Goals With Purpose

The start of a new school year sparks a sense of determination to achieve your goals, meet like-minded individuals, and light up curiosity. As the semester progresses, exams, assignments, and routine work causes me to lose the sense of purpose and fulfillment.

I found the reason I lose motivation and purpose in my academic life is that I tend to lose sight of my long-term goal. When exams come up, my short-term goal is to obtain a good grade, but that by itself does not fuel or motivate me to keep going; it is the long-term goal that gives purpose to the things I do.

How can you identify your long-term goal and use it to find purpose in life?

A goal that is set for the short or long-term has to remind you of the reason you do certain things. A well-defined goal is Simple or specific, Meaningful, Attainable, Relevant and Time- oriented but at the same time, it has to motivate you to be the best version of yourself.

• What motivates you?

• Why do you want to pursue that particular goal?

• How would your life look after achieving your goal?

• When do you want to achieve your goal?

Once you have a long-term goal that motivates you, find ways you can work towards it. An example of a long-term goal could be getting accepted into a graduate program. To work towards that goal, I would go to various graduate school-related events, network with professors, and prepare for the GRE. The importance of having a well-defined goal is because it is easier to measure success and stay motivated by seeing the progress being made.

The underlying purpose behind setting goals that are either long-term or short-term is not to permanently pursue a specific objective, but it is to give a flexible structure to where you can concentrate your efforts. Setting goals should be to act as a source of motivation and purpose when pursuing what you aspire to become and achieve in your life-time.