I’m hoping these ideas will help spark ideas of your own and that you don’t just grab any old idea to get this job done! Goals that you create and set in motion for YOURSELF are the ones that will actually matter in your life. Think back to those hypothetical questions you did earlier and your reflections on them – use these to guide your goals…
SHORT TERM PERSONAL GOAL IDEAS
Eat only healthy foods (learn about how to eat healthy)
Establish and practice a fitness plan that includes aerobic activity and strength training
Learn how to properly wash my hands; practice this X times/day and see if I get sick less
Make 2 phone calls instead of texts every week
Make contact with someone I don’t often talk to at least 2X / month
Practice a “random act of kindness at least once a day
Check my phone only once in the morning and once in the afternoon
Have a pleasant conversation once a week with someone I don’t know
Find something to laugh at every day (just not at someone’s expense)
Meditate 10min/day
Give up junk food
Read 2 books/month
Read a newspaper every day
Eat 2 meatless meals/week for 6 months
Drink no more than X drinks per week
Look at and reflect on all my short - term goals once a week until I achieve them
Speak up when I see someone bullying / being bullied
Practice speaking in uncomfortable situations (on the phone, in class, in large groups…)
Start a relationship
LONG-TERM PERSONAL GOAL IDEAS
Learn a language
Learn to play a musical instrument
Start a collection
Learn sign language
Learn how to plant a garden
Get a pet and learn how to take excellent care of it (includes saving for vet bills)
Take an anger management course
Learn to draw/paint
Learn to tie flies
Take up fly - fishing
Take up a new sport or return to an old one
Act in a play
Find work as an extra on a movie
Learn how to become more optimistic
Hike a really difficult trail somewhere not around home
Learn everything I can about alternative energy
Join a political party
Vote regularly at all levels – local, provincial, federal
Volunteer in my community
Take a cooking course
Live on a boat/houseboat
Learn to sail
SHORT – TERM CAREER/EDUCATION IDEAS
Finish at/near the top of my class
Study/read every day for at least 1 hr.
Have all assignments finished within 24hr of when they are assigned
Keep a record of each day spent in school – what did I do/learn
Speak with 5 potential employers before I finish school
Find and establish a relationship with a mentor who is doing what I am training or plan to train to do
Research starting wages for my trade or career choice in 6 different cities in Canada and look at availability of jobs in those places
Read at least 2 books or find 5 web resources about my trade or career in addition to my textbooks
Get unpaid experience somewhere while I am still a student – arrange a co-op credit doing something I think I might like to do as a career
Talk to the career counselor at my school about ALL the areas open to me in a trade or other career possibility (e.g. automotive repair could lead to sales, customer service, parts manager, auto writer etc.)
Get nothing less than 75 on all my tests
Find a job within 6 months after graduation
Win an award
Learn to work with the most difficult person in my class
Bring a positive attitude with me EVERY day / or at least 3 times every week
Long-term Career/Education IDEAS
Get the highest qualification possible for my trade or chosen career (red-seal etc.)
Become a supervisor
Start my own business
Go back to school to learn something new or retrain for a new career
Work in a foreign country
Take Math courses / teach myself
Work in another province
Take on a new job in my workplace (e.g. service manager etc.)
Keep up with/gain computer skills
Learn accounting/bookkeeping for a business
Earn an award for my work
Compete in a contest in my trade
Find a business partner
Join a professional group in my trade and become involved
SHORT –TERM FINANCIAL GOALS
Save for my own set of tools / more tools / tool storage or career related equipment like a computer
Learn how to write a budget
Read 2 books about managing money
Only buy clothes at Frenchy’s for one year (money saver)
Make and bring lunch every day (money saver)
Bike or walk instead of drive whenever possible (money saver)
Add $X to my bank account every week
Change to the cheapest cell plan possible and stick to it (money saver)
Give up my data plan and only use my phone for texts or calls (money saver)
Don’t buy anything new for one year (money saver)
Bring coffee in a thermos (money saver)
Sell useful things I no longer use (online) (money saver/ earner)
Find a job I can work at part-time while I’m in school
Keep track of ALL my spending for 3 (or X months)
Come up with and get going on 5 self-employed skills related to my future career that I could do now to make money (change oil, detail cars, repair lawn mowers, repair electronics…)
Only go totake-out and restaurants once a month (money saver)
Only trade things for my hobby (skating, RC cars ???) and don’t buy anything until I finish school
Prepare a list of my future savings goals (house, car, travel…) and learn about costs for these items
LONG – TERM FINANCIAL GOALS
Visit a financial planner once I get a job in my trade; develop and keep to a financial plan
Start paying back my student loan early
Learn how to invest money; begin investing
Start a retirement savings plan
Pay off my student loan by X (when)
Compete with a co-worker to reach a savings goal
Start putting together an emergency fund of 2 months wages in case I lose my job
Retire when I’m 40 with enough $ to live comfortably
Earn X by the time I’m X years
Learn what it costs to raise children and save for it; be able to start a family by X age
Make a plan for what I would want my family to have and what I would need to earn to achieve that plan
Learn how to build a house that uses alternative energy (money saver)
Learn how to do my own taxes; learn how to save money on my taxes
Establish a credit record; learn how to access my record
ONLY use credit if I can pay it off by the end of the month, review every 6 months
Talk to older people with more experience to get advice about money
Save enough to... by …(when)