1. Putting your intentions into action Janelle Pass
Goal setting
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Hello, my name is Janelle Pass and I am an academic coach at USC’s Kortschak Center for Learning and Creativity. Today we are going to talk about goal setting: why it matters and how using goal setting techniques can help make your intentions your reality.
Putting your intentions into action
Janelle Pass

2. LEARNING OBJECTIVES Understand how goals are linked to motivation.
Define SMART goals and learn to create your own.
Learn to identify potential barriers to our goal achievement and find ways to challenge those barriers.
The learning objectives for this presentation are to understand how goals are linked to motivation. To define SMART goals, and learn to create your own. And to learn to identify potential barriers to our goal achievement and find ways to challenge those barriers.

3. Goals are closely linked to motivation.
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Goals are closely linked to motivation.
Goals give you a sense of challenge and purpose.
Goals generate excitement, a sense of self efficacy, and underlie the requirements for personal success.
According to Dembo and Seli, goals are closely linked to motivation. They play an important role in identity and influence your lifestyle. When we set goals and meet them, they define who we are and influence our life choices as we seek to attain them. Goals are especially useful when facing uninteresting tasks. This is because goal achievement gives you a sense of challenge and purpose. Goal setting sets up positive expectations for achievement and helps you to energize your efforts. Having goals compels you to find ways to meet them. They generate excitement, a sense of self-efficacy, and specify the requirements for personal success.
Dembo & Seli, 2016

4. Goals need to be consistent with our values to be effective.
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Goals need to be consistent with our values to be effective.
Goals that are not aligned with our values are not motivating and may lead to goal achievement in areas not important to us.
A goal may be based on one of three kinds of values: intrinsic value, attainment value, or extrinsic value.
Dembo and Seli note that to be effective goals need to be aligned with our values. Goals that are not aligned with our values may lead to goal attainment in areas that are not important to us. Goals may be based on three kinds of values: intrinsic, attainment, or extrinsic. Intrinsic value is the gold standard for motivation. It is the enjoyment one gets from the activity and causes more engagement and persistence. Attainment value refers to tasks that are important to do well on for your self-concept. Finally, there are tasks that have extrinsic value. These tasks generally produce the weakest motivation. Tasks that have extrinsic value have utility value or usefulness that in terms of a future goal. An example of a task that has extrinsic value is a general education class that is required to attain the goal of graduation, but holds little interest to you.
Dembo & Seli, 2016

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Once we accept the challenge of a goal, it remains on the edge of our consciousness and directs our actions.
Students who set specific, challenging goals had higher GPA’s and reported greater satisfaction with their academic program.
Dembo and Seli found that once a goal is accepted and understood, it remains on the edge of our consciousness, directing our actions. Locke and Lantham observed that students who set specific, challenging goals had higher GPA’s and reported greater satisfaction with their academic program.
Dembo & Seli 2016

6. This pyramid illustrates how our goals are based on our values.
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This pyramid illustrates how our goals are based on our values.
The intermediate steps or intermediate goals and daily tasks move us in the direction of our long term goals.
Dembo and Seli use a pyramid to illustrate how our goals are based on our values. The intermediate steps and daily tasks move us in the direction of our long term goals. Our long term goals may take a year or years to accomplish; they require planning and intermediate goals. Our intermediate goals take weeks or months to accomplish, while our daily tasks take hours or days to accomplish. With each level, it is important to stop and evaluate the outcome and assess the strategies used to reach our goals.
Dembo & Seli, 2016

7. STEPS TO IDENTIFYING AND DEFINING YOUR GOALS
So what are the steps in creating and achieving goals? The first step is identifying and defining your goals. As you do this, make sure that you are setting SMART goals. Let’s go over what we mean by SMART goals. According to Dembo and Seli, SMART goals are:
Specific—You need to describe what you want to accomplish in as much detail as possible. Vague goals are rarely achieved.
Measureable—Goals that are measurable allow you to track your progress and stay motivated.
Action-Oriented—Goals focus on an action so that you have a plan of attack to make each goal a reality.
Realistic—Goals need to be attainable in order to create success. They should be challenging, but not overwhelming.
Time Bound—Goals need a deadline to be effective.
Dembo & Seli, 2016
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8. SMART Goals vs. Non-SMART Goals
I will get good grades this semester.
SMART Goal:
I will earn a 3.5 GPA by the end of this semester by practicing procrastination reducing strategies, using weekly calendars to manage my time and assignments more efficiently, and meeting with my academic coach weekly to improve my reading and test taking strategies.
Compare the two.
Let’s review the difference between a SMART goal and a non-SMART goal. A non-SMART goal states, “I will get good grades this semester”, while a SMART goal states “I will earn a 3.5 GPA by the end of this semester by practicing procrastination reducing strategies, using weekly calendars to manage my time and assignments more efficiently, and meeting with my academic coach weekly to improve my reading and test taking strategies.” What’s the difference between the two?
--A non-SMART goal is not specific, we don’t know how is the student defining ”good grades”. It is not measurable, we don’t know how to measure whether or not good grades were achieved. This goal is not action-oriented and there is no action defined to tell us how the goal will be achieved. It is so vague that it is difficult to know if it is realistic.
--A SMART goal, on the other hand, is specific: the student will earn a 3.5 GPA. It is measurable: we can evaluate whether the student met the goal of achieving a 3.5. This goal is action oriented: the student defines the actions she will take to meet her goal. It is also time bound, we know we will be making the evaluation of the goal at the end of the semester.

9. Identify and challenge barriers to goal achievement
Dembo and Seli suggest that it is useful to identify potential barriers to the achievement of our goals. We then need to come up with strategies to help to break those barriers. For example one barrier to attaining a goal is procrastination via technology. Once the barrier is identified you can brainstorm ideas to overcome this barrier. Perhaps you will put your phone out of reach or use an app to avoid distractions from social media websites. It is also useful to have a reward in mind, particularly for areas that are of low-interest. They may be simple rewards such as watching Netflix after a productive study session, or bigger rewards such as treating yourself to a special experience that you have been looking forward to.
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Identify and challenge barriers to goal achievement
It may be useful to have a reward in mind to motivate goal attainment.
Dembo & Seli, 2016

10. References
Dembo, M. H., & Seli, H. (2016). Motivation and learning strategies for college success: A focus on self-regulated learning. New York: Routledge.
Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2006). New Directions in Goal-Setting Theory. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15(5), doi: /j x
Goals can transform your life, allowing you to create a vision to realize your dreams. Remember that goals are motivating. To achieve your goals, make sure that they are SMART and aligned with your values. Identify and break the barriers that interfere with goal achievement. And remember to reward yourself when you have goal attainment.