CollegeInColorado Set Goals, Create a Plan, Achieve Your Dreams Transcript

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1 CollegeInColorado Set Goals, Create a Plan, Achieve Your Dreams Transcript Counselor So, tell me, what s your goal in life? Middle school student Excuse me? Counselor You know; your goal. Do you have any big dreams about what you want to do in the future? Middle school student I guess. Counselor And so, what are those dreams? Middle school student I d like to be an electrician with my own successful business. Maybe even start a franchise. Counselor Sounds great. And so, what s your plan to get there? Middle school student My plan? I don t know. I haven t really thought about it. I thought I d figure it out later. Counselor That s not really an action plan is it? Middle school student No, not really. Counselor Okay, let s sit down and have a quick chat about goal-setting. Middle school student Goal-setting? I just told you about my goal. Counselor Yes, you told me about your long-term goal. I m going to help you set a few goals that can happen more quickly and plan to ensure that you get them done. Middle school student Why do I need short-term goals? I can t do anything until I m older anyway. Counselor Not so. Short-term goals provide you with opportunities to evaluate your current actions and decide whether you re doing the right things to move yourself closer towards achieving your long-term goal. Middle school student I guess. But what should I be doing now? I just need to stay in school and then do an apprenticeship or something and then I can get started. Counselor Well, you mentioned that you would also like to run your own business. Maybe even a franchise someday? Middle school student Yeah, so?

2 Counselor So, in addition to your apprenticeship you may also want to consider getting further education in how to run a business at some point. Middle school student Looks like my plan just grew. Counselor I think it did. Let s take a look at what you can start doing in the short-term to ensure that you re taking the right steps to help you achieve your long-term goals. If you look here in your portfolio beneath Your Profile you ll find a section called Looking Ahead. This is where you re going to start recording your goals. Middle school student Okay. Counselor Now, beneath Ultimate Goals, or Life Goals, we re going to record this first goal of yours to become a prosperous electrician. Middle school student Okay, so I ll write I want to be an electrician, with my own franchise. Is that good? Counselor Great. How many businesses do you want in your franchise? Middle school student I d be happy with just three. I don t want it to get too crazy on me. Counselor Perfect, so include that in your goal and then select career from the pull-down menu. Later on, you should record two more goals. They can be in any area; education, family and friends, personal growth; you choose. But remember, your goals should always be believable, meaningful, achievable and realistic. You should be able to really visualize yourself and see yourself making the right steps to get there. Middle school student Got it. Counselor Now, I d like you to describe the benefits you gain by reaching your ultimate goal. Middle school student Like success, happiness, a feeling of accomplishment or prestige, or whatever? Counselor Yeah, those are all great benefits. Now, what will you need in order to meet those life goals? Middle school student I don t know an apprenticeship and some business training, I guess. Counselor Good! But maybe try being a little more specific. What do you need in order to obtain that apprenticeship? What kind of formal business training will you need? Middle school student Okay, I gotcha. I guess I ll need some connections in the industry so I can get an apprenticeship. And I ll probably also want a degree in business management. Counselor Great! Now, working backwards let s move on to your long-term goals. These are the goals that you ll want to achieve within the next 5-10 years. Let s go through those same steps again but this time breaking things down a little further.

3 Middle school student Okay, I think I want to do my apprenticeship first so I can at least start earning some money and get some experience while I work towards my business degree. Counselor Now you re thinking!! Middle school student So, in five years, I want to be working on my electrical certification and apprenticeship. And in 10 years, I d like to have done both my apprenticeship and business program and have my own successful franchise. Counselor Okay, well, let s hang on there a second. Now, you definitely want to set goals out of your immediate grasp, but not so high that there s no hope in achieving them. Middle school student What are you saying? Counselor Maybe it s more realistic to say that in 10 years you d like to be starting your own business. You should probably give yourself a little breathing room before graduating from college and immediately starting a franchise. Middle school student Oh, I see. Yeah, okay let s say that. Counselor Now what about the benefits you ll gain and what do you need to achieve those goals? Middle school student Well, the benefits will be that I ll have the proper training and experience to achieve my long-term goals. And in order to get the proper training I should start making some industry connections so maybe I can do that through job-shadowing or something. I should also research school that offer electrician programs. Counselor Great, now do your intermediate goals. The next 2-5 years. Middle school student Well, I want to graduate high school and start my electrician training and apprenticeship. The benefit is that I ll be on my way to getting the education that I need to achieve my long-term goals. But in the meantime, I should probably focus on my studies and ensure that I m taking the right classes now in high school to meet the graduation requirements and prepare for what I want to do after high school. Counselor You re catching on! One more. Short-term goals. These are goals that you want to achieve within the next year. Middle school student Short-term goals okay, I guess I want to make sure that I m taking the right high school courses and I also want to pass all my classes this semester. The benefit is that I ll be prepared for my certificate program and my business degree, I ll graduate on time, and my parents will be happy to see that I earned good grades. So, in order to do that I should probably figure out what classes I should be taking now if I want to be an electrician as well as work hard to bring up my grade in math class. Counselor Okay, so now that you ve outlined all your goals, let s start putting those goals into action.

4 Middle school student Great! So, what do I do? Counselor Well, first of all, select one of your short-term goals from the pull-down menu. Now, create a timeframe so you have a deadline for achieving this goal. Middle school student Well, in a couple month, we ll have to start making our course selections for next year so I should probably look into what classes I need to take sometime soon. Counselor Okay, so enter the date you ll need to submit next year s course selection. That will be your deadline. Middle school student Sure. Sounds good. Counselor Now, how does this goal support all your other goals? Middle school student Well, it helps me to make sure that I m track with the right education so that I can be a successful electrician. Counselor And what steps will you need to take to achieve this goal? Middle school student I don t know. Counselor How about using CollegeInColorado.org s career search tools to look up the electrician career profile to see the career cluster and pathway it is in. Then, what will you do? Middle school student I guess I will use the pathway to create my high school plan of study, right? Counselor Yes. And? Middle school student And then, when I select my classes for next year, I ll be sure to choose the ones I have in my plan of study. Counselor Excellent. Now, what will be your achievement markers, or milestones, to help ensure that you re staying on track? Middle school student Well, for one, I should probably research the proper pathway for electricians by the end of this month. Then I ll create my plan of study and submit my selection by the end of next month. How s that? Counselor That s great! While you re researching your future career and plan of study, I want to point out that there will be a few other planning tools you ll probably want to take advantage of along the way. For instance: the Career Plan Builder, the School Finder, financial aid tools and more. These will all play a part in helping you stay on the right track as you start making the connection between your desired career and the programs that are available to schools that offer those programs. Actually, if you check out the ICAP guideways in your portfolio, you ll see that they will take you step by step through the CollegeInColorado.org site so that every year

5 you can be sure that you re not only meeting your personal goals but that you re also meeting specific education and career planning milestones set for you by the State of Colorado. Middle school student What s an ICAP? Counselor ICAP stands for individual career and academic plan Middle school student Oh, I get it! Now I see there really is a point to all this planning I do in high school now. It will actually help me with my career and my schooling, wherever I end up. Counselor Yes, you re right on! So, to finish up, whenever you achieve one of your short-term goals, you can go ahead and mark it as complete right at the bottom of your plan of action and make comments on its results. Middle school student This is awesome. I never realized that I could start making progress right now towards my ultimate goals. Counselor Well, now you know.