Future Vision

Goal setting is something that I truly value and have seen the benefits of. Setting SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time bound) goals is what makes the difference between having a dream and achieving a new reality.

This is something I do both personally and professionally, and I teach SMART goal setting to my students. I am a visual person, so creating either digital or paper vision boards has helped me to attain the goals I set and is also something that I use in the classroom, having students do the same.

For digital vision boards I like to use Pinterest. You can post your own pins or pin links to other websites on boards that can be made public or kept private. If this is something you would use in the classroom, you can have your students first make a Pinterest account and then you can create a private pin board for the class that only includes those students. Alternatively, you can have your students add you to their private pin boards as well, if they do not wish to have a public one. This works for vision boards and goal setting, but really the sky is the limit. I have also used Pinterest to share infographics, blog posts, and articles that pertain to course materials. If you would like to see an example of one of my own Pinterest vision boards, keep reading!

When I think about where I want to be as an instructor in the next five years a lot comes to mind. I know I want to grow as an educator, which involves being a student myself, and that I want to work towards regularization within my department. I also look a bit longer term, in that I know I want to change fields and work in Adult Education more. I also would like to grow my yoga business so that I own a company that provides meaningful mental and physical help to people around the world. It sounds overwhelming to list out these things and expect to achieve them in five years, but by breaking these dreams down into specific goals that are attainable I know I can do it.

Over the next five years I have set the following professional goals:

1. Complete the Provincial Instructor Diploma at Vancouver Community College
2. Become regularized at Vancouver Community College
3. Complete the M.Ed. program at Simon Fraser University
4. Shift into working and teaching in the field of Adult Education
5. Grow my side business as an online yoga instructor into a larger business that includes teaching mindfulness

Here is a link to the Pinterest vision board I created based on my above goals:

The best thing about setting out your goals is that it makes it easier to adjust when you need to. Maybe your five year plan has to be extended to six years. That is okay because you know you are still on track to completing the goal. Life will always happen, so having a list or visual representation of your goals and the steps to get you there will remind you of all that you have already accomplished.

This post was created for PIDP 3260: Professional Practice as part of the Provincial Instructor Diploma Program at Vancouver Community College. You can access their website here. To access the School of Instructor Education Facebook page click here.