School and Goals

You know if you think about it the idea of school is actually a good thing. We go there so we can learn about a lot of important stuff, get into college, and eventually get a job that will hopefully get us a lot of money. It sounds like a great, important thing that we should all appreciate. But we don't. We all complain about it more than anything else, we put off the homework, and count the days to all the breaks. It feels really weird thinking that I have to go back tomorrow. I am definitely not looking forward to waking up early again. But I also want to try doing better now that it's a new year. Looking back on the first part of second term, I'm not exactly happy about it. I think I've kind of let my dislike of homework get me to start putting off/not doing some assignments. I've also been staying up too late so it's harder to get up in the mornings. So for an extra credit Spanish assignment, I made some new goals for the rest of this term and next semester:

Long Term- Raise my grade in all the classes that aren't A's

Short Term:

1. Turn in all missing assignments
2. Study ahead for tests
3. Don't put off assignments till the last second (Don't procrastinate)
4. I didn't use this on the assignment, but put homework before friend time

Long Term- Don't be late to Homeroom or 1st/5th period

Short Term:

1. Go to bed a lot earlier (before 10:30)
2. Wake up by 6:30 every morning
3. Leave home by 7:45 so I have time to walk

(I also added a note to number one to get homework done earlier so I can go to bed)

I like putting my goals in a couple places. My Seminary teacher likes to tell us that "A goal not written down is just a wish." I think that this is definitely true. If we just kind of think that we'd like to do something, it probably won't happen. If we write it down, make a plan, and commit to it then we're more likely to actually accomplish it. You also have to make sure it's realistic. If it's going to take a while, than you have to make it a long-term goal. You can't forget about it though. To accomplish long-term goals you need to make short-term goals help you get there. I want to go to BYU someday, so I know that I need to a) Get good grades and b) Work on the spiritual parts of life (Go to Seminary, church, etc.)

All my long and short term goals for this term and the rest of this year are to help get me to that big long-term goal. I need to fix my grades and keep them that way to go to college, and things won't work out so well if I go to college and can't wake myself up. My mom likes to remind us that she won't be there someday, and we'll have to do it without her.

I think that the biggest part of goals is that they keep you pointed in the right direction. If you always have a direction and a place you want to go, you're more likely to make better decisions. If you have too much free time and not enough important things to fill it up with, you might do things that aren't important and won't help you later in life. I don't want to regret how I spent my time as a teenager twenty years from now, so that's why I make goals.