Back to College: Pt. 3, #Goals

Part Three: #Goals

In the last post I talked a lot about cleaning, but in this post I want to address other areas of life and some of my personal goals that I committed to in college. In our final post, we will discuss how the goals I worked towards in college served to bless me post graduation.

My hope is that this post will be inspirational rather than directional. You are the one who should come up with your goals and the value system by which you live and invest your life.

When I began college, I was ending a a chapter in my life that had been riddled with trauma and sadness. For me, college was an opportunity to put the past behind me and move forward in new identity. I transitioned and adapted very well!

Some of my goals were:

• To get healthy and stay fit

• Do well in my classes (for me that meant Cs-As… basically just don’t fail)

• Maintain a social life

• Pay all my bills

• Keep a clean home

• Travel

I had learned to live a scheduled/structured life in elementary school when my Mom gave me my first planner. I loved it! I loved using different colored markers to set up time with friends and put goals and dates that I looked forward to.

For me, my schedule allowed me to set goals and make plans so that the time could be well spent. My schedule served to hold me accountable to use my time in an order and with a strategy to facilitate accomplishment. It hedged me in and kept me on track. If I failed to stick with my schedule, I just tried again. It’s ok to try again. It’s ok to fail. Everyone does it and our worth is not defined by our victories or our failures. Our worth is not based on whether or not we can follow and stick to a schedule. I do think that life is worthwhile when we can spend our time in a way that supports our values.

If something is planned, you’re more likely to do it. Schedules also enable us to prioritize time and honor the people in our lives. Relationships are extremely important to me and I want the people in my life to have access to my time. I want them to know I care for them and when they are with me, I want them to have my full attention.

I worked full time while going to school full time. I had to work in order to pay my bills. I learned from an early age that if I was not able to earn the money for what I needed and wanted, I would have to go without. I had a few scares. I ran out of gas once with $2 in my bank account. I lived on Ramen and rice for a week. I decided I never wanted to do that again. So I made a budget. God helped me with the rest! I’ve always been provided for and my needs have always been met. I’ve had to get resourceful and creative, but I think those are good skills to develop.

I valued my health, so I would look for ways to stay active during my day. I chose to ride a bike instead of driving my car to school. This meant that I saved money on the parking pass and I got 1-3 hours of cardio per day! I scheduled time to go work out 2-3 days a week when I knew I’d be on campus. There were a couple of semesters that I intentionally took electives that involved fitness (weight lifting, swimming) in order to get class credit while working out.

I would use time in between classes to either be active (go for a walk, do some light exercise) or to study. I also grouped my classes as closely together as possible so that I could get them out of the way.

I took as many online classes as I possibly could in order to free my time. I would schedule the work needed for these classes as I would everything else, but I would set those time blocks after I set my work schedule for each semester to ensure I could get the best time slots. I also enjoyed online courses because they are generally easier and I could do them in the evenings, early mornings, and on weekends. A lot of online courses can be viewed/heard on a mobile device while at the gym. If it was a class that I had to take notes for, I would go to the library after classes to do that work before going home to relax.

I scheduled road trips at the beginning of each semester after I finalized my schedule. By scheduling these trips, I was able to recruit friends, save the money and create a budget for them, and set up times to visit family and friends.

I also scheduled time to cook and clean each week. Cooking my own food and meal planning kept my food budget much lower than it would have been if I ate out. It held me accountable to eat healthy and I learned a lot of new cooking techniques. It gave me a good break from studying as well.

I’ve talked about what I did and in our next post, I would like to talk about the value these choices added to my life and how they have shaped me through the journey I took in becoming a “grown up”.