Having Goals | Teen Ink

Having Goals

December 16, 2007
By Anonymous

What if people went through life without ever considering what they would like to do or try? How would anything ever get done? Goals are needed to persuade people to go out and do things. I believe that setting goals gets more accomplished.
Setting goals helps me get through every day life, which in my case is school. Unfortunately, I am a terrible procrastinator, and always seem to put things off until the last minute. I struggle with long-term assignments, and have for a while. For the past few years I've started setting goals for how much I need to complete on a project per day, and it's actually working for me. In seventh grade, I had to complete a science project and create a poster to present. I managed to complete the experiment and collect the data just fine, but I put off doing the poster until the night before, and was forced to stay up most of the night throwing it together. It turned out rushed and sloppy. The next year we did another one, and this time I set a goal of getting the poster completed a week beforehand, and I met that goal and received a higher score. I also tend to procrastinate on studying for tests, but I've found that by setting goals to review a certain amount of information each night, I actually studied better.
Goals also helped me get over some of my fears. I was scared of falling for the longest time, and I still am a little. I was scared to do many things that sounded fun, like zip-lining and repelling. Finally, after some convincing, I decided to try them. For zip-lining, my goal was to at least climb to the top of the tower. When I finally got to the top, I decided to go for it. It turned out to be awesome and I've done it several times since then. When I went repelling, my goal was to try to get over the edge, and it was really difficult for me. When I finally went over, it was smooth sailing afterwards. I'd go again if I had the chance. I was also afraid of riding a horse downhill, because it felt like falling. Then I ended up going to a horse camp for a summer, and had to ride downhill. Although I still don't like the sensation, I can now ride comfortably, for the most part.

Having goals for life opened many possibilities, and helped me accomplish many things. I made the goal of visiting the Georgia aquarium within two years of it opening, and although it took a lot of pestering, I finally convinced my dad to take me, and it was amazing. Setting goals has been rewarding because they got me to try new things and pushed to go further on things I had already tried. I also get a since of satisfaction every time I meet or pass one of my goals, and I love the feeling of accomplishment I get.

To sum it all up, I feel that charging through life without thinking about what you want to accomplish is foolish. By setting goals I have become a more responsible person, and have conquered some of my fears. I know that I will have to keep setting goals if I want to get anywhere in life.


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