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My parents always had this saying, “Set personal goals in life that will help strengthen the rainbow”. That proverb had a profound effect on me as I grew older and starting to plan my life. We all have rainbows or dreams in life that need the proper goals to achieve them. Sometimes accomplishing certain goals can be derailed by unforeseen occurrences or certain constraints in life, such as, the amount money, time and support system you have to pursue them.
But dreams don’t ever go away and as long you can see that rainbow, you can always reset new goals to achieve your dreams. Cited to pursue a degree in Business Management at the University of Phoenix because one day my rainbow appeared and I decided to reset goals to pursue it. My goals were to obtain the support from the Firm I work for by taking advantage of their tuition reimbursement program, engage my management on enabling workflow balance policies to allow for a flexible work schedule and to develop the discipline to manage my personal time for study and reflection.
Once I felt that now had the time, money and support system in place to allow for my degree pursuit, I simply needed to understand how would go bout choosing a school and degree program. Decided to research the schools that would cater to my learning preference and choose a degree program that would further enhance my current career goals as a Project Management Professional (PM) and my long-term career goals of being a Business Leader or Management Consultant.
The short term goals that I have set to succeed as a Business Management student at the University of Phoenix with a minimum B average are: * Complete all required reading assignments by taking a minimum of two (2) hours each day to read. * Complete all required individual assignments by dedicating four (4) hours n the weekend k Complete all team assignments by meeting weekly every Monday and Friday * Manage my time and schedule to ensure that my work project commitments do not interfere with my classroom attendance. Leverage previous work and training knowledge that can be translated into an adult learning skill. Long Term Goals My long term goal of graduating with a Business Management degree is to further advance my current and future career goals. I took an interest in Business Management when my IT career led me to a challenging and rewarding career in Project Management. This has provided me with the learned values of leadership, teamwork and excellence. These are the core values that guide my life choices and decisions.
Gross (1999) stated, “When you use your values as a compass for your goals, make sure the compass is pointed in the direction of your real feelings” (p. 333) A Business Management Degree will provide the foundation to further develop my core values and apply them to my future career goals Short Term Goals The short term goals outlined above have the necessary focus and detail to help me succeed as a student at University of Phoenix. It is important to revived specific details on how to use the time to achieve my short term goals or I may incur the risk of failure.
Gross (1999) wrote, “Your commitments can overwhelm you unless you decide how to use time to plan your steps toward goal achievement” (p. 329). It requires a great deal of discipline to dedicate time each day and on the weekend to read and finish assignments. It also requires that you balance work and schooling with the ones you love back home, because without their support you will not succeed. Short term goals help to maintain progress towards achieving long-term goals.
Conclusion One of my longtime rainbows that haven’t been able to fulfill was to obtain a Bachelor’s Degree. A degree meant to me the feeling of accomplishing a big challenge that you focused and committed time and energy to with the end result of having a solid foundation of knowledge and a big sense of pride. It was to be achieved but to my dismay life challenges had discouraged me from setting the proper goals that would “strengthen the rainbow”, until now! Have established realistic and measurable goals that will “strengthen my rainbow” and allow me to fulfill my dreams.