Tag Archive for: goal setting strategies

Career Success: The Power of Asking the Right Questions

In a world full of endless possibilities, it’s completely normal to feel unsure about what you want to do with your life. In this video, Brent Williams, the founder of Empower U, shares valuable insight on how to navigate these uncertainties by asking yourself the right questions. Let’s dive into Brent’s advice on how to identify your passions and turn them into a fulfilling career.

Discovering What You Want

The journey to finding your passion starts with a simple question: What do I want? Brent suggests sitting down with a pen and paper and jotting down everything you love, no matter how small or insignificant it might seem. Whether it’s picking flowers, walking dogs, or playing video games, acknowledging these interests is the first step towards discovering potential career paths.

Turning Passions into Profits

Once you’ve identified what you love, the next step is exploring how you can make money from it. In today’s digital age, the possibilities are endless. A quick search on Google can reveal numerous ways to monetise your passions. However, Brent emphasises that motivation should extend beyond just making money. True fulfilment comes from engaging in activities that genuinely interest you.

Understanding Your ‘Why’

Knowing why you want to pursue a particular path is crucial. Your motivation should align with your values and interests, not just the desire for financial gain. Brent shares that it’s not about how much you earn, but what you do with it. He illustrates this point with examples of individuals who have achieved financial success on modest incomes through smart decisions and strategic planning.

Setting Goals and Timelines

Determining when you want to achieve your goals adds a sense of urgency and direction. Brent encourages setting realistic timelines and being prepared to commit to the journey, acknowledging that some goals take time to accomplish.

Watch Now: Setting SMART Goals: A Practical Guide for Teens

Becoming Who You Need to Be

Achieving your dreams may require you to evolve. Brent discusses the importance of attitude, skills, and knowledge (ASK) in this process. The person you are today has brought you this far, but reaching new heights might require developing new skills, adopting a different attitude, or acquiring additional knowledge.

Taking Action

What steps do you need to take to reach your goal? Brent challenges you to consider whether you need further education, unique experiences, or specific knowledge to achieve your ambitions. This step is about making a concrete plan and following through.

Committing to Your Path

Finally, commitment is key. If you can answer ‘yes’ to being able to commit to the necessary steps, then you may have found a career worth pursuing. If not, it’s okay to reevaluate and explore other options.

Asking the right questions can illuminate the path to a career that not only fulfils you but also aligns with your passions and values. The journey of self-discovery is ongoing, and with each step, you come closer to realising your potential.

Ready to delve deeper into personal development and set yourself up for success? Download our free Empower U program guide to learn more about our seminars. Empower U is dedicated to helping teens and young adults like you navigate the complexities of finding your path. Download the guide now and take the first step towards a brighter future.

Setting SMART Goals: A Practical Guide for Teens with Brent Williams

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Setting goals is a fundamental step towards achieving success in any aspect of life. For teens and young adults, mastering this skill early on can pave the way to a fulfilling and purposeful life. At Empower U, we emphasise the importance of setting SMART goals – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-oriented. Let’s explore how you can apply this effective strategy to transform your aspirations into reality.

1. The SMART Framework Explained

SMART goals are a proven method to ensure your goals are clear and reachable. Each element of the SMART framework works together to create a goal that is carefully planned, trackable, and attainable.

  • Specific: Your goal should be clear and specific to provide you with the direction needed to succeed.
  • Measurable: Include precise amounts or dates to measure your progress.
  • Attainable: Your goal should be realistic and achievable to be successful.
  • Realistic: Ensure that your goal is within reach and relevant to your life.
  • Time-oriented: Every goal needs a deadline to focus on and something to work toward.

2. Applying SMART Goals: A Real-World Example

Let’s take a common goal like “I want to get better marks at school” and apply the SMART framework. Consider a student, John Jones, who wants to improve in Maths, English, and Science.

  • Specific: John aims to increase his grades in these three subjects.
  • Measurable: He targets moving from an average of 60% to 80% in all subjects.
  • Attainable: John plans to study five days a week.
  • Realistic: The goal of a 20% increase is challenging yet achievable.
  • Time-oriented: He sets a three-month period to achieve this goal.

3. Monitoring Progress: The Key to Success

To ensure John is on track, he can measure his progress with regular practice tests every two weeks. This allows him to adjust his study strategies if he’s not meeting his incremental targets of a 4% increase per test.

4. Strategy and Flexibility

It’s important to remember that the strategy may need to adapt. If John is not meeting his incremental goals, he might need to study more effectively or seek additional help. The SMART framework isn’t just about setting goals; it’s also about being flexible and adapting your approach as needed.

5. The Role of Empower U in Goal Setting

At Empower U, we go beyond just setting goals. We delve deeper into developing healthy habits and designing the life you dream of. Our workshops provide the tools and guidance necessary for young people to set and achieve their SMART goals, preparing them for success in all areas of their life.

Crafting Your Future with SMART Goals

SMART goals are more than just a formula; they are a blueprint for turning your dreams into achievable plans. By breaking down your big-picture aspirations into specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-oriented steps, you set yourself up for success.

Join an Empower U Workshop Near You

Ready to transform your goals into achievements? Join one of our upcoming Empower U workshops for teens and young adults across Australia. Learn more about goal setting, developing healthy habits, and designing your dream life. Enrol today and take the first step towards crafting your future.

The Importance of Setting SMART goals

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The Importance of Setting SMART Goals - Empower UEmpower U

At Empower U, we teach participants the process and benefits of setting SMART goals. Setting goals is a recipe for fulfilling many ambitions you want to undertake in your lifetime. 

