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Module 3 Lesson 13. MANAGING AND CARING FOR THE SELF: Setting Goals for
Success
Competencies 1. identify the types of motivation;
2. determine short-term and long term-goals;
3. recognize the importance of goal setting; and
4. apply the ways on how to achieve your goals.
Discussion Introduction
Learners are bound to face multifarious tasks, overlapping with other
roles they portray at different social institutions. Enlightening them with
which goals they are to track would ease their minds in possible dilemma.
“Conscious goals affect actions, thus, a goal is the object or aim of an action”
(Villafuerte et al., 2018). Goal is a driving force that directs one’s action.
THE IMPORTANCE OF GOALS
1. Goals Give You Focus
Imagine having to shoot an arrow without being given a target. Where would
you aim? And say you did aim at some random thing (out of sheer perplexity).
Why would you aim there? And what would the purpose be? Get the idea? This
is a literal example of what life is like without a goal or target in mind. It’s
pointless and a waste of energy and effort. You can have all the potential in
the world but without focus your abilities and talent are useless. Just like how
sunlight can’t burn through anything without a magnifying glass focusing it,
you can’t achieve anything unless a goal is focusing your effort. Because at the
end of the day goals are what give you direction in life. By setting goals for
yourself you give yourself a target to shoot for. This sense of direction is what
allows your mind to focus on a target and rather than waste energy shooting
aimlessly, it allows you to hit your target and reach your goal.
2. Goals Allow You to Measure Progress
By setting goals for yourself you are able to measure your progress because
you always have a fixed endpoint or benchmark to compare with. Take this
scenario for example David makes a goal to write a book with a minimum of
300 pages. He starts writing every day and works really hard but along the
way, he loses track of how many more pages he has written and how much
more he needs to write. So rather than panicking David simply counts the
number of pages he has already written and he instantly determines his
progress and knows how much further he needs to go.
3. Goals Keep You Locked In and Undistructed
By setting goals you give yourself mental boundaries. When you have a
QUIRINO STATE UNIVERSITY
DIFFUN CAMPUS
Diffun, 3401 Quirino
COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION
certain endpoint in mind you automatically stay away from certain
distractions and stay focused towards the goal. This process happens
automatically and subtly but according to research does happen. To get a
better idea, imagine this. Your best friend is moving to Switzerland and his
flight takes off at 9:00 PM. You leave right after work at 8:30 PM to see him off
and you know it’s a 20-minute walk to get to the airport. So you make it a goal
to reach the airport in 15 minutes by jogging so that you can have more time
to say your goodbyes. Would you get distracted by “anything” along the way?
Would you stop for a break or a snack? Would you stop by your house before
going to the airport? I bet you answered no for each question and at the end of
the day, this is what a goal gives you. FOCUS. No matter who you meet along
the way or what you see (assuming nothing is out of the ordinary) your goal
allows you to stay locked in. You subconsciously keep away from distractions
and your focus remains only on the goal. And by the way, if you didn’t know
yet this is how you become successful, you set a goal, you lock it in and then
give it your 100%.
4. Goals Help You Overcome Procrastination
When you set a goal for yourself you make yourself accountable to finish
the task. This is in complete contrast with when you do things based off a
whim and it doesn’t matter whether you complete them or not. Goals tend to
stick in your mind and if not completed they give you a “Shoot! These
reminders in the back of your head help you to overcome procrastination and
laziness. But keep in mind that long-term goals actually promote
procrastination. Most people aren’t good with deadliness 3 months away. So
whenever you’re given a long term goal, break it down into several short-term
goals so you can complete a chunk of the larger long term goal every week or
even every day.
5. Goals Give You Motivation
The roots of all the motivation or inspiration you have ever felt in your entire
life are goals. Goal setting provides you the foundation for your drive. By
making a goal you give yourself a concrete endpoint to aim for and get
excited about. It gives you something to focus on and put 100% of your effort
into and this focus is what develops motivation. Goals are simply tools to focus
your energy in positive directions, these can be changed as your priorities
change, new ones added, and others dropped.
BANDURA’S SELF EFFICACY
Albert Bandura was a well-known social-cognitive psychologist. He was
born in 1925 in Alberta, Canada, and best-known for his work in social-
QUIRINO STATE UNIVERSITY
DIFFUN CAMPUS
Diffun, 3401 Quirino
COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION
cognitive psychology, or the branch of psychology that deals with people
learning from observing others and interacting with them.
CORE CONSTRUCTS of the THEORY
Bandura defined Self-Efficacy as “people’s beliefs about their capabilities
to produce designated levels of performance that exercise influence over
events that affect their lives”
Self-Efficacy Theory tells us that people generally will only attempt
things they believe they can accomplish and won’t attempt things they
believe they will fail. However, people with a strong sense of efficacy believe
they can accomplish even difficult tasks. They see these as challenges to
be mastered, rather than threats to be avoided (Bandura, 1994).
The basic idea behind self-efficacy is that when individuals feel their
actions can influence the outcome of a given situation, several things
happen. For one, they feel much better about themselves. Second, they
feel that they have a sense of power and control over what happens in the
world. And finally, they don't float hopelessly from one activity to the
other. In short, they act, think, and feel differently than people who have
no self-efficacious beliefs.
Self-efficacy, or confidence as it is commonly known, is one of the most
enabling psychology models to have been adopted into positive psychology.
It is the optimistic self-belief in our competence or chances of successfully
accomplishing a task and producing a favorable outcome.
Self-efficacy plays a major part in determining our chances for success; in
fact some psychologists rate self-efficacy above talent in the recipe for
success. We need to pay special attention to self-efficacy when setting
goals to make sure that our efficacy beliefs are in line with our aims and
not working against them.
