How to Set Summer Goals?
Setting goals can be a daunting task that makes you rethink your whole life and lifestyle. With the upcoming summer season, most students also avoid setting goals for vacations because they want to live freely. But to set summer goals, you have to be clear on your ideas, look forward to the upcoming summer season logically as a chance to improve your skills, and then work on your personal goals to force yourself outside your comfort zone and build a successful future.
If it is any consolation, your summer goals can be of your choosing.
Your vision board for the summer is entirely your own, so you can opt to work on a new hobby hone your skills for your professional career, or even work on your self-care.
As long as you have a goal and are willing to stay motivated to make changes, you will come out the other end of your summer a better person than you were going in.
How to Reach Your Summer Goals?
In the summer, it can be hard to remain on track toward your goals because spending time watching Netflix, and YouTube videos and scrolling through social media is so much easier to do than forcing yourself out of bed.
However, to motivate you, we can share a fact from Harvard Business Review which has stated that students who plan ahead also get a chance to work ahead and become better professionals.
This is why, now is the time you should be brainstorming, setting summer goals, planning and then executing for your better future.
But how to reach your summer goals, when there are so many distractions?
Well to answer this, we have listed a few tips and tricks that can help you spend quality time on your goals in summer days, instead of wasting this summer like you did it in the past year.
What Is And Isn’t A Goal
In order to make sure that you are spending time in your summers being productive to reach your goals, instead of wasting time, you must first be clear about what a goal is and what it isn’t.
A goal constitutes a vision of your future, containing time-bound milestones, and is larger in nature by being specific to you at the same time
A goal is not vague, meaning that it cannot be too ambitious for you to lose the whole point of your goal.
A goal is also not a resolution, giving you short-term gratification from your achievements, rather it is a long-term change from which you reap benefits much later in your life.
Be Realistic
In order to achieve a summer goal, you have to make sure that the goal you are setting is not completely out of your comfort zone.
For example, you can choose to spend time outdoors, but if you live in a cramped up urban city center, then it will become harder for you to achieve this goal.
So, set goals that are realistic and can be achieved for yourself.
An example of a realistic goal for a person living in an urban city center and wanting to spend time in nature is to join an eco-conscious club and go on trips with them and maybe start a blog post to write down your experiences.
Your Goal Must Be Personalized
Another thing to consider to when wanting to reach your summer goals is to personalize them according to your needs.
What I mean by this is that your goals should be a reflection into your personality and your vision for yourself.
If you already have a healthy lifestyle, then your goals can be personalized to become better at certain aspects of health, like exercise or mental wellbeing.
With these three considerations, take time out for a few weeks in your summer and work on your goals to reach healthier habits.
Planning Ahead
Now that you have an idea about how to set summer goals and how to reach them, you might ask why do we even need to be setting summer goals and not wasting away our vacation time doing nothing?
We have listed a few reasons, why you as a student must be planning ahead as a summer goal and developing new skill as a pre-emptive decision.
Risk assessment
When you plan ahead, you have a better chance of getting more time to learn from your mistakes and the risk of mistakes will not impact your decisions later in life.
For example, if you want to travel more and go on a road trip with your friends, then your homework will not hinder your goals of travelling across the country.
Proactive or Reactive
If you had the chance, would you rather be proactive or reactive in your decisions? A smart decision is always made, when it is made proactively, giving you the chance to better plan and execute as a summer goal.
You get better with time
Let’s assume you have to play a baseball game, now would you be a better player if you had been training for 6 months or for 6 weeks?
Obviously, the one who has spent more time and given more hours to training, is bound to reap more benefits.
Apply the same logic to your summer goals and acquirement of new skill.
Instead of thinking that you’ll do it next summer, become proactive and make the changes now to be better by the next summer.
A Few Examples
Now that you have all the knowledge on setting and accomplishing summer goals, below are a few examples of summer goals that can help you get new skills and make healthier habits:
Learn How to Surf
Summer is the perfect time for surfing and has many benefits for your physical health.
The CDC says that surfing can lead to better cardiovascular health, meaning you have healthy a heart and no fat deposits in your veins.
Plan a Summer Getaway
Another goal for which summer is the perfect time is to plan a getaway, with your friends or alone.
