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Personal Goals Essay The purpose of this publication is to document my personal goals that I want to achieve while attending the University of Phoenix. I have been thinking about going back to school for some time now and I finally made the decision to attend this online institution because of a previous personal goal that I had set. The goal that started this whole thing for me was my goal to get a Bachelor Degree. I had previously attended Northwest Technical College of Wadena, MN. I earned a 2-year diploma in Telecommunications Engineering. This diploma is short of an AAS degree by a few General courses. Having this shortage of credits was a shortcoming that I did not want to accept, so I made an executive decision 2 years ago to complete my degree. Some of the decisions that I had to make to get started at the University of Phoenix were not difficult ones to make but I procrastinated for a long time. I interviewed at a college prior to the University of Phoenix, but the college was out of my budget. After my interview, I received a phone call from an entrance counselor from the University of Phoenix. Their presentations ultimately help me make my decision to attend. The decision to attend the school was made, now the time has come to set my goals and get going on this adventure. The first goal I made was to get all the financial decisions out of the way. They were very easy to figure out. I get eight thousand dollars a year in tuition assistance from my employer. I was set, now I only needed to pick the course that pertained to my original goal of finishing my degree. I chose to take the bachelor of information technology course. When I decided this I knew that I had to set a range of goals and expectations for myself to follow. Short-Term Goals Once started with school I made goals to become a student who I have not been before. I set a goal to study every weekday. I also chose to study for a few hours every weekend. Studying often will help me gain interest in what I am trying to accomplish. Studying often will also help me develop good habits. Another goal I made for myself is to not let my current bad habits get in the way of me completing my assignments. If I can accomplish simple things  like this, I will be able to develop my skill sets. Short-term goals are exactly what they state, short-term. They are subject to review on a daily basis to make sure they are being followed. I also believe they are easy to set and adjust, because they are more visible and the results from following them show up right away. Long-term Goals Long-range goals for me are more difficult for me to set but I do have a few. My most realistic and specific long-term goal that I recently made since I have become an adult student is: To become a lifelong learner. I just realized that this is something that I need to remind myself of often to keep my focus on homework. Another long-term goal that I set for myself is to use my time wisely. When I set this goal for myself I struggled with the notion that I need to dedicate more time to reading. I have never before set goal like this for myself, because it seemed unattainable. But as I stated before, I must do this in order to attain the education that I want. When it comes to changing long-term goals, I use caution, because it can throw me off track if I fail to keep track of previous long-term goals. This can result in going in circles, which I have done before. Conclusion Understanding of short and long-term goals will help me become a better person. I set specific short-term goals that will help me in my areas that need immediate attention. Studying often is the key to success in all aspects of lifelong learning. This is what I have realized since I first started school. Managing my time wisely the hardest goal for me to set will have tremendous impact on how I carry myself in everyday life. My other goal of reading more will also help me develop the patience and skills to retain information that I need to learn in order to move forward in my career and education. The ultimate purpose of setting goals is to follow them. This process makes for the greatest sense of accomplishment and happiness in life.