Try first to identify what really matters to you. Is it academic success? Your career? Fame and fortune? Setting goals that really mean something to you, that work with your values, will help you to stay motivated in the long-run.   Try to figure out what matters most to you. This could involve your upbringing and what your parents stressed, whether money, appearance, success, or education. It might also be reflected in what you do, for example, and whether you work in finance or for a non-profit organization. Ask yourself what you want in life. Is it to get a good job, to feel a sense of fulfillment, or maybe to help people?  Map out your goals in a hierarchy from most important to less important. Then, write down what values in life you think lie behind these goals. Namely, what is your motivation to achieve them? Focus your energies on goals that you really want in life and that suit your basic values. If you have always wanted to be a doctor, for instance, and helping people is important to you, then going to med school might be a well-suited goal. You might feel unfulfilled, on the other hand, if you want to help people but have a life goal of working in advertising.   Reassess your list of goals and compare it to your motivations.  Do your motives work against your goals or do they go together? Say that you want to be a doctor but find that your motive is not helping people, but earning a lot of money. Are you OK with this? Or will you be unhappy with your job in the long run? Once you have carefully considered your values, think about setting long-term and short-term goals. Having both is important for motivation. Short-term goals are like milestones along the road to one or more long-term goals. Your goals for the near future will help you to see progress, keeping you on track to more distant end.  For example, a short-term goal might be something like handing in your assignments in on time or passing your weekly quizzes. These help you along toward longer-term goals, like getting a good grade in your trigonometry class, passing AP Math, or getting into a good college. Write these down, again. Think about what you want to achieve in the future (long-term) but also about how you will get there (short-term). Putting the specific goals on paper will help to crystallize them. Keep the list handy so that you can review your progress from time to time and check items off. Occasional review will remind you of your goals and also allow you to track your progress. By setting unreasonable, unrealistic goals you may be setting yourself up for failure. Someone who always wants the perfect job, the perfect house, or the perfect life is a perfectionist. Striving to be the best is good, but extreme perfectionists tend to be unhappy and unproductive.  Set high but achievable goals. Having a high goal will challenge and motivate you without setting you up for a fall. Gun for a high score on the SAT without insisting on perfection, for example, but still be happy if you didn’t ace it. Set measurable goals, as well. “Being the best” is admirable but not very effective as a short- or long-term goal. Be more specific. Say, rather, “This year I want to lower my golf handicap and shoot an 80 on 18 holes.” By meeting realistic goals, you will end up gaining more confidence and fearing failure less.
تواصل مع قيمك. ركز على الأكثر أهمية بالنسبة لك. ضع أهدافًا لكل من المدى الطويل والمدى القصير. كن واقعيًا.