iowa to Florida. I have an incongruity between where I currently live and where I want to live. I want to accomplish this by October at the latest so it’s not a year away but it’s all I can think of. This goal is difficult which is important for a goal. Difficulty energizes the effort put towards the goal. This goal is difficult because moving is difficult in the first place with physically moving belongings to finding another home but moving to another state is even harder. The first thing I have to do is to make my goal specific. I have it narrowed down to Tampa or Orlando for where in Florida I want to move but I’m not sure which yet. I also need to set a date. These are the first things that I have to figure out. Not only do I have to figure out which city but the cities are kind of big and I need to be more specific about location within the city I choose. I could do this by researching online, visiting the city, and getting a realtor.
For this long-term goal, I need a plan to achieve it. My plan includes short-term goals. I need to have short-term goals along the way that will help achieve the desired state. The short-term goals will provide commitment boosting opportunities, feedback, reinforcement and a feeling of competence if achieved. One of my short-term goals is to save money. I can save money by working more hours and cut back my spending. This short-term goal would be a monthly one. I would work to save $200 a month. I would set aside $100 from each of my checks. This goal may be difficult because of my time constraints from school and all of my bills.
Another short-term goal is to visit the city I want to move to in order to find an area to look for a house/apartment. This is a difficult goal because of time. I will be working and taking classes so it may be difficult to find the time to visit. I will have to also have the money to visit. Within this goal, I will have to plan the right time to go visit. It can’t be too early or too late (relative to when I’m moving). I may have to find a realtor while in Florida to help find a place to live and keep in touch with them while back in Iowa. I also have other short-term goals but I’m not including all of them.
There are reasons why I might or might not accomplish my goals. One reason I might accomplish my goal is because it is personally endorsed and personally accepted. My goal comes from discrepancy creation rather than discrepancy reduction. I decided that I wanted to move and where I wanted to move to. This provides autonomy and an internalized goal. It is important for a goal to be internalized because this increases performance toward the goal. Another reason I might succeed is because I discuss and formulate plans and strategies to help me (my short-term goals I talked about). I also need to form an implementation intention to accomplish my goal specifying the exact time and place this will happen. This needs to be done for my short-term goals as well. For example, I need to set a time to visit before I move. I also need feedback to succeed which will come from my short-term goal endings. Feedback will come from how well I do at accomplishing those goals.
A reason I might fail at accomplishing my goal is if I lose my motivation to do so. I need to keep that intrinsic motivation to enhance my performance by goal setting. Another thing that might enhance my likelihood of failure is stress. This could happen is one of my short-term goals or tasks within them exceeds my capabilities. This could create feelings of inadequacy and lower intrinsic motivation. My intrinsic motivation for tasks in my short-term goals are also important. I don’t really like my current job. If I have to work more, I may feel like my goal is unreachable because of the lack of intrinsic motivation for my job. Also, I need to find a job before I move there which may create stress and failure.
I could make reaching my goal more likely by creating well thought out implementation intentions. I have to make specific action plans and a time to initiate these actions. I have to make an effort to persist even if the actions are difficult or I run into setbacks. I also have to resume my action plans after they have been interrupted. For example, if can’t find somewhere (house/apartment) to live right away I have to keep trying. Or if I am looking for a job everyday then get interrupted by studying for a test I must resume searching after the test is over. I could also try process simulation. I could visualize myself doing these actions to accomplish my goal. I think knowing more about goal setting makes it more likely that I will accomplish my goal because I know what my goal needs to consist of and I know what kind of plan I need to set up (and what to avoid) before actually working toward my goal.
A real goal that I have is to pay off my credit cards every month for the rest of my life. I desire to do that because if that is not done, then the amounts that have to be paid become much higher in a short amount of time because of credit card companies having such high interest rates. This is a goal that I have chosen to take on, which means that I have high ‘goal acceptance’ for it because I had a large amount of autonomy in the goal-setting process. It also is a goal that will be at least moderately difficult for me to fulfill throughout the next few years of my life because although I will graduate next May, I will probably not have a job with a very high income within the next few years. With that said, the goal is still reachable and attainable as long as I live within my means. Meaning that the goal will be challenging, but yet not too difficult, this shows that the goal fulfills the idea of ‘goal difficulty’.
This goal is one that can be easily monitored by regularly checking bank statements online, which can be done as often as every day. The goal can also be monitored by keeping receipts to keep track of costs, and by knowing due dates for payments. All of those ideas help the goal fulfill the idea of ‘goal specificity’, and those ideas also will help provide ‘performance feedback’. The main idea behind achieving this goal is for me to avoid accumulating as much debt as possible, which will help me achieve ‘getting ahead’ earlier in life. That idea is an ‘extrinsic incentive’ for me because I desire to live comfortably in life and to at least have the opportunity to retire by the time I am 55-60 years old. That is my plan for my ‘ideal life’. We'll see how my life actually goes, but if I use all the ideas that I discussed throughout this blog from chapter 8, then the likelihood of me achieving it would definitely be increased.
A real life goal that I have for myself is to travel. I really want to travel all over the world. There are numerous ways I can apply the concepts from chapter 8 to this goal and many others in my life. I have always thought in my head that I want to travel and I know of some various places I would like to go, see, and do. Applying some of the first concepts of goal setting could really transform my plans. The particular discrepency that I have is discrepency creation. I think having a goal to travel is a fairly difficult goal. It is not easily accomplished. It takes some time to plan, schedule, etc in order to take trips or travel.
I think the goal specificity concept is what would really transform my goal to a reality. I think it is very important and it's something I haven't actively applied to my goal to travel. It would be much easier to actually achieve my goal if I specify what places and countries I want to travel to. Having my goal be more specific will give me more direction and it would be harder to achieve it is very vague. I could also make my goal more specific by specifying what exact places I want to go to, things to see, try or do. If I picked specific places I want to go to by the time I am 30,40,50 and so on then I would also recieve feedback. By making particular time requirements I have a standard of performance I want to achieve. I think the one component I have really meet is goal acceptance. I already know that traveling is something really important to me and something I have a lot passion to do. Also by setting different places I want to go in certain time increments I have allowed for a series of short term goals to achieve my overall long-term goal being to travel the world. For my plans to travel I think that I am already in the goal striving stage. At this point I have traveled to Japan and Ethiopia. But I think I need to have implementation intentions, like I stated earlier in making more goal more specific besides just to "travel". I think if I have specific goals to where I want to go by certain dates that it would also increase my persistence and reengagement.
