Your Sophomore Year Goal-Setting Workshop

Your Sophomore Year Academic And Career Goals

So what did you learn about yourself academically last year?

What courses did you take and love, and what classes did you have trouble dragging yourself to attend every time? What distinctions can you draw from those experiences? Did you love your large lecture classes or hate them? Or did your enjoyment depend on the subject area or the professor? What introductory courses or subjects did you enjoy that you might want to explore more intensively? Did you hear about any other subjects that your roommates or friends explored that you might want to check out?

This is the semester when you really ought to be thinking about choosing a major. Are you there yet? If not, think about which courses and subjects really moved you last year. Were you engaged by your political science class, but utterly uninterested in your philosophy class? Fascinated by psychology, but bored by economics? In love with a foreign language and desperate to explore more about it and its affiliated culture? What courses were you excited to read for, and what were the classes you didn't want to miss? Draw every distinction you can from your experiences last year, and write them down. Worry about the practical application later. Let's try and find your passion!

Your Sophomore Year Social Goals

Did you spread your wings and "become you" last year? Who was it that emerged from the cocoon of high school or prep school and burst on to the college scene as a freshman?

What did you learn about yourself? And what do you still need to work on socially? Are you as confident as you want to be? Did you express yourself? Did you learn to be a good listener?

Did you find a good group of friends? Did you meet the people you wanted to meet? Did you get out enough, or did you go overboard and go out too much? Do you want to set any new goals or ground rules for your social interactions on campus this year? Did your social life swallow your academic life, such that you need to rein it in this year and get serious about your studies? Or did you spend too much time in the library and not meet as many people as you had hoped to meet? Remember that success in college is about balance. Do you need to work on maintaining a proper balance?

Your Sophomore Year Extracurricular Goal

We hope that you sampled several different activities last year and found a few things that you enjoyed doing and that both supplemented and rounded out your freshman year experience. Which of those activities do you think you might want to commit to for the long term? Are there any in which you would ultimately like to assume leadership positions? Which ones didn't really work out the way you had hoped?

Think about your extracurricular experiences last year, and think about the experiences your friends and roommates had. Did you sample too many activities last year, such that you didn't get a concentrated experience from any of them, or did you hang back and really not get involved at all? Do you need to pare down the list of things to get involved in, or do you need to find one or two things to commit to? Or were your activities a disappointment, such that you need to find some different ones this year?

Your Sophomore Year Physical Goals

So what happened to you physically last year? Did you stay committed to an exercise program, try to eat healthily, sleep enough hours most nights, and otherwise take good care of yourself?

Or were you like most of the rest of us?

Things definitely tend to get a little out of control during your freshman year. Everything is so new, the sense of freedom is so overwhelming, and the degree of control you have over your own life is so complete that it is very hard not to lose your balance. So think of this section as your checkup in that regard - and chances are, you probably have some work to do to restore that necessary balance to your life.

Let's check in on your diet. Are you eating enough? Are you eating too much? Has your weight dropped or ballooned significantly? Are you eating healthily most days, or does your diet comprise mainly pizza and beer and whatever you pick up at the campus quick-mart? What do you want to do about that this year? Be sure to write down some dietary goals for the coming year.

Your Sophomore Year Financial Goals

Another area of life in which things tend to get a little out of control during freshman year is your finances. Many of us had our first experience holding a credit card - and for many of us, that experience led to overspending, and blowing our budgets.

Chalk it up as an educational experience, but get your spending under control now, before things really get out of hand.

So how did things go for you financially last year? Chances are, you discovered that college is even more expensive than you thought it would be - and that opportunities to spend money are around every turn. How are you going to deal with those discoveries this year? What financial guidelines do you want to set for yourself?

Are you on a budget? Should you be? Have you now realized that you really do need to draw it up so that you'll know what kind of plan you need to stick to?

Your Sophomore Year Spiritual Goals

As we've mentioned before, sophomore year is a time of transition. Once the thrill, excitement, and newness of freshman year have faded, the reality begins to set in that college is a significant undertaking that requires vision, responsibility, and commitment. For many of us who lacked that vision or that commitment, sophomore year became a time of deep introspection and varying levels of concern ranging from mild stress to serious depression.

And for many of us, connecting to some sort of spirituality during these times of transition was very comforting.

Again, spirituality does not necessarily mean religion. For some people, though, connecting to their religion provides the necessary grounding and direction. (It didn't for me.)

Maybe for you, being spiritual means taking a few hours each week to practice yoga or meditation.

Maybe it means taking a long walk in the woods one morning a week to be alone with your thoughts and to reflect.

Now What Do I Do With All Of This?

Really take the time to think about this. Knowing what motivates you to get things done and what specific actions lead you to accomplishment is immensely valuable, because they can be replicated in any number of scenarios. So think about why and how you achieved the goals you did and write down any distinctions you can draw.

You now need a way to manage all those ideas you've recorded and to go through them and cull the ones that are most critical to you - to choose the ones that you think will give you the most bang for your buck, so to speak.

Here's what you're going to do next.

Go back through each list and read what you've written down. Think about each item and see how it resonates with you. Some of the ideas will get you fired up as soon as you think about them. Others, upon reflection, may not seem that important or that exciting after all.

It's all good. That's part of the goal-setting process.

Go through each list and pick the three things from that area that you are absolutely committed to accomplishing during your sophomore year or, if you want to think more long term, during college as a whole. Pick the three things that you feel are most critical to making your experience a success - three that would make you feel great about yourself if you were to accomplish them.

Circle those items in each list.

Feeling really ambitious? Want to pick four or five? That's fine, but don't feel that you have to. You want to keep the number of goals manageable - so that you'll actually follow through and complete them. Three in each category is fine. More in some categories and less in others is fine too, but make sure you have at least one goal in each category to maintain some balance.

Remember: pick the ideas from each list that excite you the most or that, on reflection, seem to make the most sense or to be the most important.

Go ahead and make your choices now.

One More Step...

You should now have chosen somewhere around eighteen goals for your sophomore year or perhaps for college in general.

But you're not done yet.

Setting goals is one thing. Following through on these goals is quite another.

So now, for each one of these goals, we want you to articulate at least one very good reason why it is essential for you to follow up and to achieve that goal during your sophomore year. Make sure your reason compels you - that it lights a fire under you and propels you toward meeting the goal.

A Final Note For Students Interested In Studying Abroad

It may seem very early to be thinking about this, but if you are interested in studying abroad in either your sophomore spring, sophomore summer, or for any part of next year, you need to start planning that experience now. It takes a lot of work and advance planning to get an experience abroad off the ground. If this is something that interests you, then check in with your college or university's travel abroad office to determine the necessary steps.

Congratulations on completing the sophomore year goal-setting workshop!

Additional Resources

Robbins, Anthony. Awaken the Giant Within. New York: Free Press, 1992.

Robbins, Anthony. Personal Power (audio series). Robbins Research International. (www.anthonyrobbins.com)

Robbins, Anthony. RPM Planner Kit (time management system).
(www.anthonyrobbins.com)

Robbins, Anthony. Unlimited Power: The New Science of Personal Achievement.
New York: Free Press, 1997.