Personal Goals

Personal Goal

Abstract

While identifying my personal goals I discovered that I am burdened with many barriers to achieving them. That is why I decided to write a paper describing a few of the most threatening obstacles to my success, and the techniques I will use to overcome them. Becoming overwhelmed, procrastination, poor time management, and making excuses are the shortcomings I chose to work on. The material presented here is a compilation of knowledge I have gained through the course of my own life experiences. I believe that my goals are reachable, that I can and will achieve them using the techniques described.

How I Plan to Overcome the Obstacles to My Goals

When I first started exploring what my goals are as a University of Phoenix student, I began to feel burdened by the amount of work expected of me. It was as if my mind automatically started to find material to construct obstacles and reinforce barriers. Even though the listing and prioritizing of my goals was relatively simple, I could see that to accomplish them allot of barricades would have to be breached. I believe my personal goals as a University of Phoenix student can be achieved by methodically surmounting each of these blockades and barriers by learning and/or developing proper techniques to deal with them. I wish to share with you some of the obstacles I face, and how I plan to overcome them.

Goal-setting is imperative to the successful completion of any task. It is only through goal-setting that a task can be broken down into smaller, more manageable parts. For example, my goal of achieving a BSIT degree from University of Phoenix by 2005 seems far off and unreachable. The sheer volume of work, and the small amount of time in which it must be completed, overwhelms me. One strategy I have used to vanquish this obstacle is to ignore the big picture for now and focus on the task at hand, which is to complete this first class, but as I look over the syllabus, and the amount of work required, I once again find myself overwhelmed. So, I have to narrow my focus even more, and concentrate only on the immediate goal. I will only look at what I have to do right now, and avoid looking too closely at what lies ahead, for fear of exposing my mind to the material it uses to construct this blockade.

Procrastination is another enemy I must defeat. I have a habit of deluding myself into believing that I have plenty of time. I tend to misjudge the difficulty of the task or I fail to consider all of its factors, with the end result being, that I now lack the time I need to do my very best work. I think recognition of this failing is the most important step in overcoming it. My awareness of this shortcoming has permitted me to catch myself in the midst of my self-deluding behavior, and circumvent its destructive power by reasserting my need to take a closer look at what really needs to be done, and how much time it will take.

Poor time management is also a factor that greatly threatens my goals. Much