Yes I am going to make you set goals!

Setting goals can seem like a petty activity that provides little benefit. I can assure you this is not the case. When you set a clear and concise goal that resonates with what you desire, you are setting the foundation for everything else that follows.  How will know what to work on when you do not know what you are working for?  You won't.

So right now or whenever you have the time take out the notepad or journal you have dedicated to your college transformation and write out 5 year-long goals.  When you are doing this, take time to actually think about the goals, make them longer then just a few words or a simple sentence, read them out loud to yourself, and reflect on them.  Remember these are the five goals you will be focused on until they are accomplished, so make sure they are truly your top five goals.  This task should not be easy. (I suggest leaving the first few page of your journal/notebook blank when brainstorming so you can put your goals on the front pages when you discovered and defined them.  This is, however, just a matter of organizational preference.)

Your activity for today is not done yet.  Now that you have your top five goals clearly defined and written neatly into your journal, you need to differentiate, for each goal, internal and external factors affecting that goal.

An internal factor is something that you  have control of (for example: your self confidence, your emotions, how you dress, what you eat, the time you allocate to different tasks etc).  An external factor is something that you do not have control over (for example: other people, physical disabilities, past events etc).

Here is a simplified example of what this exercise should look like. 

Goal:  Get an A on my upcoming english paper (note: your goals should not have such a short term focus, I am just using this as an example).

List of factors affecting this goal:  Professors bias towards certain styles of writing, the effort I put into the paper, speaking with the professor during office hours, time constraints, negative history with professor, other students in the class, slow computer, the style of writing I use, etc.

Differentiating into internal and external factors:

External (don't have control over): Professors bias,  negative history with professor, other students in the class, time constraint, slow computer

Internal (have control over): Speaking with professor,  the style of writing I use, the effort I put int the paper

Once you have differentiated the factors influencing your goals into external and internal factors, I want you to circle all the external factors and write next to them "I have no control over these so I won't waste my time thinking about them."  Whenever you start to worry or think about something you have no control over, recognize that you don't have control and you are wasting your energy thinking about it.

The internal factors are what we will be focused on since they are things that CAN be changed.  The best part is often when you have addressed all the internal factors properly the external factors, without any effort or thought on your part, will generally also align with your life focus.

If you have any questions or remarks feel free to leave a comment and I will do my best to address it promptly.