A Teacher's Guide to Setting Personal Development Goals

A Teacher's Guide to Setting Personal Development Goals

It's no secret -- the top performing teachers in the nation do something that "average teachers" don't. They perform in such a way that after a student leaves their class, their life is forever impacted for the better. These are the teachers who truly make a difference and love what they do.

Perhaps the single biggest characteristic that separates the best teachers from all the rest is this -- the top performing teachers have all set compelling goals for themselves. In this article, I will show you one of the best processes for improving yourself in the classroom, as well as improving the quality of your life.

First, goal setting starts with brainstorming. For maximum effectiveness, brainstorming must be done in a very specific way. It goes like this. First, grab a pen and a couple sheets of paper. You're going to write as many answers as you can to this one question. Here it is:

"What would I dare to dream about accomplishing in my teaching career, if I knew I couldn't fail?"

Start writing done every answer you can think of to this question. Understand how important this question is -- it takes away the limiting beliefs most teachers place on themselves, when they think about what they'd like to get out of their profession. You have now lifted that limitation, so you are free to brainstorm so you can hone in on exactly what you'd like to get out of teaching.

Right down answers for at least five minutes. Don't worry if you don't know how you'd accomplish any of your answers. The goal of this brainstorming exercise is clarity, to find out what goal is most compelling and exciting for you.

After you're done, it's time to go back through your list. I want you to mark each answer with a number -- 1,3,5, 10 or 20. Put a 1 next to the goals that'd you like to achieve in one year, a 3 next to the goals you'd like to achieve within the next three years and so on. This will help you prioritize which goals are most urgent.

When you're done labeling each answer, go back and single out the goals with a 1 next to them. This is your list of goals that are most compelling to you to achieve in your near future. Now it's simple -- find the 1 year goal that is most compelling to you to achieve, and that you'd be absolutely dedicated to accomplishing within the next year.

Now we're almost done. The last step is to take a few minutes and think of reasons why you absolutely must accomplish this goal in one year. Write down a paragraph or two explaining why you will do whatever it takes to make this goal a reality.

What I have given you is one of the best ways to set your teaching career goals, so you can get more out of your career and life, and make a difference in other people's lives!