Smart goals for students + a free goal planning template for all areas of life!

College is the most important time to take goal setting SERIOUSLY.

These are the years where you want to have your fun, yes, but you also have your WHOLE LIFE ahead of you and you want to make sure you don’t let it pass you by. That’s where the importance of goal setting for students comes into play.

So, here’s the deal:

Today, we’re going to get inspired together with some motivational goal setting for students so that you can set goals that you’ll actually achieve in both the near and far future. Let’s go!

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GOAL SETTING TIPS FOR STUDENTS:

1. Separate your goals into categories

Separating your goals into different categories is useful because there’s not just one important area of your life; there are many. 

Your career is important, but so is your health and fitness. Having healthy relationships is important, but so are your grades. Your emotional health is important, and so are your finances. The list goes on.

It can feel overwhelming to try and make big goals in every area of your life. But if you visually split these goals up into different categories, they suddenly become a lot more manageable.

Here are some categories of goal setting for students examples:

• Academic goals
• Career goals
• Health and fitness goals
• Financial goals
• Relationship and friendship goals
• Spiritual goals
• Emotional wellbeing goals

2. Use a really good template

What is a really good goal setting template?

Ideally, it should allow you to break down your goals visually so that you can see everything from a bird’s eye view while still having the ability to look at the details. You need to see the specific steps you need to take to complete those goals, a target date you want to have the goal completed, and a way to track your progress.

Luckily for you, we’ve made you a completely free and customizable goal setting PDF! I know the format of this goal setting worksheet is so effective because I used it for an entire YEAR, testing it out before even offering it to LVDletters readers.

Don’t take my word for it, though – test it out for yourself! Provide your email below and we’ll send a free copy directly to your inbox.

3. Break down exactly how and why you’re going to achieve each goal

It’s not enough to just write down some goals and then expect to achieve them. You need to outline exactly how to achieve them, and if you want to go the extra mile, why the goal is important to you.

4. Review your goals weekly or monthly

I can tell you right now that you won’t achieve your goals if you don’t review them regularly.

For short-term goals or habits you aim to develop, you’ll want to review your progress on a weekly basis. For long-term goals or goals that don’t require as many steps to complete, you can get away with just reviewing them monthly.

5. Keep motivation in your back pocket for when you get off track

The truth is that even if you’re the most detailed, thorough, awesome goal-planner in the world, it can still sometimes be hard to stay motivated.

This is where it’s important to know what gets you inspired and prepare to feed yourself that inspiration whenever necessary.

What does this look like?

Maybe you want to journal about your progress and then read it back when you’re lacking motivation. It could be that you feel the most energized after hanging out with a certain friend or family member. Or perhaps there’s a certain content creator, book, podcast, or song that really gets you excited. 

Feast on whatever content or media it is that makes you feel energized and motivated.

6. Find people you can look up to who have achieved similar goals

This goal setting hack has become my FAVOURITE thing this year to stay on top of my goals.

It’s a super smart goal setting trick because if you find someone that you look up to who has achieved something similar to what you want to do, it gives you a better understanding of where to start and how to get there.

You might find a role model in someone in your life: an aunt, your mom, your grandma, your godmother, even your friend’s mom or a professor. It might not be someone in your life; maybe it’s a content creator, a writer, an actress, a well-known business woman. The list could go on.

You might even have multiple role models that you keep tabs on, research, get to know, and learn what they know so that you can succeed in a similar way.

The best way to know where to start with your goals is not to reinvent the wheel, but to learn from other people who have done what you want to do and have been super successful with it.

The only thing to be careful of?

Comparison.

If and when you start to compare yourself to your role model and feel like you won’t ever achieve the success that they did, that’s when you need to draw the line. Those doubts will only be true if you let yourself believe them!

Do you have any professional smart goal examples? Leave them below!

This post was all about goal setting.

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