As the new year begins, it’s the perfect opportunity to set new goals by reflecting on the past year and envisioning the future an individual wants to create. Keeping track of progress and celebrating achievements, big or small, can create a better mindset needed to achieve these goals.
For many people, these new goals include personal development, building stronger relationships, or pursuing a passion. By actively working towards their goals, students can come closer to becoming an ideal version of themselves. Goals can range from ones that can be accomplished in one day or several months.
Although the journey to becoming a better version of oneself and trying to reach personal goals is an exciting way to begin the new year for many, the process of accomplishing a goal can be prolonged as some begin to have more responsibilities and face obstacles that interfere. No matter the amount of time required to achieve a goal, going at one’s own pace and remaining confident is important in order to be successful.
Junior Dylan Olmsted started the new year with his goal being to work diligently and consistently. Since last year, Olmsted started doing more work to improve his work ethic in the classroom and improve his skills.
“So this year or this semester, I’m going to try and be a little more, not just productive in the work but also productive in opportunity,” said Olmsted.
As for junior Celeste Carrillo, her goal is to spend more time with her friends by improving her time management skills. This goal has made Carrillo excited as it allows her to begin practicing better at prioritizing. To achieve her goal, Carrillo plans to use a planner to manage her time.
“I bought a planner so I’m gonna use that this year and then just looking at all my calendars and stuff because I did not do that for the past few years,” said Carillo.
Senior Dallas Lopez has set important goals for the new year, such as graduating and potentially attending a community college. Reflecting on last year, Lopez learned the value of avoiding procrastination, which he plans to apply moving forward. Lopez is most excited about excelling in his elective classes such as choir and intends to achieve his goals through dedicated practice.
“I learned how to consume my time better, so like better time management and not to procrastinate as much as I did my previous years,” said Lopez.
Despite the challenges the new year might bring, having set goals in mind helps students as they navigate what they want to do and plan throughout the year. Not only does set goals improve the way students approach these expectations, they also bring better results to those who put in hard work. Having an experienced mindset, this will let students accomplish harder goals than what they could have achieved before. These goals may depend on upperclassmen and lowerclassmen as some students not only have a new year, but one last year until they start life after high school.
