Students, you’ve still got some summer left to enjoy before you dive back into school. But if you’re starting to think about goals for this year, consider focusing less on measures of your performance, like “I want to get a 4.0 GPA,” and more on measures of your effort, behavior, health, or character. Here are a few suggestions:
- Maximize an existing strength.
- Initiate something that might not work.
- Spend more time with the subject you enjoy the most.
- Spend less time trying to fix your weaknesses.
- Worry less about standardized tests.
- Show your favorite teacher you care more about learning than you do your final grade.
- Try something new that looks interesting.
- Do things that make you feel happy, proud, and fulfilled.
- Make an impact in something you care about.
- Make good change happen for someone or something.
- Have more fun.
- Worry less about things you can’t control.
- Get at least eight hours of sleep every night.
- Let yourself off the hook if your best effort doesn’t produce the desired result.
- Channel efforts into areas you can control.
- Care more about what the people who care about you think.
- Care less about what the people who don’t care about you think.
- Treat the college admissions process as one important step on a much more important life journey.
- Find excitement in the potential to attend college at all.
- Take more responsibility for things you can do yourself.