ALL HUMAN BEINGS have dreams that they wish to achieve in life but not all of us attain them. Having a dream is one thing and working to realise it is another. As a young person still at school, you have to set your goals and set modalities of reaching your destination.

Each day you spend at school should be a day nearer to your dream. You should have both short and long-term goals. Your short-term goals should lead you to the ones that are long-term. This means that whatever you do on a daily basis should enable you move in the direction of the career of your choice. 

For example, if one of your long-term goals is to become a medical doctor, you have to make sure that you put a lot of emphasis on science subjects most especially Biology and Chemistry. You ought to lay strategies that boost your performance most especially in the subjects that are in line with your career dream. If you do this, you will be able to live your dream.

If your aim is to score Grade A in all the subjects in the end of year examinations, you have to set realistic short-term goals that will help you to live your dream. You have to aim at scoring high marks in exercises, tests and end of term examinations. If you keep telling your parents that you will be able to realise your dreams when you keep wasting time at school, it means that you are leaving your dream.

 The school is a gateway to your aspirations and each day you set foot in class, you should have targets to achieve. For instance, on a given day, you may aim at doing research on a topic that the teacher might have introduced recently. When you read about the same topic in a text book, you are able to widen your understanding of the concepts. Make a summary of the key points that you come across such that you are able to refer to them when preparing for the examinations. Should the teachers set questions on the topics that you have researched on, you will be able to excel. If you set yourself to do research on a regular basis, you will be able to live your dream.

You should do all the assignments on time as one of your short term goals. Teachers give assignments to compel you to do revision such that you grasp the concepts progressively. This implies that you have to utilise prep time to do all the work that you are given. You should have a clear agenda for each day to ensure that you accomplish all the tasks given to you. If you spend prep time chatting with your friends instead of reading your books, you will be leaving your dream.

Goal setting requires you to be in touch with your class teacher so that he can keep guiding you. The class teacher is not just there to call the register and process your reports. He is also supposed to be your mentor in the pursuit of your dreams. There is need for you to keep consulting him on how to attain your goals.

You should set mechanisms of evaluating your progress. Check your scores in the assignments and tests. If the results do not show much progress, you have to reflect on your participation in class activities and your conduct during prep time. Your current performance has a bearing on your destiny. Therefore, any decline in performance in class work greatly affects your grades in the end of term examinations.

Against that background, I urge you to set your goals, focus on them, evaluate your achievements and live your dream.

The writer is a teacher at Riviera High School