Chapter 1. Your Personal Success Plan 3

Your Personal Success Plan Introduction

Welcome to Your Personal Success Plan

Instructions

Introduction

Now that you’re exploring how to set and achieve goals using the skills covered in Connections, put your learning into action with the PSP. This tool guides you through the five steps of the goal-setting process. You can use it to establish SMART goals, build action plans, evaluate your outcomes, and revise your plans as needed as you go through this course. You can also use the PSP to set and achieve goals in other courses, on the job, or in your personal life.

The PSP’s major sections are similar to the five goal-setting steps you learned in Chapter 1, Building a Foundation for Success:

1. Identify a Goal
2. Make Your Goal SMART
3. Create an Action Plan
4. List Barriers and Solutions
5. Connect to Career

An additional section—Act and Evaluate Outcomes, the final step of goal-setting—helps you evaluate the progress you’ve made on the goals that you’ve set. This step can be completed in the ACES Capstone Activity: Compare and Contrast in LaunchPad.

As you start using the PSP, you become an expert in thinking ahead and establishing solid plans for success. In short, you’ll discover that you’re in the driver’s seat when it comes to defining and meeting your goals—and you’ll gain practice taking personal responsibility for your own learning.

Create Your Personal Success Plan

Create Your Personal Success Plan

To create your Personal Success Plan, the prompts in the following slides will take you through the five steps. For more information on each step, see below:

1. Identify a Goal. What goal do you want to achieve in the short-term? Try reflecting on your strengths and weaknesses and reviewing your ACES results. Is there a strength (high score) you want to develop further or a low score suggesting an area in which you could improve? Is there a goal you’re interested in pursuing that relates in some way to the content of this chapter?
2. Make Your Goal SMART. Rewrite your short-term goal so that it meets the SMART criteria. You can always revise your goal later, so don’t worry about making it perfect.
3. Create an Action Plan. List steps you’ll need to take to achieve this goal, and arrange them in the order that makes the most sense to you. Give each step a deadline.
4. List Barriers and Solutions. Identify possible barriers to your action steps, and brainstorm solutions for overcoming each barrier. If these barriers occur, you’ll be ready.
5. Connect to Career. List the skills you’ll develop as you progress toward your goal. Then identify how those skills will help you succeed on the job.

At the end of the semester, you’ll complete the last step of the Personal Success Plan: Act and evaluate outcomes. Go to the ACES Capstone Activity: Compare and Contrast in LaunchPad to complete this activity.

The number of goals you set throughout this semester may depend on your instructor, but we have included this PSP template that you can use for each chapter in Connections. You can also download and print the PSP template to fill them out by hand or to create additional PSPs. As you progress through this course, you’ll have the opportunity to set and achieve a number of goals, and you’ll be well on your way to academic and career success!

Step 1: Identify a Goal

Step 1: Identify a Goal

What is your general goal?

Your goal should be a general accomplishment you would like to achieve. Sample goals include Develop a growth mindset, create a study schedule, and take advantage of the support resources on campus.

Step 2: Make Your Goal SMART

Step 2: Make Your Goal SMART

What is your SMART goal?

Your SMART goal should relate to the general goal you chose in Step 1. For information on how to create a SMART goal, see “Goals: Keys to Success” in Chapter 1: Building a Foundation for Success. Examples include: I’ll study for my first-year seminar at least one hour each weekday and I’ll visit the career center by the end of September.

Step 3: Create an Action Plan

Step 3: Create an Action Plan

What is your action plan?

Your action plan should list the steps you’ll take to accomplish a goal, the order in which you’ll take them, and the deadlines for each step of the plan. See below for an example of an action plan for the goal Create a study schedule:

1. I’ll discuss apartment quiet time with my roommate (by Friday).
2. I’ll enter study times into my schedule (by Sunday).
3. I’ll make a log to record how much I study (by Sunday night).
4. I’ll begin studying according to my schedule (by Monday).

Step 4: List Barriers and Solutions

Step 4: List Barriers and Solutions

What are the barriers and solutions to your action steps?

Identify possible barriers to your action steps, and brainstorm solutions for overcoming each barrier. See an example below for the goal of Create a study schedule:

1. If my roommate has a conflicting schedule, I’ll find a place to study in the library.
2. If I miss a scheduled study session, I’ll find a makeup time.
3. If family and friends want to get together during study time, I’ll find a different time for us to meet.

Step 5: Connect to Career

Step 5: Connect to Career

How can this goal help you prepare for success in your chosen career or the career you’re considering?

List the skills you’ll develop as you progress toward your goal. Then identify how those skills will help you succeed on the job. See an example below for the goal create a study schedule:

1. I’m learning to manage my time, which will help me meet deadlines on the job.
2. I’m setting priorities, and I can use this skill to focus on the most important tasks at work.
3. I’ve mastered my new smartphone app, which I can use to schedule appointments during the workday.

Step 6: Act and Evaluate Outcomes

Step 6: Act and Evaluate Outcomes

Congratulations! You have just created your Personal Success Plan. This is a great first step in setting and accomplishing your goals!

It’s now up to you to put your plan into action and work to accomplish your goal. Track your progress throughout the semester by recording the completion of each action step, any problems you encounter, and ways that you overcome these barriers.

Then, at the end of the semester, you’ll complete the last step of the Personal Success Plan: Act and evaluate outcomes. You can complete this step of the PSP in the ACES Capstone Activity: Compare and Contrast, also in LaunchPad.

Remember, you can complete the PSP as many times as you need throughout the semester, and you can also go back to the PSPs you’ve created to review them later. By the end of the term, you’ll have set and achieved a number of goals, and you’ll be well on your way to academic and career success!