S.M.A.R.T Goals – How do you do it?

SMART goals is an acronym, providing you with a well established template to set your dreams as realistic objectives. SMART goals should be:

  • (S)pecific – You need to be specific with what you desire so you can become as connected as possible with the outcome. This should establish exactly what you want we want to achieve this goal. 
  • (M)easurable – How can you break down the goal so you can easily measure your progress towards success?
  • (A)attainable – What action steps do you need to take to make this goal a reality?
  • (R)ealistic – Make sure the goal is realistically achievable based on where you are now and the time frame you have given yourself. 
  • (T)ime Orientated – what is a realistic timeframe within which you would like to achieve your ambition? This means you have a deadline to work towards, which creates urgency which drives action. 

Here are some reasons on why it’s so important to learn how to set SMART goals for optimum success. 

S.M.A.R.T Goals Clarify your End Vision

When you set SMART goals, it’s an acceptance that this goal is important to you and you are going to achieve it. You’ve envisioned where you would like to end up. It’s time to start taking action and persist until you succeed. The process of creating the SMART goal makes you think about your ambition in more depth. The more thought into the goal setting process you have, the higher the chances of you seeing the goal through. 

S.M.A.R.T Goals Increase Focus

To focus means to remove your attention from what is unnecessary and instead divert this energy into what is needed. Having goals helps us find what is true to us and what we actually want to achieve in our lifetime. The process of setting SMART goals breaks down how we will get there and what it’s going to take. Having goals improves our long term focus too, as when we create a plan of action, it’s easier to break down the short term steps to reach our objective. 

S.M.A.R.T Goals Dramatically Increases Perseverance 

Having a mapped path for success is a great way to see how far you have come and how much longer you have to go. Having this awareness increases motivation to persevere, as if you know how far away you are from reaching your goal, you’re more likely to keep pushing. If you knew success was right around the corner, would that motivate you? So give yourself that opportunity to successfully achieve your goals.

S.M.A.R.T Goals Introduce Self Discipline

Self discipline is the ability to control your feelings and overcome your weaknesses. The development of genuine self discipline is a journey you will undertake throughout your lifetime, but the best time to focus on developing your self discipline is now. When you set your SMART goals, you have the opportunity to identify your strengths and weaknesses. For example, if your goal is to increase your results at the gym; your strength may be that it’s easy for you to wake up early in the morning to go to the gym. But, your weakness may be that you find it hard to eat lots of fruit and veggies. Keep this in mind when creating your plan of action and be wary of what are your weaknesses are so you can develop your self discipline. 

S.M.A.R.T Goals =  Less Stress, More Success

There’s nothing worse than the feeling of thinking you could have done more. If you have times where you’re blindly chasing an ambition without a plan – it’s no wonder your goals remain unachieved. When you set a SMART goal, you are setting them for no one but yourself. It’s easier to work smarter instead of harder when you have a strategy. This makes your life a whole lot more successful, with a lot less stress. When you want to pursue a goal, setting SMART goals will provide you with the best chance for optimum success. 

Here’s a short clip of Brent about setting SMART goals from a recent Empower U program:

Interested to know more about Empower U? Download our FREE Program Guide to get started today.

Goal Setting: What Do You Want & Why Do Your Want It?

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Goal Setting: What you need to know to get ahead in life - Empower UEmpower U

Life is like a game of soccer; you’re going to get bored very quickly if you don’t have any goals. Goals are simply outcomes that you plan to achieve. Most people never set definite goals for themselves, usually because they want to avoid the disappointment they might feel if they didn’t achieve them. The irony in this situation is, of course, that without goal setting, you are much less likely to achieve them.

A study was conducted amongst graduates of Harvard University. At the 5-year reunion each graduate was asked if they had goals. Many had an idea of what goals were and some even had approximate goals in their head. 3% of the graduates however had clearly defined, written goals.

20 years later (at the 25 year reunion), the graduates were again surveyed. The 3% who had clearly defined written goals were worth more in financial terms than the other 97% combined.

What Do You Want And Why Do You Want It?

Think about the goals you are going to set. Now imagine your six months down the track, after setting these goals.

  • How are you going with them?
  • Have you been doing something everyday that brings you closer to your goal?
  • Has it been easier or harder than you thought it would be?

The biggest challenge people face when setting goals is following through – Once you develop the habit of regularly monitoring your progress towards your goals, achieving them becomes a very manageable task. Achieving a major goal is like eating a huge meal. You have to do it a small bite at a time.

A major reason people don’t achieve their goals is that they don’t really want to. Some people become convinced that they want to own a fast sports car or earn a million dollars, when all they really want is to have people like and admire them. They think that having the car and money will make this happen. This type of goal usually feeds one or more of the six human needs.

A person who sets a goal like this will rarely achieve it, they won’t have the personal drive or passion they need because they are not working towards something that they really want. The other major reason many people don’t follow through on their goals is that at some level they believe that it will be too hard. They decide that achieving it would cause too much pain.

Remember everything we do is either out of our need to avoid pain or our desire to gain pleasure, so make sure the long-term pleasure of achieving your goals outweighs any short-term pain.

Some Helpful Questions to Ask When Setting a Goal:

• What do you want?
• What specifically do you want?
• Why do you want that?
• What specifically will it give you?
• How will you know when you have achieved it?
• How will you FEEL when that happens?

Want to learn more about goal setting and the Empower U program? Download the latest Empower U Program Guide!