Overall Plan & Resources

While many people and organizations alike set goals, not all of these goals become achieved. One of the biggest factors to achieving goals is the availability, or lack thereof, of resources. To guarantee that this does not stop me from achieving my dreams, I will outline here the necessary steps and resources I will need in my tenure to completing my goal.

Step 1: Create a challenging but attainable goal
I have already completed this step with my blog post regarding my goal. I believe that actually having a goal written down will make it more concrete and will make the person setting the goal more likely to accomplish it. 

Step 2: Announce my goal to friends and family
By following this step, I am making my goal publicly known, which holds me accountable to actually following through with it. Like Daft and Marcic talked about earlier, managers must be held accountable for their actions. (Daft & Marcic, p. 132) As a good manager would act upon what they say, I will do the same by accomplishing this goal that I have declared.

Step 3: Create a detailed plan
Setting a goal itself is not merely enough to achieve it. As we see in organizations, once a goal is agreed upon, these organizations make many plans so they know how to achieve these goals. This initial planning process is similar to that of strategic planning for organizations. As Daft and Marcic have said, "strategic planning tends to be long term and may define organizational action steps from two to five years." (Daft & Marcic, p. 164) Since my goal will not be completed until at least two years from now, I believe that this part of the planning phase is most similar to strategic planning. More specific plans would align with tactical planning, which are plans that are "designed to help execute the major strategic plans and to accomplish a specific part of the company's strategy." (Daft & Marcic, p. 165) In terms of relating tactical planning back to myself, some examples of these plans might be "earning an A or above in my Machine Architecture class," or "doing a summer internship in Minneapolis in the summer of 2019." To help me achieve these smaller goals, I might set some operational plans for myself. These are even smaller, quantitative goals that can be achieved in a short amount of time. Examples of these goals for me might include "do one programming task of the day everyday," or "upload a mini project to GitHub once a month." With all of these plans, I am confident that I can achieve my long-term goal, just like an organization feels by setting up all of its plans.

Step 4: Ask for guidance when needed
The biggest resource I believe I will need to achieve my goal is other people. I am grateful that I have many resources available, such as upperclassmen friends in my major, my parents, and my academic adviser and course professors. I know there will come times when I need to make a decision regarding the steps in my plan, much like managers need to make critical decisions for the goals and plans of the organization. Whenever I need to do this, I know I can reach out to any of the people I mentioned above and they will provide me with good advice that will lead to my success.

- Sayuz

Sources:
Daft, Richard L. Management. 9th ed., Cengage Learning, 2018.