Goal Setting - 3 Perspectives To A Students Approach

In today's world, there are a lot of pressures that students have to face. Some pressures come from parents while some come from peers. However, on further analysis, it is easy to conclude that the students themselves are responsible for most of their pressures. These kind of internal pressures work well for certain students, while it has a negative effect on others. A student's behavior and approach towards goal setting can help determine how the student handles these different pressures.

One cannot generalize a student's behavioral approach towards goal setting. This is due to the varying personalities of each student. For the same reason, children get different grades. A general view on student behavior in setting goals can be arrived at depending on the type of students being observed. However, one should never forget that no student could fall into any one type of classification. A lot of students today do not like stereotyping and hence try to avoid being classified.

1) The Achiever- Here the student's approach towards goal setting is rather extreme. This is due to the fact that the student does not consider the option of failure and such an event should not occur in his or her existence. Very often the student sets goals that seem next to impossible to others. Most of the time these goals are achieved. At other times, the student almost achieves it, but for such a student 'almost' is never enough.
There are many advantages as well as disadvantages of having such an attitude. Although it pushes to student to improve performance each time, when met with failure, the student might not be able to take it. Failure can lead to problems of low self-esteem in the student.

2) The slacker- There are a few students who consider life as one big holiday. Such students have a slightly vague approach towards goal setting, making it seem as if, perhaps, they do not have any goals to set at all. However, everybody has some goal that they set. Even a slacker will have something in mind as he or she goes about his or her daily activities.
One observable fact about such students is that they set goals that are more short term than long term. This implies that the student is living life one day at a time. Certain students find this kind of approach more productive as it lets them focus on what is at hand and they look move towards and achieve immediate goals.
Usually such students do not focus their attention on academics and their goals are usually not in relation to academics. A lot of people cannot understand the kind of goals that such students set. It is, however, wrong to come to any hasty judgment about them, as many of these students have turned out to be some of the most successful people the world has seen.

3) The Average- The above two classifications were the two extremes of student approach towards goal setting. Between these two extremes is the middle ground. Today, majority of the students fall under this category called the 'average.'
These kinds of students focus their goals more on graduation than achievement. Such students find school an establishment that must be tolerated. Their goals are aimed at passing subjects rather than acing at them. Such an approach is ambiguous, as it neither leads to success nor to failure. There are, however, many people who do not find this appealing, as there is no apparent fun in it.