With the new year has come new classes, new schedules, and, for many, New Year’s resolutions to achieve. Creating and achieving goals can be incredibly challenging for some, especially without an idea of the techniques that can help you succeed. Chimes had the opportunity to speak to the Women in STEM Club about their New Year’s event and received input from Student Success about advice for setting and achieving your goals.
“Set It. Punch It. Do It.”
On Wednesday, Jan. 28, the Women in STEM club hosted a New Year’s event called “Set It. Punch It. Do It.” The event featured punch cards — index cards that can be punched out when the goal is accomplished — and bingo cards that attendees could create to provide a physical barometer to help keep track of their goals.
Sydney Stewart, a junior biochemistry major and the vice president of the Women in STEM club, said that the idea for the event came when she saw punch cards being used to track goals on TikTok. “Everyone needs a little bit of encouragement and empowerment, and I thought this would be a great way to start off the new year,” she said. “A lot of us sometimes have goals that are big, and they need to be celebrated. I think women in STEM, in particular, don’t always celebrate those moments.”
New Year’s resolutions: Setting goals and making progress
Kyle Heys, director of Student Success, spoke with Chimes about setting and accomplishing New Year’s resolutions. “I think that the new year is a great time to reflect on what’s gone well, and it’s one of those markers that can help you think about, hey, what do I want to do moving forward? … What changes do I want to make to become the human I want to be?” he said. “The downside is when students don’t necessarily understand how change happens or, I think, bite off more than they can chew in terms of the change that they want to carry out.”
When deciding what resolutions to make, Heys advised that students work on incorporating fun, playful goals. “What does it look like to try to win the New Yorker caption contest? What does it look like to try to draw one thing a day? What does it look like to try to find the most random podcast and listen to one a week? Just to spur your experience of life. Not everything has to be progress towards a job. Some of life is just learning about having joy in the novel and playful,” he said.
Julia Renneker, a sophomore biology major who serves as the publicity coordinator for the Women in STEM Club, said that she finds it helpful to give herself “what I like to call easy win goals, … something like drink water with a meal, something that you can check off that keeps you motivated.” She also emphasized giving yourself external incentives to help achieve your goals. “With my goal, I gave myself a little prize, like I’ll get myself a little coffee if I finish all of them,” she said.
Heys echoed this sentiment, saying that students should “start small. We’re creatures of habit, so changes are hard. The more specific and measurable you can make that change with a plan to carry it out, the more likely it’s going to happen.” He also emphasized building in “relatively short-term rewards. Maybe that is a bite-sized Snickers bar after you go for that run. Maybe it is a quick call to a friend after you study for an hour in the library. Depending on what the change is, think of something that is small and pleasurable that just kind of reinforces that you’re on the right track.”
Grace Langeland, a junior biology major and the president of the Women in STEM club, noted how helpful it can be to have a physical list for your goals. “Especially as women in STEM, I think that a lot of people in these fields tend to like to make lists and to feel very productive and get to check things off, so it’s a really great reminder of the progress you’ve been able to make throughout the year and what your ambitions are so you don’t lose sight of your goals,” she said.
Stewart reminded students to “trust the process. You initially set out that goal and sometimes they can become far out there, or they can become scary or whatever. Personally, I say the goal is not big enough unless it’s terrifying. Once you conquer it, though, these things that once seemed so ambitious are now not as hard as they may have appeared. … And sometimes I think the journey is a little bit more important than actually achieving that goal. Trusting that process through will allow you to see that.”
Heys noted the importance of working towards goals in community. “Tell others what you’re trying to do,” he said. “There is accountability in community. There’s also motivation in community.”
Getting off track
When feeling discouraged about progress on goals, Heys advised: “Give yourself grace but don’t give up. All of us run into small obstacles and days where it doesn’t work out. That doesn’t mean you’re necessarily completely off track. Jump back on again, keep working on those small steps to work towards the goal.”
Heys emphasized the role of identity in helping with motivation. “We’re often driven by identity and the type of person we want to become,” he said. “Sometimes, if someone buys a nice running vest, they’re more likely to be a runner. If you buy a planner that you think is stylish, you’re more likely to do good organizational work and use the planner.” Heys recommends considering what the identity looks like that parallels the behavior you wish to accomplish, and cultivating that identity in your own life.
Heys also noted that success shouldn’t be viewed as “a straight line up,” but as “a bunch of downs and ups and learning and growing.” He continued, “If you’re feeling down, all right, let’s learn from whatever occurred to have you in that place, and then let’s reset some goals and think about where you want to move to in the future. Life is long.” Heys advises students to keep rethinking their goals and evaluating what manageable steps they can take to achieve them.
Whether your goal is to run a marathon or get ahead on homework, setting realistic plans, leaning into community and rewarding yourself can help you get there.
This article was written by McKenna Wilkinson, originally published on Chimes, Calvin University’s official and only student newspaper.