Goal Planning
A clear goal is helpful to guide you through the robots season.
SMART Goals
SMART is an acronym to help make sure your goals are clear and reachable, each one should be:
- Specific (simple, sensible, significant).
- Measurable (meaningful, motivating).
- Achievable (agreed, attainable).
- Relevant (reasonable, realistic and resourced, results-based).
- Time bound (time-based, time limited, time/cost limited, timely, time-sensitive).
Example Goal Statements
"I want to be a winner!" is not Specific, but "I want to win a vex robotics tournament." is.
"I want to do well" in competition is not measurable, but "I want to make top 50 in the world rankings." is measurable.
"I want to win a million dollars at a VEX tournament." may not be achievable, but "I want to win the Excellence Award." is.
"I want to make the basketball team this year." is a good goal, but likely not relevant to robotics, keep it to something relevant.
"I want to design my robot in CAD." is a good goal, but putting a time bound on it makes it better like "I want to design my robot in CAD by December 2021.".
Reflect Before You Begin
Start by taking a look at where you are now. What have you accomplished in Robotics so far. What has been difficult for you. Make a list of what you are good at. Make a list of things that are hard or new to you. Include at least 3 items on each side of your list.
Exercise / Assignment
Develop a personal goal, a team goal and discuss them.
Personal Goal - write one sentence that is a concise statement of your personal goal for this season.
Team Goal - consider what you want your team to accomplish. Write one sentence that is a concise statement of your team goal for this season.
Discuss these goals, clarify how they are SMART and how you arrived at them.
Document these goals on your profile page.