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College TNT
Helping students and families navigate to and through college!
College TNT
6 Tips for Effective Goal Setting to Achieve Your College Plans: Part 1
What if setting goals could be the secret ingredient to transforming your college dreams into reality? Join me, Jen Schoen, in this episode of College TNT as we embark on the new year with a focus on goal setting. You'll discover six pivotal tips (three in this episode) that are designed not just to inspire, but to equip you with the tools needed for a successful college journey. From deciphering your personal "why" to crafting detailed, actionable plans, we break down how understanding your motivations can set the foundation for both academic and personal triumphs.
As we navigate through the initial steps, I highlight the underestimated power of writing down your ambitions with precision, including specific timelines and measurable outcomes. It might sound straightforward, but this practice is instrumental in keeping your aspirations crystal clear and your progress on track. Whether you're a student mapping out your educational path or a parent determined to support your child's collegiate goals, this episode promises to transform aspirations into strategic actions. Let's kick off 2025 with renewed purpose and a clear roadmap to success!
For more about me - my experience and my speaking, check out the links below.
You can reach me at jen@firstgenfm.com.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenschoen/
https://www.firstgenfm.com/speaker-high-school-educators-students-parents
Hello and welcome back, or welcome to College TNT, a podcast and YouTube video series that is designed to get you to and through college. That's what the TNT stands for. My job as Jennifer Schoen call me Jen is to help prepare you for college, help you navigate the college admissions process and then make a smooth transition through your first year of college. So that's what I'm here to talk about today and every day. Today and for the next couple episodes they're going to come fast and furious. I want to talk about setting goals. I think that's good for the new year, because, if you're listening as this is coming out, it's January 8th. The new year is here and we want to get ready for 2025. And I want to help you accomplish the goals that you have. So I have six tips for you that I want to share. So I have six tips for you that I want to share.
Speaker 1:Some you may say, well, that is so obvious, Like why are you sharing that? But others, I hope you'd be like oh, you know, I hadn't thought of it that way. Or I will share ways to think about it that may help you get motivated to reach your goals. So the very first one I want to talk about is deciding what you want and why. Because if you're just saying I'm going to go to college and you don't know why that is and you don't know, maybe, what it is you want out of your college experience, it's going to make it harder for you to work toward that goal. To make it harder for you to work toward that goal. So think about and jot notes, brainstorm. Spend some time, maybe talking to family members If you're a parent and you're listening.
Speaker 1:Talk to your students about their why, about why they want to go to college, and hopefully it's not because other people tell them to or because you told me I have to go to college. It's helping them understand what they can get out of college, what the experience is like and how it's going to help them get to where they want to go, because a why can be. Well, I want to do this as a career, and so I know that in order to do that, I need some experience in this area. I need some skills, I need knowledge to get to where I want to go. Nursing, engineering, accounting all of those things require knowledge. Marketing, social media, even I mean lots and lots of things need that extra knowledge, and college can provide that in a very structured way from experts who are up on the latest things that are going on in those areas. So that's one way to get to a why.
Speaker 1:What is it that you want to do in college to get to your career goal? Another thing could be maybe they're really passionate about studying something. There's something that they want to learn more about. That's a great why as well. If they want to dive in, or if you if you're a student listening want to dive into something and really get in-depth knowledge in a particular discipline, that's also a good why. So think about what your why is.
Speaker 1:Now I just gave two possible whys. There are millions out there and they're going to be individual to you, and so thinking about that is really going to help you set your goals, because college can't just be a dream. It needs to be a plan, and I may have stolen that from the Oregon Gear Up group or Gear Up in general, but it needs to be a plan, and a plan starts with understanding what you want and why. So that's my very first tip. My second tip for you is to write it down, like write down what your actual goal is, and I know that may sound simple, but there is a lot to be said for writing down exactly what it is that you want to accomplish, and you want to make sure when you're writing it down, that you're not just writing I want to go to college, but you're including things like dates and times and how you will measure your success so important because if you can't measure it, it'll be really hard to know if that is your goal. So you can use that for I want to go to college. I will be enrolled in college in fall of 2025, 2026, 2027, whatever that might be.
Speaker 1:That can certainly be a goal, but you can also do something smaller that is a step to get you towards that big goal. You can say I'm going to achieve this grade point average by this time in these academic subjects. That would help you too, and if you're thinking of a science major or an engineering major computer science then focusing on improving and getting the best grades you can in your math and science classes is going to be an excellent step to getting you toward college. One of your goals might be I want to look into programs that talk about, not talk about. They may talk about this, but I want to look into programs that are summer programs that are at a local college. Maybe it's science, maybe it's writing, maybe it's creative fiction, maybe it's an art course, maybe it's a series of courses, but that's a great way to get more of the college experience again and build your resume towards getting to college.
Speaker 1:So it doesn't just have to be this one end goal that's yours, but it can also be goals that you write down that are steps to get there. And I just can't tell you how important it is to measure it, because you want to know if you achieve the goal. And the best way to find out if you're going to achieve the goal is to have something solid written down that is going to share with you when you achieve it. So consider that as well. When you achieve it, so consider that as well. And I think the third one I want to talk about now the sixth I'll do half and half again is well, again, I said, write it down and I want to talk just a little bit more about that. So, writing it down. There's this cool thing it's called external storage. Okay, and there's a lot of scientific evidence and research around this that if you write it down, that's one thing.
