Big Ideas - Work Journals

The big idea behind the goal statements is to demonstrate that you have direction and purpose in the program. Goals are established for the short term (2 to 3 months form now), the intermediate term (1 to 3 years from now), and the long term (5 to 10 years from now). These are not hard and fast numbers as long term and short term are relative ideas and will differ greatly among individuals.

I ask students to look at three different goal tracks to ready themselves for this requirement: financial, work, and education. Look at the table below for a quick overview of how this all pans out.

	Long Term (5-10 yrs)	Intermediate Term (2-3 yrs)	Short Term (3-6 months)
Work	Become a supervisor	earn peer and management respect	Complete helper /apprenticeship programs
Education	Complete Masters degree	complete bachelors degree	Complete helper program and Associates degree
Finances	savings of $10,000	Eliminate credit card debt	Save emergency fund of $1,000

Start with a long-term goal, and develop shorter-term goals that you will need to meet on the way to that goal, just remember to keep them SMART.

Once you complete your own table, decide which SCAN skills will help you accomplish your goals. Try to attach at least (2) skills to each of the nine boxes in the table. You will develop more SCANS than you need for this assignment, but this if preferable to not having enough.

You do not necessarily need all three goal strands (work, education, finances) but the five scans per term category (column) is required. I will say that your goals will be more robust and complete if you retain all three strands.

Connection between goals flows horizontally in the table. Ask yourself, "Do your short-term goals help you accomplish your intermediate- and long-term goals?" If they do, then your goals are connected. If your short-term goals focus entirely on getting a new truck, your intermediate goal is to become a supervisor, and you long term goal is to sail around the world, your goals are not clearly connected and you will lose points.

In subsequent quarters, you will have your previous quarter's goals to work from while creating your new goal assignment. Some of your goals will have changed, some will have been completed, others will have failed completely. In 2nd, 3rd, and 4th quarters you should look back at those goals and update your new goal statements accordingly. This is reflection.