Goal Setting (Want, Will and Plan)
Goal Setting (Want, Will and Plan) Heading link
The Difference Between Want, Will and Plan
The Tutorium midterms week has passed. You are thinking about your progress so far and making a plan for the rest of the semester. This is great! But, if your plan is “I will study harder,” you should know it’s not going to work very well.
“I will” is very close to “I want.” “I want to study vocabulary” is similar to “I want a new toy,” and that’s not enough. It’s not enough to see actual improvement. Instead, you need to carefully plan (think, say, and then write down) what you are going to do, and how, and when. And then go do it.
Creating a Plan that Works
A successful plan for learning must be specific, realistic, and honest.
1. Specific means that the activities or steps answer the questions of what, how, and when.
“I will study grammar” becomes “I will do 3 exercises on sentence structure from this website (web address) for 45 minutes every Friday morning.” Without being specific, the plan is more of a wish again.
2. Realistic means that you are aware of your limitations (time, energy, resources) and answer the question: what can you actually do?
So, “I will learn new vocabulary” becomes “I will review the vocabulary from previous units by writing up to twenty sentences on Saturdays because that’s when I have no other homework and I’m usually at home alone. I will focus on ten different words every week.”
3. Honest means that you are not promising anything you cannot really fulfill.
It’s no use if you set a goal of listening to four hours of podcasts a week, if you also need to attend classes, do homework, and Zoom with your parents every Tuesday night. You’re not setting a goal. Rather, you’re setting yourself up for failure. You’ll be disappointed when you can listen to podcasts for an hour a week and still struggle to do even that. Take baby steps, nice and slow.
Challenge Yourself
What if, after you complete all these planning steps, you feel like you cannot do it? What if it seems that your goals are still too high or far? Perhaps you simply cannot do some things in English. That just means you cannot do them yet. If you challenge yourself and find opportunities to learn and grow, however, you will be able to. You’ll see the improvement you seek. But for that to happen, you first need to create plans, not just wants and wishes.