Speaker 1:But if you write down your goals and you put it somewhere, like I'm looking at my wall now, if you put it somewhere where you can see it all the time, then your brain notices that it ensures that you realize it's important. So it becomes something that your subconscious starts to work on and you will start to see things that align with your goals. So, let's say, your goal is summer programs. You're going to pay a lot more attention and start to see more things appear to you about college summer programs and you're going to start to look for them and they're going to start to show up everywhere. Because your brain is now focusing on oh, this is something important, it's been written down, I'm seeing it every day and now I need to really focus on cues and clues that are going to get me to help reach that goal. Same as with science and math, you're going to start to see things like maybe on YouTube that show up. You're like, oh, I never noticed the organic chemistry guy and how he helps me with teaching and everything, or Khan Academy, like things like that are going to start to show up for you that you can then access, that are going to help you reach your goals.
Speaker 1:So writing it down, putting it in external storage so it's out of your brain but you're seeing it all the time, so your subconscious can really start to process, that is going to be so helpful for you to reach your goal. So write it down, put it somewhere where you can see it. And I would also say don't write down 50 goals and put them up there to see it. Think of three. Try to think of three at a time. Maybe something that's accomplishable in a short amount of time, something that's like a mid-range goal, and maybe a long-range goal. And maybe your long range goal stays up there. If you're a freshman or sophomore or junior, maybe it stays up there for a while, going to college here at this time or this date, maybe that stays up there longer. But you can change out your other goals as you accomplish them, as you hit those targets that you said you're going to measure. So writing it down, let your brain do all this work for you and then help you realize things that you want to accomplish.
Speaker 1:And then the third one is find the formula for your goal. So there's formulas everywhere. So I'm basically giving you right a formula as to you know how to find your goals, how to accomplish your goals. But for this, finding a formula. There's a formula for everything. So I'm doing a podcast. Right, there's a formula for how to do a podcast. There's a formula for how to get a job in this particular career. There is a formula for how to do a podcast. There's a formula for how to get a job in this particular career. There is a formula for how to write a great college essay or how to find scholarships, and I know I have some formulas up there. I didn't call them that when I did the podcast, but they are formulas and tips and tricks to do that and to get to college and to conquer the college admissions process and financial aid and all of those good things.
Speaker 1:I am trying to give you formulas for all of these, based on my experience and knowledge and understanding of them. But find the formula that is going to help you accomplish your goals. That could be by talking to somebody who is really successful in an area that you want to reach. So I'll go back to the science and math. You want to do well in science and math because your career is going to be in one of those fields Pre-med, like I said, health sciences, computer science. You want to have some skills in those areas. Your best bet is to talk to maybe some of your peers who are excelling in that and asking them what is your formula for success? How are you studying? How are you getting the information? Asking your teachers who are teaching those courses, what do you recommend? If I want to get to this level of skill, if I want to excel in this area or do better and improve in this area, what do you recommend that I do to have even more success? So think about those things. Talk to other people, ask for help and ask them about what they did to get there, and you'll get some answers that are pretty similar, that are really going to help you get your goal. So that's just one example. I'm sure you can think of a lot of other examples too for how you find your formula. There are answers out there.
Speaker 1:Like I said, I'm going to hopefully give you all kinds of formulas for scholarships, financial aid, getting into college, having success through college. Yeah, this is the formula for reaching those goals. So we talked about deciding what you want and why, whether that's a big picture goal, like getting to college, or something smaller, like excelling in an area, whether that's in sports or academics or personal relationships, figuring out what that is and why you want to do it, making sure you're able to measure that. So writing it down is the second step and posting it somewhere you can see it, so your brain and your subconscious can see that this is really important to you and start to look for ways to help you reach those goals. And you'll start seeing things all the time.
Speaker 1:And then finally, after writing it down, is finding the formula for whatever goal it is that you have, by hopefully asking for help, talking to people, dare I say, listening to this podcast, but finding the ways that you can reach your goal by using the success that other people have had and seeing what are the steps that they took that I can take. That's going to get me there. You're going to be so surprised that you're going to just find, like there's formulas for everything and maybe that sounds kind of cut and dried, but there's a specific formula. But how you implement that formula is unique to you. So you're not copying, you're not stealing. You're basically taking a shortcut, a hack, whatever you want to call it, and adapting it to how it fits for you and where you want to go. So those are the three tips for this podcast.
Speaker 1:I will have a part two setting and achieving successful goals coming up right after this. So stay tuned to this YouTube channel, if you're watching it on YouTube, or to this place that you're listening to your podcast, and check out the next episode of TNT. For the next three tips, I hope that you found this interesting. Please follow me on Instagram at college underscore TNT, or on Facebook at college TNT, and feel free to reach out to me. If you have any questions or anything that you want to know. Just send me a direct message and I'll be happy to answer your questions. Thanks again for listening today and I'll see you in the next episode, part two, of Setting your Goals for Success. Bye now, thank you.