Why and How I Teach Goal Setting

Effective Goal Setting is a Lifelong, Life Changing Skill

Most kids (and adults) have dreams or ambitions of doing something. What often determines whether that something becomes reality is how we set ourselves up to achieve it. While of course some of our potential is influenced by what we get in the genetic lottery, a good portion of it is also the goals we set for ourselves and how effectively we direct our actions toward achieving those goals. It’s also influenced by how well we can work with our bad habits and replace them with good ones.

In short, effectively setting goals for ourselves and becoming more aware of our habits, good and bad, directly impacts the quality of our lives.

There’s no doubt that effective goal setting is a great lifelong skill, but there’s a lot of misunderstanding about how to set effective goals and the factors that influence whether they are achieved. While some learn good goal setting practices from parents, sports coaches, or music teachers, many of us get to adulthood without really knowing what good goal setting looks like. Imagine if we all learned about effective goal setting and habit change early in life!

“Set Goals” Isn’t Enough

I used to think of goal setting as one of those reflexive, automatic things that everyone knows how to do and does already. In my first year of classroom teaching I used to tell students, “set goals!” and think that was a meaningful piece of advice (sheesh). It hadn’t occurred to me that, for most of us, effective and meaningful goal setting doesn’t come naturally and needs to be learned.

As a tutor, I’ve realized that one of the most important tools I have to help students is to teach them effective goal setting. I’m now convinced that it’s something we should be actively teaching and reinforcing with all students.

Through effective goal setting, I’ve seen kids go from barely passing their classes to getting A’s and B’s and feeling good about school overall. I’ve also seen kids who had felt unmotivated and overwhelmed by school become focused and determined to achieve what they had set out to do. But it didn’t come from my telling them to “set goals.” It came from their understanding of what goals actually are and the specific steps needed to make goals into reality. It also came from their becoming more aware of their habits, good and bad, and how changing seemingly small habits is crucial to making bigger changes.

In order to help students become better goal setters, we need them to understand what effective goals look like, be able to break them into bite sized steps, and plan for any obstacles that may arise.

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Step 1: Define Meaningful Goals

Meaningful goals are specific and measurable. The simplest way to think of this is whether the question “did you meet your goal?” can be answered with a simple yes or no. If not, the goal is not specific and measurable. Some goals may not lend themselves to setting a time limit, but when possible goals should include a completion time, like “tomorrow,” “for the semester,” etc. Once the time period passes, it should be easy to answer the question of whether the goal was achieved.

Step 2: Determine What Actions/Habits/Small Steps are Needed

Next, goals need to be broken down into small and specific actions that are also measurable (yes/no). For example, if the goal is to complete a 10K run by the end of the month, the actions might consist of your weekly training schedule (week 1: run 2 miles 3x, etc.).

If the goal is academic (“get an A in History this semester”), the steps might be things like review my notes every day after school, turn in all my homework on time, keep a running vocabulary/terms list and update it at least weekly, etc. Like the goal itself, the steps must be specific and measurable in order to accurately assess their completion when reflecting back on the results of goal setting.

Step 3: Anticipate Obstacles and Make a Plan for Overcoming Them

The next part is where people (especially yours truly) tend to fall down, unfortunately. Human nature is to procrastinate and avoid doing things that are less fun in favor of having fun. We think that by setting the intention to do something that we’ll be sure to do it, but as most of us probably know, it can be easier said than done.

We are also creatures of habit, and just as good habits can help us reach our goals, bad habits can make it more difficult for us to do so. Researcher and writer James Clear (check out his website here) writes that goals are like rudders, the things that give us direction, and systems are the oars, which actually get the work done.  He also writes about the importance of habits in achieving goals, and specifically about how we can change our habits.

Effective goal setting requires consideration of the system that surrounds you. Too often, we set the right goals inside the wrong system. If you're fighting your system each day to make progress, then it's going to be really hard to make consistent progress.

There are all kinds of hidden forces that make our goals easier or harder to achieve. You need to align your environment with your ambitions if you wish to make progress for the long run. 

—James Clear

By anticipating obstacles and challenges that may arise, we can prepare ourselves with a plan to complete our steps no matter what. This requires an honest evaluation of the types of challenges that may interfere with our achieving goals.

We can reflect on past experiences when we’ve set a goal and didn’t reach it for a number of reasons. We can also look at ways in which our environment can help us or hinder us in adopting the habits that help us meet our goals.

For example, I know that oftentimes I’ll get distracted with other projects or by texts or phone calls. So if I know I have to complete a step, I might plan to turn off my phone or put it far away until I finish. Or maybe I designate a specific time to complete the step so that nothing else can distract me.

I find it’s helpful for me to share with students some of my own obstacles and the ways that I deal with them in order to get them thinking about ways to better manage their obstacles.

Step 4: Reflect on What Went Well/Poorly

After the goal’s time period has passed, it’s important for students to learn to reflect on what went wrong and what went right. This process helps them to better understand themselves and their strengths and weaknesses. It also encourages a growth mindset that is focused on progress and learning over perfection.

Reflecting on success or failure (and especially the process that led to either one) is also important in informing future goal setting. If we become aware that a bad habit prevented us from reaching a goal, we can work to overcome that habit and replace it with a better one.

If you’re interested in learning more about habit change, I recommend Atomic Habits by James Clear (Kindle version and audiobook), or you can listen to a great interview he did on The Psychology Podcast.

I’ve also created this no prep resource for teachers to bring goal setting into the classroom with a pre and post term goal setting activity.

Please let me know in the comments what you think about teaching goal setting, what works, what doesn’t, etc!