USF CLCE Podcast

Ryan = [R]

Mickey = [M]

Setting (and Achieving) Your Goal

[Music in]

[R]:

Hey everyone welcome back to another podcast here from the center for Leadership and Civic Engagement. We’re coming to you like from the University of South Florida. It’s another beautiful week here in Tampa and we have here with us a very special guest today to talk a little bit about goal setting

[M]:

Hi everyone my name is Mickey Howard. I’m a 2^nd year grad here at the University of South Florida and my assistantship I, I work in the office of Orientation one of the best offices you could ask for.

[R]:

So, we are very, very thankful to have you Mickey here with us today. We want to talk about goals because a lot of college students obviously set goals, whether it’s to get to college or to get to med school whatever the case may be we want to talk about some of the specifics and how to be effective in setting those goals and I think personally the first thing you need to do is have a mission, a personal vision and figure out why it’s important for you to do that.

[M]:

Yeah, I think sometimes that we become, we, we try and set goals all the time and, and its, we always try and set basic goals like “I want to graduate from college.” “I want to go to med school.” But it’s really about understanding why you want to do that. I kind of see this compass which, which you can see right now is that at the center is really this question of why? You know all of your goals should say “I wanna graduate college because dot, dot, dot […]” You know using that ellipse to really formulate your ideas, formulate why you want to do it.

[R]:

Yeah and once you have your purpose a vision you know you understand why you’re doing it. Obviously you have to plan out all those minute details the, the things that really bring it all together.

[M]:

You know I really see the “why?” as really that center point for a compass and really the details will follow because that’s sort of your North your East you West and your South. you know one of them is really “who?” Who is involved in your goal? “I wanna graduate college because...” You know is it for yourself; is it for others? Understanding why you’re doing that with who’s involved. Then you want to understand you know when you want to do this. Because I can say I’m going to graduate from college or I’m going to get elected to a position. When are you going to do that? Setting specific times that you’re going to actually accomplish this because once you see the time limits, once you see where you have to do it, who you have to look for, is that you can really make sure you’re keeping yourself accountable for that and who to look for.

[R]:

And I think when you look at goals in this context as you call it the “Goals Compass” I love it because it it’s really simple. Like it makes it really easy, really easy to understand and it allows for this individual expression of how you want to go about doing those goals or how you want to go about getting them done.

[M]:

Yeah, you know when we talked about, when we talk about sort of the basic English class and you always learn about “who” what” when” where” and then always that last question that I haven’t talked about yet is how. Is that there is nobody that is going to stand behind you in class or in your pocket telling you, you know “hey have you done this today?” you know how have you done this for your goals is that really I kind of believe this idea of “you are you and I am me” is that the how is up to you. Is that there is there’s going to be plenty of people that are going to be involved in this goal, and that’s great but ultimately it’s going to come down to you. What are you doing today to make sure that this goal happens and what can you do in the future that’s really going to keep this goal going and moving in the right direction.

[R]:

Absolutely. So it starts with why you gotta have a vision a purpose. You kind of bring the details in with the who, the what, the when, the where, and then it really finishes up with how do you go about everyday accomplishing those goals. What is it in your daily life that are going to accomplish those?

[M]:

And I think what separates you know college students today from past college students is that there really has to be intention and there has to be purpose for why you are here. You know if you want to be a leader than great, be a leader. But why are you doing it? Why are you going out there every single day and saying you know “I’m a leader?” Great! I can say that I’m the President of whatever club I want, does that necessarily mean that I’m going to accomplish the goals that I set? No. is that I really think you have to look at the bigger picture of why goals are involved.

[R]:

You’re absolutely right. There are 40,000 plus other students on this campus that can say that they set a goal of graduating from college, but it’s the “why” that really going to sets them apart when it comes to the next step in their lives, so.

[M]:

Yeah and you know what is that goals to me are, you know, sometimes they’re a little bit scary because it’s, it’s kind of that long term, but they can be so simple. Is that they can really start; they can be “What do I want to accomplish tomorrow?”, “What’s my goal for next week?” and then really starting to break out those lifetime goals and setting goals to meet those goals. I mean it’s sort of like the rabbit hole effect you know you never know where it’s going to lead to. So, just really getting out there writing your ideas down and you know don’t write it in the computer don’t write it anywhere just kind of…and then you always want them to have sort of like kick you in the face every day. I, I always write my goals and put em’ on my bathroom mirror. It sounds kind of weird and trite, but it kind of works because it always makes sure you know, I’m keeping the gingivitis out, but I’m also keeping my goals in mind.

[R]:

I love that. So, we want to leave you with that today. If you’re interested in more information want to talk more about this come visit us in the Center for Leadership and Engagement. We’ve actually got copies of the goals compass on paper so if it’ll help you visualize it you can come take a look at that as well. Again, I just want to thank Mickey and have a great week and enjoy the rest of this beautiful weather that we get before the hot summer and GO BULLS!

[M]:

GO BULLS!!!