When thinking upon a long term goal that I have the main thing I can think of is getting into graduate school. Next year, I will be graduating in the fall semester. After graduation I plan on entering into grad school right away. I have been going back and forth on what program I would like to do, but I'm thinking getting my MSW is the best option. In order to achieve this goal I need to do some major planning. I have already been planning for this but currently my ideal does not match my present behavior for I need to raise my GPA some.
Last semester proved to be rather difficult, and because of discrepancy reduction, I have learned that I need to do more planning and lighten my work load in order to do better. The plans in which I have devised fit will in to the Corrective Motivation model. I have detected the present-ideal inconsistencies, I've generated a a plan to eliminate incongruity, I am currently executing plan, and am continuously monitoring my grades in order to assure that I am not falling behind.
The best way for me to achieve this goal is by creating smaller goals for myself, that are still difficult and also specific. For instance, each day I write down a list of everything I need to do, and everything I want to do. I usually am able to get the need to done, and am able to cross off a couple want to's off my list as well. By doing this I am helping myself get started, and my repeating it daily I become persistent and ultimately continue on in my action. This can be seen as implementing intentions. I also have enrolled in GRE prep classes in order to get feedback on my performance and also become more prepared.
I first have to realize that there is an incongruity between my present state and where I want to be. Right now this is with my education. My ultimate goal would be to earn a Master’s Degree. However, I can only attend school part time because of work and after 3 years, it is already taking its toll. I have already gone through the corrective motivation of deciding where to get my education. I had to weigh the pros and cons of going to an online college or to UNI, especially with my time limitations.
In order to achieve this goal, there are some things I can do to make it more likely that I will continue pursuing my education. The first thing I can do is make a list of the courses I have left to earn my Bachelor’s Degree. At the end of each semester, I will get feedback on how I have done in the course to show how much closer I am to my goal. But just listing courses aren’t specific enough and may not provide enough motivation to increase performance. The book says moderately difficult and specific goals are best, so instead of just saying I will take 6 credits a semester, I will plan study days and times at the beginning of each semester to make it less stressful which makes me want to quit. By setting this specific plan, I should get regular feedback from professors when completing assignments thoroughly and on time. I will also get feedback in the form of acceptable grades at the end of each semester.
I have accepted my goal because of its moderate difficulty and because I was the main decision maker is setting my goal. It was not forced on me by an employer or other external sources. The credibility of the person assigning the goal is trustworthy, credible, and knowledgeable (because it was me!). The external reward of the degree and the prospect of it helping my career later also helped with goal acceptance.
I will also use mental simulations to focus not on the degree, but my specific plan to get there. Each semester, I will reevaluate my study plans and change as needed. I will also test my weekly plan often and operate, and test again, and write down the plan to hold myself accountable for my work. Each time the plan works, it should give feedback that I am accomplishing my smaller goals in order to fulfill my big, final goal of the degree.
For this week’s topical blog we are to choose a real-life goal that we have hopes of completing within the next couple of years. I have a lot of medium to long term goals that I wish to have completed, or at least have begun working on within the coming years, but the goal that I have had on my mind for a while now and want to talk about is buying a new vehicle. I have had the same car since I was 16 years old. It’s not an old car, it’s not a bad car, I just believe that it’s no longer the vehicle for someone who has graduated college and is looking for a real career. The timetable for this particular goal is roughly 1 ½ to 2 years. It is my hope to maintain my current car in its current condition, as well as continue putting money aside to help fund my upcoming purchase.
Using what I have learned in chapter 8, I now realize that the two previously mentioned steps will not be enough to get me into my new vehicle. I need to first and foremost create a plan. But what kind of plan accompanies buying a new vehicle within the next 2 years? In creating a plan you need to first understand what you current state is, and what your ideal state would be. In other words, I need to understand and accept what vehicle I have, and then decide on what type of car I want to purchase. Is it going to be a new or pre-owned vehicle? A car, truck or SUV? Once I decide on the particular vehicle I can then take the necessary steps in creating my plan. My current state is owning a 1999 Oldsmobile Intrigue, my ideal state would be owning a 2010-2012 Chevy Tahoe. Now that my initial plan is set. I need to begin the more detailed goal setting process. Considering that I have been saving up for awhile now, I only need to save around $100 a week, or every two weeks to reach my goal of saving enough money to purchase a new vehicle. The goal of saving $100 a week or every other week isn’t too difficult for myself to achieve, but it will be enough to provide me with an ample amount of money. As for the “goal pursuit” portion of the goal setting and goal striving processes, the getting started part will be the easy part because I have already begun that process; but the persisting and finishing parts might be more problematic because there is always other expenses in one’s life: rent, utilities, clothes, food, entertainment, etc. But in the end if I can keep my focus and keep motivated, I know that I will obtain my new vehicle.
For the past year or so, I have been working on achieving a long term goal of getting into graduate school. I decided last summer that I enjoy going to school and would like to continue my education after I receive my bachelor's degree. After reading chapter eight, there are a few things I have learned to help me achieve that goal.
Specificity and difficulty is a must when setting a goal. I would say that getting into grad school is a difficult task, therefore I will try harder and persist longer in order to meet that goal. Getting into grad school is a relatively broad goal. I would like to get into a Master's program focusing on either Industrial/Organizational psychology or school counseling.
I realized last summer that my present academic self was not my ideal academic self. Though I had been doing rather well in school, I knew that I had to do better. This incongruence caused me to operate on my academic behaviors starting last fall. I decided to step it up and take 15 credits, 3 of the courses being G-level. This was a difficult short-term goal to set but after receiving feedback from grades, I was performing above my intended GPA goal of 3.5. This caused discrepancy creation and caused me to raise my goal for this semester. I am currently taking 18 credits and hoping to walk away with a 3.6 GPA. These are small term goals I have set for myself in order to receive feedback that will keep me motivated. I graduate next fall, so in order to keep raising my GPA, I'd like to get all A's in my psychology courses. I will also start studying for the GRE during the summer and take it in the fall. By next spring, I'd like to have applied to at least five different graduate schools.
Now that I have specified my goal setting process, I need to focus on my goal striving process. I have accepted the goal because I assessed it to myself and it is intrinsically motivating. To attain my long term goal of attending graduate school, I need to focus on HOW to attain it. I have realized that the more busy I keep myself, the better I do in school. It is likely that I have achieved 'flow' in completing the task. Goals that are more difficult cause a person to try harder and persist longer. I plan on taking another loaded semester in the fall in order to raise the bar for myself. If I stick to what I'm doing to improve my present academic self, I will hopefully be able to achieve my goal.
