Setting Goals for Resilience

Setbacks suck, but they are a part of life, and important part at that. Resilience allows us to keep moving despite the setbacks that might come our way. But resilience doesn’t come out of no where, we need to build skills that help us be resilient in the face of a setback. Goal setting is one of many tools that can be used when we experience a setback, and need to figure out how to move forward.

Before we dive into goal setting, let’s talk a little more about resilience. What even is resilience? How can someone become resilient? Resilience is your ability to bounce back after experiencing a conflict, adversity, or failure. It is how you adapt to the changes that you experience and how you decide to continue on. Resiliency is important, and necessary in our lives. Part of being human is experiencing failure and setbacks. You will likely face challenges in every area of your life at some point or another – at school, at work, and in your personal life. Resiliency is a skill that you will use throughout your entire life to overcome those challenges. That is why it is so important that we work on our resilience. The more we strengthen our resilience, the easier it will be to bounce back when we are faced with adversity.

One of the many ways you can build resilience is through goal setting. Goals give us motivation and direction on how to move forward and what to do next. If goal setting is new to you – don’t worry, we are going to talk about how you can set goals in a simple, and easy way.

An acronym exists to assist in setting quality goals – this is the SMART acronym.

S – Specific

When setting a goal, you need to be as specific as possible. You want to identify a specific behaviour or action that you will do or take. Consider the who, what, where, when, why and how of your goal so that you can really define all aspects of it. Your goal has be focused on you, you cannot set goals for or about someone else.

M – Measurable

You need to be able to measure the progress that you are making with your goal. If you are unable to measure your goal, how will you be able to determine if or when you have achieved this goal?

A – Attainable

The goal that you are setting needs to be achievable. You don’t want to set a goal that is impossible to achieve, otherwise it is going to have the opposite effect!

R – Relevant

When you’re setting a goal, it needs to be relevant to you and your life. Meaning, your goal needs to be something that you either want or need to achieve. If your goal isn’t relevant, it will be less likely to act as a motivator.

T – Time-Bound

You need to have a timeline to complete this goal. While also acknowledging that sometimes the timeline may need to be shifted. Having a timeline to your goal will help you stay motivated and on track.

Goal Setting in Action

You can set goals in any area of your life, and for any reason. You can set goals ‘just because’, or you can set goals after facing a challenge, adversity, or a setback.

For example, let’s say you did poorly on a test or an assignment, and it has brought your grade down in that class. You might be feeling upset, frustrated, or even mad, those are all totally normal and valid reactions to this kind of setback. That doesn’t mean you are doomed though, you can create a SMART goal to recover from this setback and get yourself back on track.

Specific: The goal is to increase your overall grade in the course.

Measurable: Determine what grade you would like to see yourself at by the end of the semester.

Achievable: How can you make this happen? What steps are you going to take to improve your grade? This might include utilizing study services on campus, talking to your instructor about concepts you don’t understand, reviewing the test or assignment you did poorly on with your instructor to understand where you went wrong, dedicating more time to studying or starting assignments earlier.

Relevant: Improving your grade for this course is important for your overall GPA, perhaps a certain GPA might make you eligible for scholarships or bursaries.

Time-Bound: This goal will need to be achieved by the end of the semester.

After considering all of these factors, you are left with your final goal: I will improve my grade from # to # by the end of the semester by starting to study for tests earlier, working on assignments ahead of the deadline, and attending instructor office hours to clarify concepts and questions I have about course materials.

This SMART goal provides you with direction and a clear roadmap to achieve your goal of improving your grade. This method of goal setting can be used in response to a setback, or can be used to achieve something you want to do for yourself, like running a marathon.

What goal will you set for yourself?