If you’re a nontraditional student, you already have the overarching goal of getting your degree. The next step is to turn that aspiration into something you can actually achieve.
Going at it every day with just the big, abstract goal of “get degree” will not serve you well. That doesn’t mean it isn’t admirable. Nontraditional students face more hardships than the average student. That’s exactly why you need to go about reaching success in a systematic and process-oriented way.
You’ll notice the word “goals” in the title is plural. That’s because I’m suggesting you create many little achievable milestones during your studies. This process will keep you motivated and will help you track your progress as you turn pages in your calendar towards graduation day.
Big Goal Problems
Large, abstract goals are the enemy of the nontraditional student.
When goals aren’t clear, it’s impossible to tell if the work you’re doing is leading to the achievement of that goal. When goals aren’t precise, there’s no way to guarantee that scheduled tasks will lead to success.
I think the worst is the problem with motivation. Massive goals take a long time to achieve. Without creating manageable mini-goals within the larger project, you’ll end up feeling like you’re working and working but never getting anywhere.
Make Smaller Goals
By no means should you lose sight of the larger goal of graduating. But in order to get there, you’re going to have to focus on smaller projects.
By thinking about your degree as a series of tasks to accomplish, you’ll be able to stay motivated and you’ll feel good about yourself as you move along.
Your program will offer you an easy starting point for creating smaller goals. Passing each class can be one goal in itself. Take a look at your curriculum. As you plan out which classes you’ll take, imagine each of them to be one stepping stone along the path.
There’s other ways to create goals that will help you. Maybe you’ll want to set a goal to study for two hours after dinner every night. Or maybe you’ll choose to set a goal of writing a certain number of pages toward your senior thesis every week.
The Three Qualities of Goals
No matter how you choose to break down your big goal into smaller ones, remember that these goals need to have three qualities. They need to be:
- Achievable
- Realistic
- Specific
Make sure you’re creating reasonable goals for yourself. Setting a goal of reading ten chapters in a week is not realistic. Setting a goal of five essays per week is probably not realistic for most nontraditional students.
The trick here is to push yourself to your limit, but not beyond it. If you set your goals too easy, you’re not doing anything to better yourself. You may be able to get your degree that way, but it will feel shallow. On the other hand, if you set them too high you’ll constantly fail at task after task. It’s unfortunately easy to fall into a spiral of failure, especially if you let it become a habit.
Specific goals will help the most to keep you on track. Setting a goal to read every day is not nearly as helpful as setting a goal to read chapters 10, 11, and 12 by next Friday. The more specific you can be, the more likely your goals will actually be helpful in your endeavor.
So those are my thoughts this week on surviving as a nontraditional student. I’ve been researching goal setting and time management pretty regularly since I went back to school, trying to set myself up for success. I hope this helps you, too.
Leave a comment and let me know what kind of goals you’re setting for yourself.