My goal that I have been working on for a few years is learning to play the guitar. My ideal plan is to be a great guitar player and have a band of my own! That’s my big dream anyway… But like everything I have to take it one step at a time, can’t really have a band without a guitar player. Therefore, my goal is to learn the basics of the guitar within the next year.
As corny as my goal maybe, I have been thinking about finally reaching my goal of actually learning to play the guitar and next semester my plan is to take a guitar class. It’s not going to be easy, with classes and work thrown in. My goal specificity is going to be practice at least once a day for 15-30 minutes each time. It’s a start, and maybe once I hit that goal of practicing each day the time length will become longer and my goal will be reached sooner! I’m definitely going to rely on feedback, especially from the person who is teaching me. If I get negative feedback that will make me try harder and prove that I can do it.
Learning something new isn’t going to happen overnight. I don’t plan on giving up either. This has been the one goal that keeps getting pushed aside and it’s time for it to come to life! Using what I have learned from chapter will hopefully help me finally reach and achieve my goal. The chapter did have a great quote that I really like and it applies to this, it was “A goal without a plan is just a dream”. This has been my dream and not having a plan of action it has remand a dream. I believe its time to take this dream of mine and turn it into reality. My corrective motivation has decided that its time!
One of my long term goals is to own my own business. This is a five to fifteen year away goal. Using the contents from Chapter 8, I know that the more specific I make my goal; the more likely it is to come true.
I already have buy-in or I have accepted my goal. One large future difficulty is will that change over time. My present state and ideal state currently differ, but this may change when my situation and lifestyle change. This could happen by my ideal state falling back down to my current state (my motivation to reach my goal dissipates) or my current state rising to meet my ideal state (goal achievement). Plans and goals depend on differences or discrepancies as the catalyst for action. These differences could come in two forms, plans and goals. Right now I have a goal to own my own business. I am motivated through discrepancy creation to set a goal and go through the goal setting process. However, once I have a plan on how to move forward, I will be motivated by discrepancy reduction to continuously correct my current course of action to my plan.
The key to obtaining my goal is to be sure that it is specific and I am able to evaluate my performance on meeting the described goal. I feel like the goal is very difficult and that will not be an issue. The tool that I can use is implementation intentions. These speak about how I will overcome obstacles. This is the details, and where goals are obtained and goals are given up on.
A few examples are set aside an hour a week to think about my activities and how to best utilize my time to meet my goal.
Keep a journal to remind myself of what made me start out to achieve this goal in the first place, and then when I get discouraged, re-read that journal to re-motivate myself.
In reference to the 8 step sequence, I can outline a primitive example using my goal
1) My objective to be accomplished is to find a location for my business
2) I rate this as moderately difficult as there is research and data to help narrow down my search, as well as real estate brokers who can help me negotiate a deal
3) Finding a location for my business includes town, property site, building design
4) I would like to find a location within the next 5 months
After I am on my way toward my goal, I can check to see how I perform.
5) Periodically, I need to check to be sure I still believe in my goal
6) I will outline a few basic strategies as far as blocking out time to work, making contacts, developing and utilizing resources to meet my goal
7) My implementation strategies consist of if I get rejected, to have a list of alternative lenders that I will try before I get discouraged.
8) Finally, I will evaluate my goal achievement based on my ability to stick to my outlined time schedule. I am unable to control if I can get financing, however I am able to control the strategies and the time spend seeking financing for my property.
I have a long term goal that I have been thinking about as my life as a college student starts to wind down and I start to look into the job market. My goal is to eventually have a job that matches my interests in human factor or ergonomics. This goal will take a while to accomplish because I am currently working on my master’s degree in industrial/organizational psychology. I have been taking a discrepancy creation approach to this goal since I am proactively setting a future goal for myself. One thing that I will need to do while achieving my goal is look for jobs that can help me transition into the career that I eventually want to end up in. To do this it will be helpful to set specific and difficult goals that coincide with my skill level at the time. Setting specific and difficult goals will help enhance my performance and allow me to make the job changes that I would like. I will need a lot of feedback while I attempt to reach my goal. Some good examples of positive feedback would be finishing my master’s degree in the summer and finding a job soon after where I can get some good experience. Other sources of feedback would come from increasing my knowledge in certain areas that would allow me to apply for job positions that are ideal for my ultimate goal. The goal acceptance will be high since I am very intrinsically motivated to reach this goal. Extrinsic incentives and rewards, such as money, job benefits and job location, will also play a big part in the positions I do choose until I find the ideal job. I think that it is important to keep your ultimate long term goal in mind for intrinsic motivation while you focus on short term goals for more immediate goal achievement. If you don’t set short term goals for yourself there will be no sense of achievement and the positive emotion that comes with it until a long time has passed, and you may have already given up by then. Focusing on these shorter term goals will also help in getting discouraged for not having the perfect job right away. One of the areas that will be important for me is to set implementation intentions to avoid volitional problems that come with starting a goal, persisting when facing difficulties and resuming goal-directed actions when interrupted. These problems make it very easy to get side tracked when striving for your goal. I think that understanding the concepts of chapter 8 will help me in achieving this long term goal that I have had for a while now.
One long term goal I have is to graduate college with a GPA of at least 3.5. I want to do this because I’m going to grad school and I want to have a high GPA so it’ll help me get in. Another reason is because I know I can do it and I want to prove to myself that I can. So, I am extrinsically and intrinsically motivated to reach this goal. To reach this goal, I need to have an implementation intention. I have to decide when I’m going to start striving to reach my goal and how I’m going to do it. I’ve always had the goal to do well in school but it wasn’t until the beginning of last semester that I started trying really hard, so I think that in some way, the process of reaching my goal started then. Technically, the start of reaching my goal starts right now.
There are certain aspects involved with my goal that will help me reach it. One of them is the difficulty. I think the difficulty is just right. My GPA right now is about 3.15. It went up only a few points after getting 4 As and 1 B last semester, so I know that each A counts but only a little. I have to work hard to not get low grades because it will bring my grade down easier than a good grade brings it up. Another aspect is specificity. My goal is very specific: get a GPA of 3.5. The goal isn’t simple, like saying to just get a higher GPA. A third aspect is feedback. Because my goal involves school, I’ll receive feedback often because every time I finish an assignment, I get graded. If I get a good grade, then I’m positively reinforced and will continue to work hard to maintain that. If I don’t get a good grade, I know I need to work harder to get a better grade the next time. Doing this is part of the implementation intention. I must tell myself to keep working hard even if I make mistakes.
