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A Look at Motivation and Goal Setting

Motivation and goal setting go hand in hand. Motivation is made up of desire and belief. The individual must first have the desire to reach a specific goal. If the person doesn’t really want whatever the end result will be (a grade, a degree, an achievement of some kind), there will be no motivation and goal setting will be of no value.

What Motivates You?

Motivation and goal setting are not the same things for everyone. To get a handle on what motivates us, we need to look at our own values. Some of the things that humans value are money, status, family, love of learning, and pride in a job well done. Others are motivated by the urge to travel. To do good works, to improve living conditions for others, or to meet new people.

As we make a list of what motivates us, either a written or a mental one, we will find that some of the values are more important to us than others. Some values have to do with short-term goals, while other ones are more long-term.

It is important to keep a handle on your level of motivation and goal setting for different situations. Take the example of a student who wants to get good grades but can’t quite seem to get there. Are they as motivated as they think they are? Have they taken the time to break down the ultimate goal into smaller steps (goals) along the way? Are there other distractions getting in the way of the student achieving his or her goals?

Motivation and Goal Setting

If you are truly motivated to achieve (you want to reach the goal and are prepared to do what is necessary to get there), how do you come up with goals?

First of all, get a clear mental picture in your mind of what you want to achieve. What does it look like and feel like to you? Next, try to break the big goal down into some smaller steps that make sense to you.

Using the example of a student once again, let’s say that the person wants to improve his or her mark in a certain class by one grade level (moving from C to B or B to A). How can they achieve that goal? How does motivation and goal setting work in this case?

The motivation and goal setting might come from a desire to graduate with honors or to be accepted into graduate school. Since some potential employers of recent college graduates do ask for an official transcript as part of the application process, that might be a good reason to do one’s best.

The next step is to come up with some ways to achieve that goal. To improve grade in a course, it might be helpful to join a study group. Discussing course work with fellow students is a great way to find out if you are on the right track. The group will also give participants the opportunity to bounce ideas off each other and perhaps indulge in some friendly debates. If you are finding a certain part of the course content difficult to get a handle on, the other members of the group are there to help. Sometimes all it takes to get a better understanding of a certain portion of the work is to have someone explain it in a slightly different way.

Another part of the student’s motivation and goal setting plan might be to find a fellow student interested in earning some extra cash as a tutor or to ask the professor if there are any opportunities for extra credit.

As we can see from this example, motivation and goal setting really do go hand in hand.