It can be a fun way to rekindle with old friends or if you want to be alone, then a getaway is the perfect opportunity to have a digital technology freeze.
Save Your Spare Change
An easy and fun way to increase your savings is to save your spare change. During the summer, make it a habit that you put away your spare change into a jar and by the end you can spend these savings on buying a new gadget.
Have Lots of Picnics With Friends
A fun way to spend your summer holidays is to plan a ton of picnics with your friends. They don’t have to be thoroughly planned, as you can just go to the park to spend a summer day.
This is a fun way to make new friends as you hang out at picnics with others, or depending on your preference you can plan picnics with your whole family as well.
Swim in the Ocean
If you are not into surfing, then you can plan a getaway with your loved ones to the beach and spend your day swimming in the ocean.
As a long term habit, swimming in the ocean is good to tone your muscles and increase your core strength, making it a great exercise.
Take a Trip to the Beach
If you would much rather not take a dip into the ocean, then a simple trip to the beach can be a good summer goal as well.
When we plan activities outside of our comfort zone and motivate ourselves to spend perfect time with our loved ones, then it can cause a big difference in our real life.
Take a Road Trip
If you are bored of the usual picnics and beach days, then a unique point as your summer goal can be to take a road trip.
Tourism data has shown that younger people are increasingly preferring solo trips, so you can plan to go to a nearby town or have a long trip planned, and enjoy on your own.
Take a Picnic to the Park
Did you know that just spending 15 minutes of your daily life surrounded by nature can improve your overall health? Therefore, if you want to overcome your anxious thoughts or let go of past traumas or just feel overwhelmed, then have a relaxing picnic on the park.
Spend Your Free Time in the Park
However, if you are unable to make time in your summer schedule, then you can set goals to spend your free time in a nearby park.
You don’t have to plan any detailed picnic stuff, but you can just get out of your house and go into nature, and even that will help your overall health. Who knows, you might even make a new friend.
Go to a Water Park
Water parks can be fun if you do not live near a beach and love to swim. So, if you want to have a fun picnic with your friends, then a water park is a great option.
Catch Fireflies
If you were given a time capsule that allowed your future self to tell things to your younger self, we can be sure that moments and memories will hold more value than social media.
So, encourage yourself to be free, go and catch fireflies, sit under the stars and have a heart-to-heart with your friends.
Have a Family Get-Together
In our life, we spend more time with our family than we most of us do with friends. Family matters in developing the person you are and your interests, and if you love your family then plan big dinners with all the aunts and uncles, and you can be sure to have a fun time.
Drink Lots of Water
If you want to set goals that are related to your health, then beginning to drink more water is possibly the best one.
Cross Something Off Your Bucket List
The best ways of spending summers is to tick off bucket list items.
Start writing, some up with career ideas, meet new people, or get started on a favorite book.
Want some new items on your bucket list? Check out 10 Funny Life Goals For Enjoying A Fulfilled Life
Bond with a Partner
Your summer goals do not have to be only adventurous, it can be romantic as well.
Journal Daily
A daily journal can help you rest and reflect on your summer season
Reconnect with an Old Friend
Old friends are a mirror into the past, so get connected with a friend and reminisce on your childhood.
Go Camping
People tend to become friends with people who have similar interests. However, if you are looking to make new friends then you can sign yourself up for a local camping club and go out of your comfort zone.
Make a Positive Change
You might think that focusing on your career and school grades is more important, but as a grownup, it is highly unlikely that moments studying will make up lasting memories.
This is why, make sure that your summer goals are not just academic, but help you improve your skills and become a positive person.
Healthy Summer Goals
Similar to positive changes, you can also motivate yourself to become healthy through the summer. Self-care is necessary, but exercising multiple times can help you improve your physical health as well.
If you are not interested in any of the goals given above, then you can opt for the ones below:
Go to a Baseball Game
Social Summer Goals
Host a BBQ
Learn a New Skill
Make a Time Capsule
Take a Social Media Break
Make a Summer Vision Board
Set New Goals
The bottom line of this article is to make you understand that summer goals are an effective way to make your summer season more productive.
It does not have to be academic goals, but your goals can include becoming a more social and friendly person.
