These Goal Setting Activities For Students Work For Us And Will Work For You

"If we want them to be trustworthy, we have to trust them." Editors at accountablecitizens.com 

This page might be panned by academics and perhaps rightly so, because we don't come at this subject with a long list of accreditations. All we have to offer in this roadmap to goal setting activities for students is a record of success based on past experience actually doing the work.

We'll give you some strategies that offer lifelong skills for students, leading to potential gain for society. If you read our page about how to be more responsible, you know we come at this process with a simple focus. If we want them to be trustworthy, we need to trust them. You'll be able to use these ideas at home with individuals or in any group setting.

We'll also challenge, or at least modify an acronym for goal setting. "SMART" goals are suggested to be; specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. The theory is not in question and every word is important. But there is one word that tends to be overly stressed when it comes to goal setting activities for students and we believe the reason is fear. Fear from the older folks.

We always put our young leaders in positions to succeed because they were given good direction from the beginning and their personal safety is always uppermost in our minds and actions.

Sometimes there is too much emphasis on "realistic" and that tends to hold back bold initiative. As you'll read in the next section, we recognize that there are certain limits, but a successful system will challenge those limits. That is how our nation was built and how our next generation of accountable citizens will continue to build it.

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A Proven System of Goal Setting Activities for Students

We'll write this section referencing group activities. The skills learned will transfer to individual growth as well. Self-confidence will grow for those who are shy, and humility will increase for those who are already supremely confident, but might need to be more patient with peers.

1.) Promote inclusiveness. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to share their ideas. We've started high school groups where we had a good idea who would be our initial team leaders and we've started some where we had never met any of the participants. In both cases, new leaders emerged because we stressed that all ideas are good ideas and listening with the intent to hear and understand was job one.

Cliques are team busters. They are part of the reality of high school and even college, and continue into adulthood. Too many great ideas never come out when shy people don't feel comfortable speaking up. In one of our groups we had a guy who was barely in the room for the first meetings and bolted out the door when the meetings ended, without ever saying a word.

Our team leaders met him where he was right then with patience and kindness and slowly he moved forward, a little closer to the front. Eventually he would take the place of our initial leaders. There are two lessons involving goal setting activities for students in that example. The most quiet person might become the strongest, and the biggest job of leaders is to be humble and efficient in spreading the vision and developing the next layer of leaders. Everything builds off this crucial first building block.

2.) Begin the process of identifying the end goal. You won't have to do the heavy lifting here and in fact don't want to do so. A continual result of taking care of step one is that by breaking down cliques and encouraging free sharing of ideas, all you have to do is share the "why." Why do we want to do this? What will happen when we succeed? Who will benefit?

As our guest author T. O. Illustratio wrote, what we put into their minds will be most impactful. Empower them to take ownership of this effort and in nearly every instance, young leaders will respond. We like to use small group discussion to take us to our most effective step which will follow in number four. We also work hard to put people in small groups who aren't best friends. We want to stretch them beyond comfort zones, while still keeping them in positions where they don't fail.

We aren't looking for specific action steps right now. That will come soon enough. In this step in goal setting activities for students, we're really trying to solidify step one and encourage all the personality types to find common ground. (What a concept for the so-called adults who can't get past shouting and closed minds.)

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3.) Use empowering quotes to build confidence. What we put in their minds is most important. In our page directory we have motivational quotes. We have inspirational quotes. We have them because they work. Two of our favorites are in the blocks on this page.

Doubts will always come up, whether your student or students are working individually or in a group. We set a big vison for our team, so at times the doubts are bigger at first. Powerful quotes are proven steps to replace the negative thoughts. Trust this step. It always works.

4.) This is the most fun step in the beginning stages. Use a goal setting vision board. It can be anything that is very visible. We've used big chalkboards and smaller poster boards. After your small groups have finished their work, have someone write those ideas on the vision board. This step works wonders. Some people are visual learners, some are note-takers. A vison board serves every learning type.

And there something almost magical when your small groups see their collective work in front of the entire group. You will notice the energy level go up and the belief level explodes exponentially. Your collection of individuals will start to become a team. If you want them to be trustworthy, you have to trust them.

5.) Around this point, your major objective will be clear. Remember to not give too much significance to the "R" in the SMART goal acronym. "Realistic" is a relative term.

Now you will break down your big objective into specific, measurable goals with a completion date. Check out our page about step by step goal setting for more ideas.

You'll continue the process of establishing goal setting activities for students throughout this step, all the while strengthening step one. New leaders will present themselves by their actions. Depth will increase and team synergy will be palpable and inviting.

It's here that you will make plans on how to reach smaller goals that lead the team to their big objective. As you complete each smaller task, take the time to evaluate what went as expected and where things could be better.

Then just repeat the process.

Powerful Gains for Students and Society

Can you imagine a generation of young leaders who are confident in their abilities to work as an effective team to lift people up? Can you imagine a generation of young leaders who are confident, while being humble? Can you imagine a generation of young leaders who invite others to join them in worthwhile, unselfish goals?

You are all part of this possibility. Use these goal setting activities for students to get them started on the right path to servant leadership and to becoming responsible citizens who also hold themselves accountable for their personal actions and their role as the next generation of leaders.

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