It’s really important to also have short-term goals to help you reach the long-term goal. Some short-term goals that will help me to reach a 3.5 GPA are to do my best in each of my classes I’m currently in. I’m striving to get As in all of my classes. That means I have to do every assignment and do it to my best ability. These short-term goals must be met because they directly affect my long-term goal.
I have always had a lot of these types of goals and I feel that for the most part, I behave in such ways to accomplish my goals. I found this blog to be somewhat difficult because the stage that I am at in my life presents me with a lot of uncertainty. At this point, my only moderately long term goal is to find a job that I enjoy and within a year or so to be comfortable and successful in that position. While this goal is in itself difficult, it is not as specific as I would like it, which I know is what I need to achieve them. However, I would argue that I am highly intrinsically motivated towards this so my slight lack in specificity should hopefully help me to get to goal attianment.
One thing that I can do to help be in this goal is to search for jobs that interest me. Lately, I have been applying for anything and everything in hopes of getting a job before graduation. Clearly this behavior does not lead me towards the job of my dreams necessarily but I think that part of the stepping stones of this goal is to start at the bottom. Another thing that I will need to do to be comfortable and successful in this position is to make solid work relationships. I think that having a positive work environment can really help in performing well on the job. Secondly, a way for me to obtain this is to keep an open mind to new projects and situations. The chapter talks about how we shy away from goals that seem to difficult and I think that in a new job, I will be presented with projects that I will want to turn down due to my lack of knowledge in the field. One way I can add specificity to my goal is to plan to always take on these extra tasks that seem maybe outside of my comfort zone. Because this goal is self-set and highly intrinsically motivating for me I feel a high level of goal acceptance. My ideal state about how this goal looks is very easy to think about; however, I know that there will be some discrepancy between this state and the “present” state once I am in it. While this is somewhat scary, I think that this is to be expected in any new job. Another issue with this goal is that there will not be a high level of feedback; it will all be self-directed (me getting the job, feeling comfortable, etc). However, after a while, I will start getting feedback about my performance from coworkers which will then allow me to better assess me goal achievement.
Again, I know that this goal is not as specific as I would like it to be, but I am simply not at a stage in my life to set a lot of long term goals. I have always been one to be all about goal-setting but there is so much uncertainty in my near future right now that I think this is the best I can do. While, there are other things that I could say I want to achieve, this as of now is really my biggest goal and concern.
A goal that I have is to get a job that I enjoy and will be happy with. I will be graduating in May, but it may take awhile for me to actually find a job that I would be willing to do until I don’t have to work anymore. This goal may prove to be difficult and may take quite a bit of time to achieve, but I believe that I will be able to accomplish this goal.
My plans are to graduate in May and find a job in a bank or a real estate agency. After experiencing this type of job for awhile I plan on starting to study for my real estate exam. Once I feel like I am ready I plan to take the test and hopefully will then have my real estate license. After I achieve this goal I would like to get a job at a real estate agency as a realtor and then eventually after I have experience in the field I would like to open my own real estate business.
By setting this goal I have accepted the goal. This goal will be challenging at times, but I am willing to take the challenge. My goal is also pretty specific. I am pretty flexible about the job I get after I graduate, but after I get my real estate license my goal is specific. Chapter 8 tells us that in order to be successful and achieve a goal the goal has to be somewhat difficult and specific. My goal is both of these. I also have intrinsic motivation when it comes to this goal. I want to make this happen because I think that this profession will make me happy. I definitely want a job that will make me happy. This goal seems reachable to me and so I am going to pursue this goal.
My goal is to have a wedding that satisfies me in August 2012. I recently got engaged, so the wedding plans have begun. The first thing I need to do is be more specific about my goal. What does a wedding that satisfies me mean? Right now I have determined that to be a wedding that has my friends and family there, in a setting I like, and with the end result being that I get to marry my fiancée. My current state is not married and planning and my ideal state is at my wedding with everything planned and ready.
In order to accomplish this long term goal, I need to make short term goals. I need to find a venue. I need to go wedding dress shopping and pick out a dress for me. I need to find dresses for my bridesmaids and tuxes for the groomsmen. I need to pick a caterer and a wedding cake baker. I need to find a florist and choose flowers. I need to pick out decorations. Each of these short term goals have several steps: research, find pictures for examples, explore my options, and eventually choose. Currently when I use the TOTE model, I see that there is still much incongruence. I will need to keep testing and operating until I reach my ideal state to exit.
I think planning a wedding is difficult, which makes it more motivating for me. It is discrepancy creation for me, because they are goals I created. I also think an important part is that I enjoy doing this, so it is more motivating for me. My biggest issue with wedding planning is getting started and getting back on task after distractions. School and work takes up most of my time right now, so I only get random moments for wedding planning. If I start I am very focused for a couple days, but it is hard to get back on task after a distraction.
Since Im going to be graduating this May and I plan on attending graduate school. My long term goal is to get into a gradute program. First off I need to specify what I want do I want a Masters or doctorate program. If I choose to go the doctorate route I will need a much higher GRE score than one I would need for a master's program. I also need to look into the requirements for the specific program. to ultimately reach my longterm goal I will need to complete a bunch of short term goals to demonstrate my competency to get into a grad school. I have already colpeted highschool, will be finishing up B.A., and have been practicing for the GRE.
I would like to have an internship this summer, but have not found one that works. Hopefully I will have a high enough score on my GRE that I will not need to retake it. After figuiring out what grad schools I would like to go to I would need to apply for them no later than december 15, but I plan on doin it earlier. If I ddo get accepted into the graduate program that I want, I will need to figure out a way to afford it , even though I plan on working full time for the year Im taking off after I graduate.
I tried talking to my advisor and he was not helpful but I still need to figure out how this whole grad school process works because Im the first to go to college let alone grad school and I did everything on my own, but obviously getting into grad school is going to be very hard. Most of all it is going to take a lot of research on my part , because the actual part of applying is not as time consuming as all the prep work. It is scary not knowing what to do because Im use to having things fall into to piece but I have a feeling that grad school isnt that way and I am mildly intimidated by competetion.
