What Are Your Goals?

      Now that I had received most of the information about the process to become a physician, my mentor Nick Cozzi and I dove in a little deeper to talk about setting goals. Nick explained to me that setting goals is an extremely important aspect of medical school, and that it helps the candidates to understand exactly what they should know by a certain point in time.
     Goal-setting techniques are not just used in medical school, however. Goal-setting is something that is used almost everywhere. Individuals have their personal goals, whether they were goals that were set consciously or not. Setting goals is one of the most important strategies to keep a person motivated toward achieving success. They keep our mind focused on the outcome that we strive to obtain and make us brainstorm on how we can obtain it.
     Nick and I agreed that it would be helpful to me if I set a few goals for myself in order to become familiar with the process. They could be any kind of goals: personal goals, academic goals, future goals, etc. Nick said that when I come up with these goals, I will present them to him, and he will assist me in any way possible with fully achieving them. I came up with a few goals, which I will gladly share:

1. To work toward raising my GPA in order to be invited to the National Honors Society next year.
2. To listen more, and talk less.
3. To research and visit colleges in order to get a better idea of where I am interested in going, and how hard I need to work to get there.
4. To get involved in the community more through volunteering and service.
5. To "shadow" a physician, observing an average day on the job.
   
    Now that I have set these goals, I am extremely motivated to work hard so that I may achieve them. I created each of these goals in order to better myself and improve my work ethic. I highly encourage my peers to consider creating a few goals like I did, and following them through until they are achieved.