| Reference Pumpian, I. (2005, February ). Youtube. EDL610 Week 2 Habits.Retrieved January 30, 2015, from http://youtu.be/UJXals11NmA |
To be honest, I rarely begin with the end in (my conscious) mind. Perhaps, I am used to this habit that I don’t think about it as much as I should? Thinking back though, there have been times when I followed this habit. When I was eighteen years old, I made the goal of having a teaching position by the time I was 25 years old. I planned out a timeline with milestones that I needed to meet to achieve my deadline. While meeting my milestones, I always kept the end result in mind: teaching by the age of 25. I took one semester off from school, but I did not make any changes to my plan. Revisiting my plan frequently motivated me to complete goal sooner than planned.
When I was a very young, many moons ago, I committed to having a white collar job after seeing relatives working in and personally experiencing blue collar jobs. Additionally (and related to this goal), I dreamed at a young age of owning my own home. To make this a reality, I knew I had to work very hard and in a white collar job. To meet this goal, I began attending college five days after graduating from high school while working three jobs to help support my family and my education. I planned my work schedules around my college schedule so that I would graduate as quickly as possible. This allowed me to realize my dream of working in a white collar profession (a teacher) by the age of 25. Note that I was the first person in my family and even my extended family to graduate from college, and this too was a motivator for me.
A current goal of mine is, by the age of 31, to be a vice-principal or principal. I began this program with that in mind, and this program is part of my plan to reach my goal of principal. Also, performing well in my current role and taking on additional responsibilities is part of my overall plan. In addition, I plan on having a leadership status within my school in the next year, after completing this program.
While I may not consciously focus on the end when I begin a task, it seems that I do indeed do just that when I set goals for myself. Perhaps I do this much more than I realize, and I may now be more conscious of it as consider new goals in the future.