I am definitely a goal-oriented person, so my life is surrounded by goals. One of these long-term goals is to graduate college with as little debt as possible. This is a huge goal because it not only benefits me but also my parents because they are paying for my college education. By reaching this goal, maybe I would even be able to help them pay for my own education (how it should be). I first have to realize that I have incongruity in my goal; my present state and ideal state don't match right now. To remove this incongruity, I need to formulate a plan that I can follow. At this point, I definitely have corrective motivation; I am considering many different possible ways to remove this incongruity. I need to accomplish a few short-term goals first. Having a job is an important factor in staying out of debt. I have already a job during the academic year because of work study; however, to go one step further in accomplishing this goal, I need to find a summer job, so my income is consistently coming in. Another short-term goal is to stay on top of my credit cards: how much I spend, whether I can afford that over time, and making payments. My mom thought it would be a good idea to start building credit now. But, there are times when I don't think about whether I have the money to span over a period of payments for these things I charge. My current short-term goal is to pay off what I purchase on my credit card right away. By accomplishing this goal, I will have less to pay off in the future and then I can assist my parents. Every year I also make goals to fill out the FAFSA (which I already did this year) and apply for scholarships. The latter part of that goal is difficult for me to do due to the craziness of my schedule to fit more tasks into it. However, this may increase my effort and performance to get this done; it may also encourage me to fill out more lengthy applications or ones with essays (I used to stay clear of those) so I have the chance to earn more money.
There are a few things I can do to assist myself in my goal-setting process. By setting more specific goals, it will give me more direction and keep my focus towards that goal. Another aspect I could change in my plan is to give myself a deadline (like the implementation intentions). One of my more recent goals is to put a portion of my paycheck in my savings account every week. It would probably help to pick a specific amount to put in there and to set a specific date to have it in there by. I thought this would be harder for me to do since my bank is not on campus; however, I found out I can do it online, so that gave a little more initiative to get it done. I could also be more specific in my long-term goal; maybe I should set a specific amount to be in debt the most at the end of my college career. Something else I can do to accomplish this overall goal, in accomplishing my short-term goal with my credit cards, I can limit the amount of unneeded spending I do every month (excluding groceries/necessities).
Be fulfilling all these short-term goals, I can help myself in fulfilling my long-term goal of being as debt-free as possible. By setting these goals myself and not having my parents asking me to do these things, I am more apt to do them and in a better timespan.
One goal that I have is to own my own home, whether it be a condo or a house this is one of my big goals. This is quite a process though and the road ahead seems long. This goal of mine is made of up smaller, more short term goals. And this is beneficial for me because without those, I would probably lose interest and motivation to attain my goal. My first step is to graduate college, which will occur in May. Then I have to decide where I want to start my career and in what city. This is more of a rollercoaster decision for me because this is a huge and potentially permanent decision that I want to get correct. The decision of where to live and what to work is a complicated one because I want a good job that I enjoy but I place to live where I am happy.
The next and most important yet difficult step for me is the financial aspect of owning a home. I will need to write down my goal and make changes to my lifestyle so that I can meet that goal.If I were to try and achieve the goal of owning a home but did not write down my goals, or even look at the amount needed compared to what I have, I would most likely not achieve anything. My present state is a renter while my ideal state is a home owner! This is definately not a goal that I can put a specific time for a deadline until I can achieve some of my short term goals. Once I get a career and can look out for my financial abilities I will be able to know more of a deadline. This is important because without that I may never put enough effort into the situation. My deadline will be realistic but will definately push me strive for my goal. Very important.
A goal that I could realistically in a year or so would be to work out and gain more muscle mass. I am fairly skinny (a girl next to me called me a twig the other day), and I have always wanted to bulk up. I am usually too busy with work and school, but I have never actually taken the time to sit down and plan out the goal itself. It’s something I have been putting off for when I am less busy. Procrastination, unfortunately, usually is not too good for achieving goals.
I would like to change my skinny present state into a beefed up ideal state. To do this in a year or a bit more, I will have to plan and make achievable goals. Since my present state does not fit my ideal state, I have generated a plan to eliminate the incongruity. I will have a feed-forward system because I have created my goal, and no one can give me feedback but myself. Simply having a goal for better physique will actually improve my chances of reaching that goal as will. I will also have to make my goal be realistic. It can’t be too easy like only lifting 10 lb. on every machine. I also cannot make it too difficult like trying to lift more than what I am capable of. If I find the right poundage to life, then I will stand better chances of reaching my goal to become a beef cake. I will need to be specific with the goal as well. Get stronger is too vague for it to be specific. Saying lift weights in different muscle areas while gradually increasing weight for a year’s length of time is a much more specific and better goal. Getting some for of feedback will keep me going in my endeavor because it will show me that I am actually making progress. I could gain feedback by seeing if I weigh any more, looking at myself in the mirror, or trying to lift heavier objects that I could not pick up before. I would also have to be willing to strive for this goal. I must have my heart in it or I won’t do as well. Seeing as how I made the goal for myself, I don’t think this will be an issue.
To be able to achieve the main goal of becoming more muscular, I will have to set a bunch of smaller goals for reinforcement. It will keep my interest if I continue to accomplish goals (no matter how small) while I work out. I suppose a simple goal would be lift 5-10pounds on a rep cycle next week or something of the sort. I could use process amd outcome simulation to plan ahead and visualize how great it will be once I have reached my goal. Mental simulations may help eliminate any mental blocks that may stop me from achieving my goal. Implementation intentions are alos important in setting goals. After making my goals for getting stronger, I will need to make plans on how to actually do it. I could plan how much weight I want to lift and what areas I need to work on for different sessions.
I am currently involved in a developing franchise company called Hungry for HUH? which operates food stands that set up outside of bars and college campuses. My long term goal for June 2012 is to open stands in San Diego and Seattle around the local hotspots and campuses. After opening stands in Ames, Iowa City, Champagne, and Chicago the next steps would be to move out of the Midwest to highly populated areas where food stands are very popular and profitable. According to Chapter 8, I will have a much better chance to accomplish this goal if I make several smaller goals on the path to achieving the final goal. These smaller goals added into the plan will help to decrease the probability that goal stagnation will occur. One thing that I can add to my goal setting is goal specificity.
Goal specificity is referred to by Chapter 8 as to how clearly a goal informs the performer precisely what he is to do. I think that an issue I have had in the past with my goals is that they weren’t very specific so I had a hard time weighing my progress. A way to increase my goal specificity would be to narrow down exact locations where the co-owners of the company could run market analysis and find out exactly where would be the most profitable. Adding specificities to my goal setting would be greatly beneficial and would give me a higher probability of accomplishing them. The next thing that I can improve on is the difficulty of my goals.