So where does self-efficacy come from and how can you get more of it? The
originator of the theory, Albert Bandura names four sources of efficacy
beliefs.
BANDURA’S SOURCES OF EFFICACY BELIEFS
1. Mastery Experiences
The first and foremost source of self-efficacy is through mastery experiences.
However nothing is more powerful than having a direct experience of mastery
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COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION
to increase self-efficacy. Having a success, for example in mastering a task or
controlling an environment, will build self- belief in that area whereas a failure
will undermine that efficacy belief. To have a resilient sense of self-efficacy
requires experience in overcoming obstacles through effort and perseverance.
2. Vicarious Experiences
The second source of self-efficacy comes from our observation of people
around us, especially people we consider as role models. Seeing people similar
to ourselves succeed by their sustained effort raises our beliefs that we too
possess the capabilities to master the activities needed for success in that
area.
3. Verbal Persuasion
Influential people in our lives such as parents, teachers, managers or coaches
can strengthen our beliefs that we have what it takes to succeed. Being
persuaded that we possess the capabilities to master certain activities means
that we are more likely to put in the effort and sustain it when problems arise.
4. Emotional & Physiological States
The state you’re in will influence how you judge your self-efficacy. Depression,
for example, can dampen confidence in our capabilities. Stress reactions or
tension are interpreted as signs of vulnerability to poor performance whereas
positive emotions can boost our confidence in our skills.
5. Imaginal Experiences
Psychologist James Maddux has suggested a fifth route to self-efficacy
through “imaginal experiences”, the art of visualizing yourself behaving
effectively or successfully in a given situation.
MINDSET THEORY
People vary in the degree to which they attribute the causes of intelligence and
other traits. Are they innate and fixed factors (“fixed” mindset) or are they
variable factors that can be influenced through learning, effort, training, and
practice (“growth” mindset)? A “growth” mindset is generally seen as more
advantageous.
Carol S. Dweck, a psychologist and faculty member at Stanford University,
proposed mindset theory as a way to understand the effects of the beliefs
that individuals hold for the nature of intelligence. This in turn has
implications for learning and education.
Individuals with a fixed mindset tend to be interested only in feedback on
their success in activities to the degree that it serves to evaluate their
underlying ability. They are not using the feedback to learn, since they do not
believe that their success depends on their effort to learn. Rather, they believe
that success depends on the level of innate ability that they have. Therefore,
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COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION
they dread failure, because it suggests constraints or limits that they will not
be able to overcome.
A growth mindset, on the other hand, attributes success to learning.
Therefore, the individual is not terrified of failure, because it only signals the
need to pay attention, invest effort, apply time to practice, and master the new
learning opportunity. They are confident that after such effort they will be able
to learn the skill or knowledge, and then to improve their performance.
Figure 1. The two basic mindsets that shape our lives
The Locke’s Goal-Setting Theory
The theory emphasizes the important relationship between goals and
performance; a goal setting theory of performance management. It supports
predictions that seem to result in the most effective performances, when the
goals are specific and challenging, when they are used to assess the
performances and are linked to feedback.
According to Locke and Latham, there are five goal-setting principles that
can increase the chance of success:
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COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION
Figure 2. Goal Setting Principles
1. Clarity
A clear goal can be measured; no room for misunderstandings;
Explicit goals with regard to which result is desired and how it will be
measured;
Comparable to the SMART principles that help to understand the task,
measuring the results and achieving success.
2. Challenge
Setting challenging goals demands an accurate balance to guarantee the right
level of challenge. Goals that are either too easy or too difficult negatively
influence the motivation and decrease performance. The highest level of
motivation is reached when goals are somewhere between easy and difficult.
Setting challenging goals demands an accurate balance to guarantee
the right level of challenge;
Goals that are too easy or too difficult negatively impact motivation and
may reduce the performance;
The highest level of motivation is achieved upon the right balance
between easy and difficult.
When you set next goals, make sure these are challenging yet realistic,
difficult yet achievable. Ask yourself the following questions when setting
goals. Are they challenging enough? Are they significant enough to be
motivating? Are they realistic and achievable?
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3. Effort
Fully understanding and coordinating the set goals;
Motivation due to own input when setting goals;
People have the tendency to work harder for a goal when they were
involved in setting it, particularly in a team;
Staying motivated as long as the goal is actually achievable and is in
accordance with the aspirations of all those involved.
4. Feedback
In addition to selecting the right goal, you must also listen to feedback to
determine whether you’re doing it right. This allows you to adjust the goal and
your approach to achieve it. Feedback doesn’t necessarily have to come from
other people. Feedback can also come from within.
Listening to feedback to check whether you’re headed in the right
direction;
If necessary, adjusting the goal and approach to achieve the goal;
Feedback both from others and yourself.
5. Task complexity
Takes into account the complexity of the goals, given the fact that
complexity can influence morale, productivity and motivation;
Complex goals can be overwhelming to people;
Make sure there’s enough time, allowing everyone enough time to work
towards the goal and improve the performances;
If necessary, adjusting the complexity and level of difficulty of the goal.
Finally, look at the results and ensure commitment and acceptance. The
motivation impact of goals can be influenced by moderators, such as
capability and self-reliance. Additionally, deadlines improve the effectiveness of
goals. Focus on a learning goal leads to higher performances than an objective
and group goal, where mindset is just as important as individual goal setting.
References Alata, E.J.P. (2018). Understanding the Self. Quezon City: Rex Book Store
Monila, J. and Ramirez, N. (2018). Understanding the Self. Quezon City: C & E Publishing,
Inc.
Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (1994). Goal-setting theory. Organizational Behavior 1:
Essential Theories of Motivation and Leadership, 159-183.
Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2002). Building a practically useful theory of
goal setting and task motivation: A 35-year odyssey. American psychologist,
57(9), 705.
