Planning Ahead Through Goal-Setting

Happy New Year!  I hope you all enjoyed these past two weeks with family and friends as much as I have.  Now that the new year is upon us, it's time to get back into the swing of things, and I know you're going to do great.

This Winter Break, I decided to teach my daughter Annie about goal-setting.  The image above illustrates the goal she (Annie, age 5) set for herself.  At East Montgomery Elementary, there is a reading club for Kindergarten students who wish to earn a tee shirt for completing 9 book reports each month (Kindergarten books are relatively short, so don't think we're reading novels on a daily basis).  Since we had two weeks at home, I challenged my daughter to complete her January book reports before she returned to school.  This gave her an opportunity to keep her mind sharp and learn a little something about breaking a daunting task into smaller, easily-achieved projects.

As you can see, Annie separated her book reports by day with small rewards for completing each phase of the challenge.  I added a big reward (Play Date with her best friend) if she could complete each phase on time.  On Monday, after dinner, she got to enjoy dairy-free ice cream.  Tuesday she earned a piece of candy.  Wednesday's reward was an ice pop.  Thursday we played with her toy ponies after dinner. Finally, Friday night we watched Lion King.  Since she accomplished her goal on time, she will have a play date with her friend next weekend. Go Annie!

This week we will lay out our plan of attack for the new semester by establishing goals for each of our projects (listed below) and laying out a timeline for completing each phase of them.  There is a lot to do, so we'll have to take a few days to get this finalized.  Below is a list of our semester goals:

1. Complete business plan with a partner
2.  Prepare for Mock Interview Competition - Create a portfolio, update resume, study common interview questions, learn to separate yourself from others
3. Operate the business - Improve inter-departmental collaboration, become more detail-oriented, keep better records, file taxes for the business

In order to set our goals and improve ourselves, we will watch the following videos (yes, I know we watched them last year, but I hope that watching them again will help you make this year even better) on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday:

1.  How to Follow Through With Your Goals: Part 1
2.  How to Follow Through With Your Goals: Part 2
3. How to Follow Through With Your Goals: Part 3
4. How to Follow Through With Your Goals: Part 4

On Friday, we will have a team discussion, lead by our CEO and VPs of HR and Admin, to break down each goal into manageable pieces.  I'm sure you've heard me ask you how to eat an elephant in the past.  This Friday, we'll do just that.

See you in class on Tuesday!