In Chapter 8 goal difficulty refers to how hard a goal is to accomplish. I know that some of my previous goals have been too easy and have caused me to lack motivation towards accomplishing them. Also, I have made some of my other goals impossible to accomplish within the time frame I set. The goal to have put the companies food stands in cities outside is a challenging yet possible goal. The great thing about food stands is that the starting cost is low along with the monthly overhead of operating it. Based on the relative low cost and the fact that the company has already expanded into several cities around the Midwest make it possible but challenging to accomplish moving to San Diego and Seattle.
If I implement setting smaller goals, make my goals more specific, and make sure that the difficulty of my goals are challenging but not impossible the motivation towards and probability of accomplishing my goals should increase substantially resulting in a higher level of achievement.
One long-term goal that I have for myself right now is succeeding in graduate school. I have already been accepted into two different forensic psychology master’s programs and I am still waiting to hear back from two of them. Before getting accepted into grad schools, I had to do a lot of goal setting and planning to get to where I am now. I involved myself in the process of discrepancy creation where I looked forward to where I wanted to be and proactively worked towards that goal. First off, I had to keep maintaining a high enough GPA, build up my resume doing more volunteer work, and obtain a decent score on the GRE exam. I was able to judge my ability to do these things after examining each task’s goal difficulty. I set my goals as reasonably high as I could and went to work. I definitely agree with the idea that difficult goals stimulate high effort—been there done that! Also, my overall goal performance not only depended on being difficult, but also that I had specific goals in mind. Over the past year, I was able to raise my GPA to a 3.7, put in a bunch of volunteer hours, and get a decent score on the GRE exam that allowed me to even consider thinking about graduate school. The process I took to go through all of that can definitely be described as fitting the corrective motivation/TOTE model. I compared my then present state with where I wanted to be, acted on that by doing better in school, volunteering, and studying/performing well on the GRE. Once I was able to get to where I wanted to, I was able to apply to grad schools.
Now that I’ve been accepted into a couple schools, the decision process is becoming very important. I need to figure out exactly what I want out of a graduate school education and where I see myself later down the road. Once I choose where I want to go, I will once again follow the TOTE Model to figure out and solve what I perceive to be incongruities in my life (I’m sure some will come up). I’ll be choosing which internships I want to take, or what classes (if any) I get to choose on taking. I want to make sure that I’m getting the most well-rounded education and that my future knowledge will help me succeed in the real world. When these future discrepancies come up, I will need to remind myself what goals I have of getting an education in forensic psychology and what kinds of jobs I’d be interested in taking once I graduate. I will set specific, high goals for myself that may be difficult to obtain, but I know from experience that I will put forth a lot of effort. The process of deciding is crazy and fun all at the same time because this is one of those decisions that I have to make that will change the rest of my life!
One long term goal that I have set for myself is to have a job that I love working at. I graduate next May (2012), so I have a good amount of time to really figure out exactly what I want to do and how I am going to go about that. This goal is pretty general, and not very specific at all. I think most people who come to college, have a goal to graduate and have a job that they love. I have the first step down—Goal Setting. I have my goal set, which gives me something to work towards and a reason for being here in college.
There are a couple ways that I could make this goal a little more practical so that I have a better chance of actually achieving it. A couple ways that I could help make my goal more achievable is to work on Goal Difficulty and Goal Specificity. I think this goal is pretty difficult, considering not everyone is able to go to college and a lot of people don’t get a job that they absolutely love going to.
I could work on how specific my goal is though. How am I going to get good grades, so I can graduate college and am able to get a job? How am I going to figure what kind of job I want? I am I going to get experience in a field I am considering, so that people will hire me after I graduate? All of these things will help me better reach my long-term goal of having a job that I love. I need to study, go to class, and do homework so that I can get good grades and graduate on time. I need to research some of the different fields that I could go into, so I will have a better understanding of what is fitting for me. It would help to volunteer places (which I am) so that I can gain knowledge in a certain field (which will put me ahead of others when looking for a permanent job). All of these things will allow me to pursue my major goal of having a job that I love.
By starting with theses smaller goals, I will be more likely to achieve the bigger one. It will increase my performance in school now because I am aware of those smaller goals that I need to accomplish first. Also, by setting smaller goals in place, and achieving them one at a time, it allows for positive feedback. When I get a good grade in a class or have a good experience at volunteering, it allows me to realize that I am one step closer to achieving me long-term goal. This will give me the motivation to continue going so that I will eventually have a job that I love.
My husband and my goal is to save up so we can travel to Scotland and Germany in spring 2012. We would like to visit a friend of his who is going to brewing school (in Scotland) and my sister who lives in Germany. I have made a plan to achieve my goal because right now I notice an incongruity between what I have and what I would need to have in order to travel to these places. The ideal state would be to have enough money to purchase the necessary items to take the trip. In order to be flexible with my goal, it will probably be necessary to adopt a “corrective motivation” framework in case income fluctuates. Essentially, I want to save up a certain amount of money every month in order to achieve a few thousand by next spring. In addition, any other money that can be saved up on top of the slated amount will help us be flexible in our goal attainment. Since this trip is at the forefront of my husband and my mind, we are more likely to achieve the goal itself. This concrete and attainable goal encourages us to save up money for the trip. Going to Scotland and Germany is an interesting goal, one that does not cause much difficulty, and is difficult but not impossible. Something we could do to make our goal more attainable is to write down a statement of exactly what we plan to do and by when. So far we have included the trip in our budget so that we are slowly saving up until next spring. Our 8 step goal is as follows:
1. Travel to Scotland and Germany (one trip)
2. This goal is hard because we have to give up spending extra on things now, but it is not impossible
3. Save up a certain amount (not written here because of privacy) every month and transfer that amount into savings so it cannot be spent on other items.
4. Saving will occur from 3/1/11 to 5/1/12 – 14 months
5. Goal is highly accepted by both participating members
6. Goal-attainment strategies: save up a certain amount each month, do not eat out often, limit spending on special events (concerts, movies, etc.)
7. On every 1st of the month thru 5/1/12 a certain amount of money will be transferred to savings
8. Goal attainment will be discussed every 2 months with one another
One of the long-term goals that I have is to attend grad school in order to get my masters in social work or marriage and family therapy. One way that I can make sure I successfully achieve my goal is to set smaller short term goals for each step in the process. This will help develop a specific action plan for how I will attain my goal. I need to have implementation intentions so that when distractions and interruptions occur, I can get back on track far easier. Setting short term goals make it easier to obtain feedback which keeps me more emotionally involved in achieving my goal. Feedback also gives me the chance to evaluate my progress and see what changes, if any, need to be made to my action plan. Reaching each short term goal will give me a sense of competence needed to achieve the next one. Below is a rough draft list of short term goals I will plan on completing before attending grad school.
