Setting & Achieving Your College Goals

To achieve your academic and college goals you must do two things: 1) choose emotionally compelling goals and outcomes and 2) have an effective system of time management.

When I was in college I struggled tremendously with calculus. A coach and mentor of mine pointed out what I had been doing to sabotage my own success. When I was younger, my mother tried to motivate me by putting me down and telling me I would never amount to anything. At times she made me feel like I was too stupid to ultimately get what I wanted in life. Because I feared she was right, I would always put off doing my calculus homework until the very last minute. Usually the weekend before our first test. Calculus requires you to learn the previous days problem solving techniques before doing the next days. If you didn’t do your homework yesterday, there was no way for you to understand how to do today’s problems.

When the first test came around, usually 2 to 3 weeks into the school semester, I always tried to cram, but was never successful at passing that first test. So what I did was drop calculus three times. On my fourth try I was determined to pass it and prove to myself that I wasn’t stupid. My fear of finding out that I was stupid was so overwhelming, that I constantly gave myself excuses and reasons why I should put off my homework.

As I talk about in my articles goal setting that works and the ultimate time management strategy, I used those strategies to break through my fears and limiting beliefs so I could motivate myself to do my homework when it was required so I could keep up with my class. I ended up getting an “A” in calculus. 20 years later I am still using the same goal setting and time management techniques I used in college to achieve all of my goals and dreams. If you apply those two techniques and take action, they will work for you.

The most important thing before you register for any classes is that you choose a major that is emotionally compelling and exciting to you. That is the only way you will stay committed and do the work that is necessary to achieve your goals. Plus, the only way you will be good at anything in life is if you like what you are doing.

If you’re not sure of what you want to major in, only take general education classes that you can get credit for towards most degrees.

The following is an e-mail I received recently. My comments are (in bold brackets like this) in the body of her e-mail:

I am Marie Frankson and I am one of your Facebook and Twitter followers. Recently, you posted an article about making and keeping goals onto your website. I’m a freelance writer for the online college newspaper and I’m currently writing a back-to-school article for its September issue. My particular article is about how to have a successful academic year at college. I was wondering if you had any advice I could put into my article about how college students between the ages of 18-22 can make and keep their academic-oriented goals. It would be an honor for me to quote an expert like you in my article, even if it’s just a couple of sentences.

Thank you in advance.

Marie Frankson

1) You MUST choose a career or major that your heart has a burning desire for you to become.  If you want to be successful and good at anything in life, you MUST choose something you really love.  Otherwise you are wasting your time and money on a major you will just discard shortly after graduating.  

2) If you don’t know what you want to do, only take general education classes that will be required for any major until you figure out what you really want to do.  Otherwise you will be taking and paying for classes you can’t any credit towards your degree for.

3) WRITE YOUR GOALS DOWN AND REVIEW THEM DAILY.

4) Persist WITHOUT EXCEPTION.  Find a way… not a way out.

“Parents wonder why the streams are bitter, when they themselves have poisoned the fountain.” ~ John Locke