My Personal Goals

Every successful person has a list of values, visions, and goals. I live by my values, make decisions with my visions in my mind, and set goals that will help me reach my life visions. These three elements take me to places I want to be in life. These elements reflect achievement goals and performance goals. â€Å"Achievement goals reflect the purpose of an individual's achievement pursuits and two general types have been proposed: mastery and performance. When pursuing mastery goals, an individual's purpose is to develop competence by acquiring new knowledge and skills (e. . , â€Å"My goal in this class is to understand the material as thoroughly as possible. â€Å"). When pursuing performance goals, an individual's purpose is to demonstrate competence relative to others (e. g. , â€Å"My goal in this class is to do better than other students. â€Å"). Thus, individuals can be motivated to achieve for two very different reasons: to increase their competence by learning as much as they can or to gain favorable judgments of their competence by performing as well as they can compared to others. † (Barron & Harackiewicz, 2001, p. 06) My achievement goals and performance goals are family, career, and education. These three categories intergrade within one another. My education goal is to obtain my Bachelors of Science in nursing degree. My career goal relies on the completion of my degree to continue to advance in my career. My family goal is to maintain a healthy, happy, well-balanced structure while perusing and achieving my other goals. â€Å"Professional life has a great impact on the personal life of a person. If one is neglected, then, the other aspect will be hampered. So, a proper scale of balance must be maintained. (Kar, 2011, p. 11) Throughout life as values and visions change and goals are attained, new goals arise. Education is my new goal. My vision for my career path has given me the value to achieve a Bachelors of Science in nursing degree. I have chosen to attend â€Å"University of Phoenix† online to help maintain family balance and life visions. I believe â€Å"University of Phoenix† design courses to help meet and maintain my education short-term goals and to stay on track with meeting my long-term education goal. My short-term goals include completing and passing every course. Within my short-term goals there are milestones. The milestones are laid out in class discussions and smaller assignments. The large assignments and group projects will be part of my short-term goals for that course. I will divide my large assignments into milestones. Completion of each milestone within that assignment I will reevaluate the progress and continue to move forward until milestones are meant and assignments successfully completed prior to due date. Meeting these milestones will help me reinforce my commitments as I continue to advance forward. My education goal is a new goal because of my change in careers. I had been a trauma nurse since 2003. Working in the emergency department I demonstrated leadership skills, personal accountability, and professionalism by exchanging ideas and feedback while embracing opportunities for change. October 2013, I was approached to apply for an administration position and accepted the offer. One requirement for the position is to obtain my BSN, in addition to a short-term goal for my career so I can continue advancing forward in my career path. My current position has directed me to the following pathways. Improve efficiencies with nursing processes, reduction of readmission rates, increase satisfaction scores with pain management and develop outreach programs for patients with chronic disease. I have individual visions for each pathway. Every pathway goes in different directions. It is important to maintain clear vision and focus on every pathway individually. I have short-term goals that help me reach my visions. I rely heavily on team approach to meet goals with exceptional outcome. I facilitate each team; the team plans the short and long-term goals for the projects. Within the short-term goals there are milestones with due dates. Progress and barriers are addressed at scheduled meetings. The process drives timing, communication, and progress. To maintain balance among my family, work, education, and free time, I will use several tools. A planner lays out timing to achieve short-term goals and record milestones. My educational time is early morning and late evening studies; dividing my educational time helps maintain balance with family needs. The family’s schedule displays in the kitchen on a calendar whiteboard. The calendar is visible to everyone and lists important activities. My time after work is according to children’s homework, activities, and events. I have set aside eight hours a week for time in the gym, which is very important to maintain life balance and reduce stress. At work I have to use different tools. Outlook calendar displays my meetings and events. A whiteboard is in my office where I list projects. This list creates visual details of ilestones, due dates, and target completion dates. Completed projects are kept track of in an excel spreadsheet to monitor success or barriers. Projects are officially titled successful when measureable outcome demonstrates effectiveness, efficiency and increase productivity. In conclusion, I will attain my educational goal by achieving my BSN degree. My short- term career goals are to continue to complete projects with exceptional outcome. My long- term goa l is to continue advancing in a successful career path. I understand I have to sacrifice things to allocate for new goals. I know scheduling time each day to work on my goals is a key to my success. To reach my goals I understand I cannot allow excuses. I know it will be critical to stay on task and to do what needs to be accomplished every day. â€Å"Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable. Every step toward the goal requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals. † (King, 2001-2013, p. 1)