Future You Will Thank You

Posted: September 15, 2020

By Lauren Siegal, College Student

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”

One of the biggest things your students can do to help pave a path to success is to set goals. Not only is it rewarding to accomplish a goal, but it also just feels good to be able to look back and see how much we grew during that time.

I was never formally taught life skills when I was in school, but I vividly remember one of my teachers telling us that writing down our goals is what will help us achieve them. The lesson Identifying Goals from the Overcoming Obstacles curriculum is the perfect place to find instruction for your students on their setting realistic goals and developing a plan to reach them.

There are two other skills in the Overcoming Obstacles curriculum that your students will be thankful that you taught them—Managing Your Time and Establishing What’s Important. If they are like me and often find themselves looking back on a day thinking about how time could have been better spent, they have the ability to make a change now. Figuring out what is important to them can help your students reprioritize and spend more time pursuing the things that matter most.

We cannot control exactly what the future will look like, but we have the power to modify how we get ourselves to the next arrival point. Ask your students, “What can you do today that future you will thank you for?”

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