Goal-Setting Skills
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Goal-Setting Skills
Part 1:
Goal-setting skills are important as they help adopt, identify, and maintain good social, physical, and health behaviors. I recently challenged myself to lose ten pounds by waking up early in the morning and running for five miles in less than forty-five minutes for a month. Participating in exercises had been a major challenge to me, and hence decided to come up with this goal and fully commit to it (Mohammed & Ismail, 2018). Performing the morning exercise goal helps both physically by reducing some pounds and also helps me fit in my social circle. For emotional and mental health, the physical exercises helped in reducing stress levels and tension associated with studying.
The main reason for setting this health goal was to attain a healthy body and also be able to fit in my social circle as I was a bit overweight. Exercising daily has positive impacts on your physical body and mental well-being, which was an added advantage to my goal. Running, which is an aerobic exercise, greatly contributes to cardiovascular function, which highly reduces the risk of certain diseases and overall health and wellness. Another reason for setting up this goal was to improve my immune system by strengthening my muscles, joint mobility and lower the susceptibility to infections and illness.
Before working towards my goal of running five miles in less than forty-five minutes daily, I had quite enough knowledge on the importance of exercises in our lives. I had attended different classes that covered the importance of performing physical activities and doing exercises. Exercising has to be monitored to attain your goal. There are different types of exercises, which include aerobic and anaerobic exercises. Aerobic exercises include jogging, running, and cycling and are good for burning large amounts of calories. I also had prior knowledge that exercising helps in stress relief, which incorporates physiological and psychological benefits.
My goal for exercising early in the morning to reduce ten pounds within a month aligned perfectly with the SMART goal setting structure. SMART is an acronym that helps in creating realistic and specific goals to align our goals with. The five elements incorporated include Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Specific implies the goal should have a clear endpoint like mine was to lose ten pounds within a month. Measurable helps in tracking progress to measure the goal attainment. My goal is measurable as I ran five miles in less than forty-five minutes within a month. My goal was Attainable and Relevant as I was motivated to struggle to achieve physical fitness. Time-Bound includes a timeframe, which was a month to quantify the goal.
Towards accomplishing my health behavior goal, I incorporated different personal strengths which incorporate specific knowledge on the importance of performing exercises, running skills, positive attitude towards the accomplishment of my goal, enthusiasm to accomplish physical fitness, my discipline to follow my goals, patience to see my results and determination to accomplish the goal. These strengths helped me focus on my goal and shifted my mindset from focusing on my weaknesses and negativities of giving up. Also, knowing myself and turning my strengths into habits helped me inaccurately and easily attain my goal.
According to Clark, the human spirit’s greatest accomplishment is to nature one’s opportunities and utilize one’s resources. To accomplish my goal, I also tap into external resources, enabling me to attain the goal (Clark et al., 2016). To accomplish the obstacle of boredom and giving, I asked my friends and schoolmates to accompany me in some exercise routines. Also, I utilized different streets in my neighborhood for running to enable me to cover five miles without getting bored. I also utilized the library to improve my knowledge of the importance of exercising and performing daily physical activities.
Part 2:
The aspects of goal setting include assessing one’s needs, setting goals, coming up with a plan to achieve the goal, aim towards the goal, and evaluating and reflecting on the goal experiences. For teens to be able to accomplish the sleep goal, using the aspects of a goal first, we have to identify and assess the student needs. Outline the lesson’s objective to students whereby at the end of the lesson, they would be able to pay close attention to classes, improve their athletic performance, grow and develop, and be healthy (Mercy, 2019). Then set the goal for attaining a sleep pattern of 8-10 hours daily to accomplish the objectives. Come up with physical activities where the children will come up with plans to achieve the goal with their friends and help them as a teacher. This is to structuralize their chores within a time limit to ensure by 9 pm they are asleep and 6.00 am they are awake.
For the students to work towards the set goal, I would give these instructions on how to create time for sleep time. This could be accomplished by reducing nap times during the day to around 30 minutes, creating a good sleeping environment by turning off electronics at the right time, and keep the lights low at night. They should also perform exercises to ensure the body feels relaxed and attain sleep. Finally, to achieve the last aspect, after two to three weeks of following the instructions, the students should individually their progress with the class to reflect and evaluate the experience of the goal.
Reference
Clark, M. M., Bradley, K. L., Jenkins, S. M., Mettler, E. A., Larson, B. G., Preston, H. R., … & Riley, B. A. (2016). Improvements in health behaviors, eating self-efficacy, and goal-setting skills following participation in wellness coaching. American Journal of Health Promotion, 30(6), 458-464.
Mercy, O. N. (2019). Comparative Effectiveness of Mental Contrasting and Self-Regulation Strategies on Enhancing Goal Setting Skills of Secondary School Students in Urban Nigeria. International Journal of Education and Literacy Studies, 7(3), 67-75.
Mohammed, D. S., & Ismail, S. (2018). A Framework for Goal Setting Skills Integration in Curriculum. Advanced Science Letters, 24(5), 3693-3696.