Will You Succeed or Fail to Reach Your English Goals?
What are your intentions for the new year? Are you making resolutions? Are you creating New Year’s goals and plans?
How do you plan to improve your English this year?
Maybe last year was really hard for you, so you decided that you’re not even going to try this year…
Which one are you?
A New Start to the New Year
The new year is a new start! People love to make plans for each new year! New Year’s Resolutions are often about becoming healthier, eating better, doing more exercise, or reaching some wonderful goal.
However, the problem is that so many people fail to reach their resolutions because they have stopped trying by February! Have you ever made a resolution, but quit trying in a short time?
Mr. Jerry, this year I'm going to . . .
- get an 8.0 IELTS band score or higher,
- enter the best university in America,
- start a master’s program in English without extra English tutoring,
- get the highest English score in class,
- speak English just like a native speaker.
These are some of the resolutions I have heard from English students.
Although there is nothing wrong with making new year’s resolutions, let’s be smart about them!
5 Keys to Reaching Your 2022 Goals
- Set SMART goals
- Specific – “Compete in a 5K race this summer” is more specific than “Get healthy.”
- Measurable – Pick a number.
- Attainable or Achievable – The goal should be challenging, but POSSIBLE.
- Relevant – Relate your goal to your daily life.
- Time-bound – Set a deadline, or time limit.
- Be consistent – Try to become 1% better every day!
- Reverse engineer your plans – After you set your big goal, break it into smaller goals for each month, week, and day.
- Get an accountability partner – Ask a friend to commit to working on this goal together with you. This is a very powerful way to stay consistent.
- Celebrate your wins
The research on effective goal setting is plentiful. You can find my first introduction to SMART goals from this post last year. Some leaders have adapted the SMART goal system into a SMARTER goal system. I found this video to be a good explanation for setting SMARTER goals.
Know Your Reason Why
Why do you want to reach a higher score on IELTS? Why do you want to speak English better? Do you have a reason? What is it?
Tell me your goal with a comment below! 😁
If you don’t know why you are working hard to get better, you probably won’t reach your goals. People who know the reason for what they are trying to achieve are more successful.
Is It Worth It?
Reaching your goals has many advantages! 
- make more international English-speaking friends
- get acceptance into great universities
- get a higher English score and make your parents proud
- get more international career opportunities in the future
- become a more confident person
None of this is possible if you don’t set any goals. Instead of making excuses, set your goals. You are worth it! What will you do this year?