1. Get all A’s this spring semester in all my classes.
2. Get inducted into Psy Chi in April 2011 to enhance my application
3. Meet with advisors before summer break
4. Gather information on grad school programs of interest, visit schools of choice by August 2011
5. Get a good GPA during both Fall 2011 and Spring 2012
6. Apply to grad schools by January 2012
7. Graduate with a 3.8 GPA or higher in May 2012
8. Begin attending grad school in Fall 2012
Most importantly, I will mark on my calendar to review my goal progress at the first of each month.
I have recently been debating on graduate school. I have a genuine love for school, learning, and to be more specific genetic pathology. I am intrinsically motivated to further my education. School satisfies my need for achievement and competence. Realizing that I will be graduating in 2012 is exciting however I know that there will be incongruence. In order to relieve this discrepancy I would like to go to graduate school. I will be able to further my education and get an opportunity to create my research project. Graduate school also has its extrinsic benefits such as more money and better job security. I believe this goal to be a discrepancy creation in that I am setting a higher goal for myself. Because I have created this goal myself I know that I do accept this goal. This goal is no doubt difficult but I obviously need to research to find more specifics. I need to decide on a specific school and grad program and this will help me determine the short terms goals that need to be accomplished before acceptance of a grad program. I will of course I will receive feedback from my GPA, score on the GRE, and overall success in each class.
As for mental simulations I need to make a list of things that I need to do, short term goals. These would be researching specific programs and their requirements, attaining a high GPA (determining specific GPA once I’ve looked at programs), getting letters of recommendation, getting clinical laboratory experience (I’m going to Allen College next near to receive certification as a MLS), finally taking the GRE. For implementation intentions I need to have several graduate programs lined up to guarantee acceptance. I also need to plan accordingly with a job in consideration. I also will no doubt need to save money for moving expenses and possibly move in advance to avoid paying out of state tuition depending on the restrictions. Now looking at the specific steps that I will need to take and realizing that some of these steps I can/need to do right not it makes this goal more attainable. Realizing that I need to plan for obstacles also makes this goal much more realistic.
I started smoking at age 15. At 19 I quit smoking and to 21 years without trying a cigarette. Actually even smoke. My goal is to stop smoking for good. While smoke always think, do you really want to keep doing this? How would you like to be? The answer is always that I want to quit, so there is a discrepancy between my ideal state and real state my disagreement I have created and I need to reduce. The difficulty of my goal is too big for what I need a strong mentally and be persistent. The specificity is clear, not smoking a single cigarette. I internalized my goal and every time I'm closer to him, my plan is to monitorizing my behavior by doing things like controlling the stimuli that can make me fall like removing ashtrays from home and car, not having lighters near or not accompany a friend when he goes outside to smoke. Each week we review what we've done in the last 7 days and if I smoke or not. If I was a week without smoking review it and if I did smoke, try to remember because it happened. The feedback I receive is very important to end up having success with my goal.
For me the most important part of the goal is the Acceptance of the goal, we need a clear commitment to achieve something. If you doubt or do not put all your energy on your goal probably will fail. For my part I have of course I want to quit smoking, and although sometimes even smoke one day I am determined to leave forever snuff.
I suppose that the only non-short-term goal in my life right now is to somehow get my mental issues (including generalized anxiety disorder, severe depression, mild bipolar disorder, and ~mood disorder not otherwise specified~) under control. In order to achieve some semblance of normality, I need professional help. Good thing I've had some for the past three years.
I think that the TOTE model goes along best with my goals. When I meet with various psychiatric professionals, we assess where I stand that day. Then, they, as the ones with advanced degrees in fixing-my-head, decide what the next steps will be, either medicinally or behaviorally. They ask if these means are okay with me and if they are, we tackle the problem that way and then I go about my day, week, however long until I check in with them again.
We reassess periodically until the goal is achieved. At this point, the goal is so far from being achieved I am frustrated by it every day. If I were to go about this alone, there is no way I'd ever leave my apartment. And then I would lose my apartment and have to move back in with my parents. So, the professionals are my best option. By far.
We will continue to test, operate, test, operate again, test again, etc etc etc until the exit stage finally arrives. Then, I'll just be in maintenance mode.
Blog on goal setting for 3/3/11
I am setting a goal of being consistent in my exercising for 40 minutes every other day. I currently settle for a 40 minute workout twice a week because I allow (or justify) other priorities to interrupt and take place of exercising. I am shooting to meet this goal in 6 months. I know that a moderately difficult and a specific goal will enhance my performance according to chapter eight. I will start out with a short term goal of getting up 40 minutes earlier each morning in order to avoid the distractions of daily events. By using a situational cue of the time and the place to exercise I should be able to establish a daily habit of getting up and exercising three times a week within one month.
The second phase of this goal is to increase the intensity and the length of time exercising to forty minutes every other day but this may take me a while to accomplish so in order to track my progress realistically. I will log my exercise intensity and length of time each week on a calendar. I hope this strategy will alleviate the procrastination and distractions that I have allowed to be daily occurrences.
The fact that I am not exercising every day but I am still getting up each day 40 minutes earlier every day will allow me to work on a scrap book; that has been an intention since last October, I could read for fun or maybe work ahead in class on my days off. If I fell below my expectation the day before I could retry the next day.
I plan to make Friday nights my personal evaluation/assessment time with restructuring as needed. This is when I will reconsider the steps in the goal process; starting with the target of a 40 minute workout three days a week the first month. Then I will attempt to push myself by creating implementation of intensions to work out longer and or harder each time until I accomplish a workout for 40 minutes every other day.
I look forward to tomorrow night when I will evaluate my performance this week because I am only slightly below my initial short term goal of three full workouts this week. I am confident that my Friday evaluations will allow me to restructure new or changed implementation intentions and I can see progress (positive feedback) that will encourage me to be persistent and thereby enhance intrinsic motivation. This will allow me ultimately support my long term goal of consistently exercising 40 minutes every other day.
