Before starting my career in engineering, I struggled a lot to keep motivated with the small tasks in life (for example, keeping my room tidy, going to the gym, completing college work) and felt that everything I tried put me off doing the task more.
Since joining Hotchkiss, I have learnt that setting yourself goals – whether they be big or small – can help with motivation, create passion, and keep you on track of everything that needs to be done!
Goal setting can be something as simple as saying to yourself “I’m going to walk for at least 30 minutes every day this week”, or as big as “I want to buy that new car”. Whatever it be, use it as something that will motivate you day in day out to do better.
One of the best ways to keep track of your goals is by writing these goals in a planner, or keeping a journal – personally, I use a planner, where I write down each of my own goals. Different things work for different people, but for me I enjoy using a planner that has un-dated weeks, months and years so I have full control of how I want to use it! For example, I use the weekly section in my planner to set out my main goals of the week, consisting of going to the gym 3 times a week, hitting all my targets at work, and spending time with friends and family. I also use the monthly section to target my saving goals, and then the yearly to write down all my goals that I want to achieve at the end of the year!
Like New Year’s Resolutions, setting yourself goals is something you can go back and reflect on at the end of the year and see what you have achieved! As mentioned above, this is one of my favourite things to do as I am very much someone who looks to the future. For a while now, each year I have set myself large and small goals in my planner, whilst also creating a ‘mood board’ of things that I think are achievable within the year.
Last year my main focus was to qualify from my apprenticeship, be more social, and to also win “Apprentice of The Year” in my company. Upon reflection of 2021, I have qualified from my apprenticeship, I came second in the Sussex Apprentice of The Year, qualified as an EngTech with CIBSE, and certainly was active socially!
Becoming more social was definitely one of the hardest goals to achieve, but with the use of apps such as “HowAbout” I have been able to create plans with my friends around work, and actually stick to them knowing we were all free! Having down time from work and spending it with friends / loved ones is super important as it is another way of taking a break and regaining focus and passion for your work.
I have of course set new goals for this year, as well as using my mood board as my phone lock screen so I can see everything visually every time I unlock my phone. I have big plans for this year, as I’m sure you do too!
