MY GOAL

Introduction (5 minutes)

·       Welcome the participants

·       Introduce yourself and the Ideas Box project (give your name, say that you work for the Ideas Box, explain that the Ideas Box is a center that implements activities for the Rohingya community to improve their access to knowledge and information).

·       Introduce the activity: today we are going to do an activity that aims at helping us set goals and achieve them.

Ice-breaking game (10 minutes)

·       Explain that you are going to do an ice-breaking game to warm up the participants and to help them to improve their listening and concentration skills during the session.

This is a simple drama game in which participants take turns asking each other “What are you doing?” and acting out the various responses. Though simple, it engages the imagination and gently challenges participants out of their comfort zone by having them mime a range of different actions.

·       The group stands in a large circle

·       One person enters the circle and begins miming an action (e.g. brushing hair, frying an egg, playing with a ball). He/she continues until another member of the group decides to enter the circle and asks: “What are you doing?”

·       The first person responds by describing any action other than the one he/she is doing. For example, if he/she is pretending to brush hair, he/she might say something like “I’m playing hockey.” The second person must then begin to mime playing hockey.

·       Continue until all participants went in the middle. Encourage participants to be creative with their actions.

Main activity (70 minutes)

Part 1 (20 minutes):

·       Everybody is seating in a circle, where they can all see and hear each other.

·       Ask the participants: “Have you ever thought about something that you want to do in the future, but couldn’t figure out how to get there? For example, do you want to make a new friend? Do you want to learn a particular skill?”

·       Explain to the participants: “Goals can help us. Goals help us to achieve the things we want to do. You can use goals to help get things you need or want now or in the future. There are two types of goals to think about:

o   Short-term goals are things that we want to do in a short period of time, like by the end of the day, next week, or even in a few months. For example, bringing back water to the house today or making the acquaintance of the new neighbor in the next two weeks.

o   Long-term goals are things that we want to do over a longer period of time. For example, learning English or making a vegetable garden near your house and collecting vegetables in several months.”

You can define what short-term and long-term means to you. But most of the time, short-term goals are something you can achieve relatively quickly, while long-term goals take more work and time.

·       Ask the participants if they have short-term and long-term goals in their mind. Give them some time to think about it and to express themselves. Then ask them why is the goal setting important? If they don’t know, you can explain that goal setting helps to motivate yourself, helps you plan and organize your life so you can achieve the things you want to do.

Part 2 (25 minutes):

·       Discuss together: “What do you think we can do to set our own goal? What can be the tips and advice we follow to make sure we will reach our goal?”

·       Explain: today there are 6 tips I can share with you for setting goals:

1.     1. Set a goal that is doable in your current environment. If you aim for something unreachable, it will have the opposite effect and discourage you.

2.     Set your goal with as many details as possible. This helps us to imagine the action we want to take. For example, “I’m going to take a walk three times a week” is a more specific goal than “I am going to exercise more.”

3.     Be patient with yourself and the process. It can take a couple of months before you are able to work on your goal – like attending a course twice a week to become better in Maths. Working towards your goal becomes a routine part of your life. Your brain needs time to get used to the idea that this new thing you’re doing is part of your regular routine.

4.     Say your goal out loud to yourself and your friends regularly. Say it each morning and remind yourself of what you want and what you’re working for. Writing or drawing it down works, too. Every time you remind yourself of your goal, you’re training your brain to make it happen.

5.     Pick a goal that pleases you. You are more likely to achieve it because you want it, not because a friend, a family member, or someone else wants you to. It is easier to stay motivated if it is your own goal.

6.     Keep trying small. It may take a few tries to reach a goal. But that’s OK — it’s normal. You can have a long term goal that seems too complicated to achieve because there are too many steps to reach it. You can decide to cut your long term goal into several short term goals, easier to achieve.

·       Discuss all together: what do you think about those tips? Do you think you can use them in the future?

·       Invite all the participants to think about a personal goal they want to achieve. Invite the participants who want to share their goals. Ask them how they can use the 5 tips we just learned to help them to achieve their goal.

Part 3 (25 minutes) : 

·       Give paper and several colour pens to each participant. Ask them to write or to draw the goal they want to achieve. It can be a short-term or a long-term goal but they need to think about how long they will need to achieve it. We need to share the goals with the group so tell it in advance to the participants so they can choose something they are comfortable sharing.

·       Ask everybody to stand up with their goal in hand and to make a line (the starting line) on the same side of the space.

·       Place the one-day pictogram (the pictures are at the end of the document) around 1 meter away in front of the participant. Place the one-week pictogram one more meter further away. The same with the one-month item, and the 1-year item. So the furthest item should be around 4 meters away. If the activity is taking place in a small place, you can use tape to put them on the whiteboard.

·       Explain to the participants: The first item/dot is 1 day, the second is 1 week, the third is 1 month and the last one is 1 year. According to the time needed to achieve your goal, you can put your paper close to the item/dot or in-between item/dot (so if you need 5 months to achieve your goal, you will put your paper in between 1 month and 1 year). After putting your paper in position, come back to the starting line.

·       We are all in the starting line. We all want to go to our goal. Each step we are going to do will bring us closer to achieving our goal. Each step is also a thing that we will have to do. For instance, if my goal is to make my own vegetable garden, my first step will be to find the right spot, my second step to dig and turn the soil, and so on. Now each of us is going to take one step from the line (if on paper, the participants can use their finger) and to think about the first thing we will have to do to get closer to our goal.

·       Take all the steps to reach the goal, slowly to let everybody think about the process and things to do to actually achieve it. It ends when everybody arrives at his/her goal. If somebody has trouble with the identification of the things to do to achieve his/her goal, everybody can give advice, using the 5 tips.

·       Remind the participants what the 6 steps are:

1.     Set a goal that is doable

2.     Set your goal with as many details as possible

3.     Be patient with yourself and the process

4.     Say your goal out loud to yourself and your friends regularly

5.     Pick a goal that pleases you

6.     Keep trying small

Conclusion (5 minutes)

·       Conclude the activity with a summary of what we learned today: Goals help us to achieve those things we want to do but we don’t always know-how. There are 6 tips to follow (ask the participants what they are, give them hints only if the participants don’t remember): Set a goal that is doable, think about it in detail, be patient because it takes time, say it aloud and to friends, choose a goal that pleases you, take small steps and keep trying, it may take more than one try.

·       Thank the participants for their involvement in the activity

·       Invite the participants to visit the Ideas Box center during free time to use the content or to join a course in the future, to learn more new things

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