Academic-Capital

Achieving goals is important part of one's career and keeps us moving forward in new directions. Those who set goals have a higher chance of being more successful than others who might muddle through life aimlessly. Setting appropriate goals and ensure that these goals are achievable requires a little planning and reflection to get where you want to go. Clearly Defined:  Goals should be specific and obtainable. People sometimes make goals that are broad, murky, or ill defined. It is hard for them to know whether or not they achieved a particular goal if there is no easy start or stop position. A clearly defined goal might be "complete a training class on basic accounting in the next 6 months" while an ill defined goal would look more like "understand more about accounting". In the first example you know exactly when you achieved that goal while in the second case you will need to guess. Having a clearly defined goal will let you know when it is time to a

New Years is the that special day where people boastfully pronounce their resolutions to any passerby who will listen. Like most New Year's resolutions they are short lived and die off in a few short weeks after pronouncement. This year, instead of making resolutions, look to bring in the new year with some well thought out goals. This will help you give your life a kick in the pants as you march down a brighter path. Goals are different than resolutions. Resolutions usually seek to solve a problem and are not always well thought out. This is one reason why resolutions don't often have staying power. Goals are a commitment to achieve some objective and require greater thought and action to successfully achieve. A popular New Year's resolution is to work out and get into shape. With no real plan in place you walk into your closest gym and sign up for that expensive gym membership that will continue to charge you even though you don't go anymore. You also buy yourself

By Dr Andree Swanson Another new year and guess what I received in the mail?  Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, 24-hour Fitness and a whole slew of advertisements that weigh in on (no pun intended) those people who believe in the power of the New Year’s Resolution.  While surfing Facebook, a family member posted that she had to park a mile away from the gym.  In a month, parking will return to normal. To affect change, you must change your behavior.  Norcross, Ratzin, and Payne (1989) conducted a study on 213 adults who made New Year’s resolutions.  “Successful resolvers were also found to report employing significantly more behavioral strategies and less self-blame and wishful thinking than unsuccessful resolvers” (Norcross, Ratzin, & Payne, 1989, Abstract). Consider creating a vision board, instead of making New Year’s resolutions.  This is not only fun to make, but can be a constant reminder of your focus for the year.  (I used to do this on a large post-it note