Setting Academic Excellence goals is imperative for success at Kettle Moraine School for Arts and Performance (KM Perform). The charter-unique course challenges students to fix struggles in their everyday lives: ranging from time management to organization. Oftentimes, students set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound) goals as a guide. However, in order to meet the competency you select in the beginning of each school year, the goal needs to mean more to you than just completing an assignment, hence the creation of a HARD (Heartfelt, Animated, Required, Difficult) goal.
Academic Excellence promotes self-improvement in the areas of curiosity, managing impulsivity, organization, time management, persistence, quality, and flexible thinking. Every student at KM Perform must choose one of those competencies as their goal at the beginning of every school year. Students must then plan how they’ll achieve the goal, and then submit four pieces of evidence that show how they were able to grow in that area. It sounds like a lot of work, but if you set a goal that excites you, you’ll be more motivated to finish it.
According to Mark Murphy, NY Times Bestselling author, leadership coach, and founder of Leadership IQ, setting a HARD goal can “make people stronger, more courageous, and more confident to go after bigger and better things.” Contrary to the notoriously dry, boring SMART goal, the HARD goal forces you to have a personal connection with the goal(s) you set. (It could also potentially foster more efficient employees in the future.) So, how do you set a HARD goal? I’m glad you asked.
Heartfelt: “Describe at least three reasons why you want this goal (note: the reasons can be intrinsic, personal, and/or extrinsic).” Remember, if you want to follow through on your goal, you should probably have at least one personal connection with it.
Animated: “Think about where you want your career to be, and describe [. . .] exactly what you’re doing (what kind of work you’re doing, who you’re working with, what your days look like, etc.) one year, three years, and five years from now.” That time frame can be altered to fit the number of years you have remaining in high school, though everyone is encouraged to continue on their paths of self-improvement beyond secondary schooling.
Required: “What do you need to have accomplished by the end of the next six months to keep on track toward achieving this goal? What about by the end of the next 90 days? The next 30 days? What’s one thing you can accomplish today?” Once you set your intentions to accomplish your goal, it’s also useful to keep track of your progress so you can submit that as a piece of evidence towards your Academic Excellence competency.
Difficult: “What are the three to five most important skills you’ll need to develop to achieve this goal? How will you develop those skills?” You can select one primary skill to focus on instead of three to five, unless you choose to focus on more than one aspect of Academic Excellence.
Different goal-setting methods vary in effectiveness from person-to-person, but if you’ve found that you struggle to keep up with your Academic Excellence goals (as many of us do), try setting a HARD goal. Maybe this time, the impossible will become possible.
Image courtesy of Sane Spaces