New Year. New Goals.

ELIZABETH TULENKO | FEATURES COLUMNIST

Each year, we make a New Year’s resolution that most of us end up never fulfilling. Goals rather than resolutions can be easier to complete because each of us are constantly following schedules. Goals are much simpler and more flexible when applied to daily life, because even though the timing of them may change, the ideas become imprinted in a person’s mind.

Every goal involves a time line, where a person already knows when the goal has started and when it will end. It is important that even when a person has to change the progress on their goal in order to accommodate new situations, the goal should not be eliminated. Each goal made means something personal to the person who makes it, and giving up on a goal can set that person back.

Goals can involve the classes you are in, such as planning out your writing pace on an essay or practicing for a presentation in a certain amount of time. Simple goals like this fit into a person’s daily schedule, because with every class there is new information given that needs to be planned ahead for. Other simple goals can be working out for fifteen minutes a day or hanging out with a certain friend that you don’t get to see very often. In any type of simple goal, it is important to remember that the goal has to be done and must not be avoided.

Long term goals are the hardest to achieve, but are the most rewarding in the end. Similar to short term goals, the time line of a long-term goal is important in making sure the goal can be reached. A long term goal could be getting a 4.0 this semester.Long term goals are less flexible and more complex, because this type of goal will affect your life more than a short term goal would.

For any type of goal, following through to the end is rewarding, no matter how long you have been focusing on that goal. Incompleting each goal, there is satisfaction in knowing that you did not waiver from the goal, which results in a sense of accomplishment.