Terms: specific goals of moderate difficulty, situational cue of time and place, habit, specific targets, goals, goal progress, creating implementation of intentions. Evaluation, restructure, positive feedback, support long term goals, intrinsic motivation,
One of my biggest long term goals is to own/open my own business. I am a business management major and so my ideal job will be to manage a business but I know that I will be much happier owning my own business rather than managing someone elses. I currently work at a restaurant as a part time server so there is a huge discrepancy/congruity between where I am and where I want to be. My first task is complete, set my goal. Next I need to be specific in my goal. What kind of business do I want to own? I would want to successfully own a bar or restaurant of some sort and turn it into a chain. I know the difficulty to successfully owning my own business is high, but not impossible, which according to the book will enhance my performance.
In order to be more likely in achieving my goal I not only need to know what I am going to do, but how I am going to do it. I will need to achieve many short term goals. My steps/actions/goals would be as follows:
Figure out what exactly my restaurant is going to be
Find the town to put it in
Figure out a name for it
Find the place/building to put it in
Get a loan
Get all the necessary materials
Hire workers
Train workers
Open business!!!
When I start to do the steps to opening my own business I will need to get feedback through out that will hopefully say I am in the right place and doing the right things and that will keep me satisfied and i will keep working on my goal.
When setting up this goal it is hard to make a time line because I have not idea how long any of these things will take so I figure I could at least have due dates for each of these steps. By the time I graduate in may 2012 I want to know exactly where I want to put this restaurant, what exactly it is going to be,and what its going to be called. In three years after I graduate I want to have all the legal stuff done and the money to fund it. Then by 2017 I want to have my business open and running!!!
A long term goal of mine is to find a job that I am passionate about in the Cedar Valley area. I would love to work for a non-profit or other agency that has a people serving mission. I have previously worked for large, money hungry businesses that do not seem to place an importance on people. Reflecting on this difference/ having a cognitive mental event, functioned as a “spring to action” for me. I had knowledge of my current work experience and knew what I would prefer to do. The incongruity between the two gave me energy and direction. Chapter 8 tells us that goals do not always enhance performance. Only those goals that are difficult and specific do so. I worry that my long term goal is a little too broad, but I am not willing or able to narrow my job prospects any further at this point. Only internalized or accepted goals improve performance. Since my goal is not externally set, I made it myself, I can be confident I have goal acceptance. Chapter 8 says that in order to accomplish a distant goal, the performer first has to attain several requisite short-term goals. This method is best because a long term goal often doesn’t provide sufficient opportunities for performance feedback and positive reinforcement. I have already been breaking this goal into smaller short term goals. First, I need to get good grades in college, so I can graduate and appeal to prospective employers. Luckily I get lots of feedback on grades (i.e. every test, assignment, and class completion). The most profound topic I learned about in Chapter 8 was goal striving. Focusing on the goal itself does not help motivation. However, focusing on how to accomplish the goal does facilitate goal attainment. I need to have implementation intentions which are a plan to carry out my goal. This tells me when, where, and how long to do a behavior. First, I found an internship that would round out my resume and will be closer to my career choice. Luckily, I found an HR position for a local non-profit. I know that this internship will be over at the end of the semester. So, next I need to find a position starting in May or June. Some implementation intentions could include checking career cat web site every Saturday, visit the career center by the end of March for additional help, and check the Sunday newspaper for positions starting in April. Implementation intentions can also help people anticipate a difficulty. One difficulty that I anticipate is that I may not find an advertised position by May. If I do not find a job, I could send my resume to local non-profits or volunteer in order to get my foot in the door.
The biggest goal that I have right now is to have figured out a five-year plan by this time next year. I have been going back and forth between graduating on time (May 2012) with a major in Psychology and minors in Family Studies and Spanish or staying an extra year and making my Family Studies minor a Family Services Major. This is discrepancy creation because I am looking forward and want to proactively set a future, higher goal. From Chapter 8 I learned that goals should be difficult, specific, and have a form of feedback to be most effective. This goal is difficult because it is a big, life-altering, expensive decision and it is specific in that I will have to make certain final choices in order to figure out. I have come up with smaller, short-term goals of making appointments with career counselors and academic advisers to discuss my options so I will make an informed decision. I have applied my goal to the eight Steps in an Effective Goal-Setting Program:
1. Objective to be accomplished:
Decide between graduating in May 2012 and May 2013.
Decide between going straight to graduate school, getting a job, or taking time to travel/volunteer.
2. Goal difficulty:
This will be a moderately to highly difficult goal to achieve.
3. Clarify goal specificity:
Write out a detailed five-year plan including where school/job/travel/volunteer will take place and costs of each.
4. Specify the time span when performance will be assessed:
Performance will be assessed each month after each short-term goal (meeting with advisers, etc.) has been met.
5. Check on goal acceptance:
Goal is accepted.
6. Goal-attainment strategies include:
Meeting short-term goals such as monthly appointments with different career counselors, academic advisers, professors, graduate programs, and volunteer organizations.
7. Implementation intentions:
Immediately schedule appointments for each month so there will not be a reason to delay moving forward with decision-making process.
8. Performance feedback:
Having a final well thought-out and planned decision that I am content with made in one year and announcing it to family.
For this blog assignment I want you to choose a real goal that you have. Make it a medium to long term goal (so something at least 1 year away or longer). Using what you know from Chapter 8, how could you go about making it more likely that you will achieve that goal? Be specific in terms of the concepts from chapter 8 and how your application of them to your goal.
I have two main long term goals that come to mind immediately when thinking about my future. The first is to graduate from grad school and the second is to make a responsible, carefully planned out and easy move to Colorado. I will focus on the latter of the two for this blog.
I am comparing me living in Colorado to me living in Iowa now. My future life would be my ideal environment and my current life is my present environment. This is causing some incongruity and I have a strong desire to change this so I must come up with a plan.
Because this goal is both difficult and specific I will be better energized and directed toward a course of action that will get me there. Also, because it is a long-term goal, I will need to set up a series of short-term goals in order to obtain some sort reward for staying on track with this goal. Long-term goals are complex. I will first need to finish my education here at UNI. I had first desired to move out to Colorado right after graduating from here; however, I KNOW I want and practically need to go to grad school for what I want to do with my psychology degree. So, I looked into graduate schools in Colorado and found that the out of state tuition seemed like too much to give up just to make an immediate move. After graduating from grad school here in Iowa I will obtain job interviews and go apartment searching. All of these individual steps done correctly will lead me to where I want to be. Here I have done an outcome simulation by visualizing myself successfully over coming each obstacle and imagining how it would feel. Also, by deciding when I will make my move, I have made implementation intention.