Hello wonderful people!!! So today I was working in the lab, and I asked my lab partner for the date so as to write on some culture tubes. He said 27th of June. Chai!!! 2016 has almost finished oo. Now, Now, now, the year has gone half way, and some of us are still thinking about the pepper soup from last year’s christmas holiday.

My mind immediately went to all the New Year’s Resolutions that I and many others made. I started thinking about the ones that have been accomplished, and the ones that were still in the works. to my surprise, a lot of them are steadily moving forward.

This is the first year that I have made New Year’s Resolutions, June came and I am still working towards them.I reflected on what I did differently, and I realized that i had set SMART GOALS. The acronym stands for

S-specific.Don’t be random in what you want to achieve, if not, God will be random in helping you achieve them. For example, you have a 2.8 GPA and your goal is to do well in class. Doing well may be a 2.9, and that will not help you get the job that needs a 3.0. So in actuality, the specific goal you were aiming for was not achieved because you weren’t specific enough in setting it.

M-measurable. When you set goals, you have to be able to see how far you have come, and how much more you have to go. Take for example, if your resolution is to lose weight, put a number to it. If your goal is to lose two dress sizes, you will know when you have achieved it, rather than if it is to loose weight.

A-attainable. This is where I believe people fumble the most when setting goals. Somebody that is working part-time, full-time student, etc, will say I want to work out at the gym for one hour everyday. I am not saying that it is impossible, but I am asking if it is attainable. When setting goals, you don’t want to set yourself up for failure. Set a goal that will push you, without making you regret that decision. A better goal would be to maybe got to the gym 3-4 times a week when you are not working, and add in a walk whenever you can.

R-realistic.This kind of goes with the attainable goals. A good example of this: Say your GPA is a 2.0, Each year has two semesters, and some sort of magic is supposed to happen to take it to a 3.8. Baba God works miracles, but I don’t think He will pickup that kind of call (catch my Adekunle Gold Pickup reference). A better goal in this case would be to work on individual classes, study habits,and exam taking skills. That will help you figure out what needs to be done where your academics is concerned, and in good time that GPA may follow.

T-timely.This one is really hard to do because it can induce panic attacks, but is very important. Once we add a timeline to the goals we set, it cuts out procrastination. One of my goals this year was to ‘get some sort of medical internship or research program by summer 2016.’ I am grateful to God that the opportunity was given to me. But knowing that this goal had to be achieved by summer, I started working on it on time. I couldn’t slack with deadlines, proposals had to be submitted on time, etc. I was able to make a timeline because I had a deadline for my goal.

The fist half of 2016 has come and gone and very soon we will be in the village blowing knockout(fireworks), ushering 2017 in, God-willing. It is time to go back to wherever we kept our New Year’s resolutions and make sure that we are on track. If we are not on track, it may be as a result of not setting smart goals.Let this year be different. I pray that at the end of 2016, we will have cause to celebrate our successes.

Psalm 20:4-“May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.”