Speakers present goals for success
Interactive workshop assists students with avoiding failure
by Beth Beach, Reporter

   Setting one’s goals into concrete parameters in writing and regularly reviewing them can help people avoid the pitfalls of falling into patterns in life that take them nowhere, according to two representatives of the STARS program.
   Participants in part I of ABCs to Success: Setting Goals and Making the Right Decisions discovered an interactive seminar.
   Students were asked to take immediate action by filling out a worksheet of their goals and then taking it home to post and review daily.
   Dennis Lee, interim director of the STARS program, and Greg Shortes, academic adviser for the STARS program, prepared students with an overview of successful goal-setting strategies Tuesday afternoon on South Campus.
   “How many of you actually make goals?” Lee asked.
   “Goals make things more meaningful … they’re not going to come automatically, and they may not be easy to reach,” he said.
   “People will say, ‘I really want to get through this class,’ but then when it comes to getting help, they don’t,” he said.
   A fable about the processionary caterpillar was distributed and discussed.
   These caterpillars habitually follow each other in a line wherever they go. A man lured one such procession onto the edge of a flowerpot, putting them into a circle going nowhere.
   To the man’s surprise they continued around and around it until they ultimately died a week later.
   The moral, according to Lee, is that while instinct and habits can get someone nowhere fast, having goals set in place can prevent meaningless actions.
   “They surely meant well, but they got nowhere … sometimes we just do things to be going through the motions,” he said.
   Setting goals is critical because they give a person control of what happens in his life and make his visions reality.
   Students should remember, though, it is equally important to set goals for the self, not what other people want, Lee and Shortes pointed out.
   “It’s important to know what you don’t want to do. When you set goals, you clearly define what you want,” Lee said. “When you get through that English class, it proves something to you.”
   Goals need to have certain characteristics in order for them to be smart in more ways than one.
    They must be specific, measurable, action-oriented, realistic and timing/time-framed, Lee and Shortes said.
    The co-presenters used the acronym SMART to help students remember these traits. In addition, the goals need to be concreted by putting them down in writing to be reviewed and empowered, Shortes said.
    He also recommend marking deadlines on the calendar as a reminder.
   Chuck, a tutor at the center for academic success, described a conversation with a student.
   “They [goals] can be lofty, but realistic,” he said. “A student got a 45 on his first two history tests. [He] asked me if he could pass. Yes! Come in, study, get a B or a C, but an A is unrealistic,” he said.
   Shortes recommended keeping goals in sight.
   “Put them [written goals] up where you can see them on a daily basis,” he said.
   Another method of looking at the characteristics goals should have is using “The Six P’s” as a guideline, according to Lee and Shortes.
   The six P’s stand for positive, present tense, personal, precise, possible and powerful. These concepts are closely knit together beyond just starting with “p,” Lee said.
   For example, the personal aspect goes back to the positive aspect as it represents keeping goals mostly to oneself to avoid the effects of negative input, Lee said.
   “You should be thinking, ‘This is something I can work toward right now’ ... [goals] have to be hard and fast,” Shortes said.
    Lee added, “Nothing gets in my way. I will accomplish this.”
   The pair said many students are finding themselves unsuccessful in reaching their goals because their lives are overloaded with work, family, school and many other obligations.
   This does not mean that most students are unsuccessful individuals.
   According to Shortes, it may be better for some of these people to go ahead and put the college load aside for a time.
   If a student feels other obligations that are very important to him are being neglected, that feeling should not necessarily be ignored, Shortes said.
   “If you do not have that time to study that you need to succeed, then you need to wait up at that point,” he said.
   Lee offered advice to those considering leaving college because of an inability to meet other important needs.
   “You must take time. You must slow your life down. If it’s important to you, do it,” he said.
   It is pointless to set goals when one does not follow through on them, the pair stressed as a final note.
   “Don’t just say you’re going to do something … Give those goals some feet. Take action. Do something different, whatever it is.    If that doesn’t work, try something else,” Lee said.