Looking Towards The Future This paper will describe the personal, professional, and academic goals relating to my degree plan and how the SMART goals apply to each goal. I will also explain my accountability plan to overcome challenges and predict future success from my past positive experiences and personality after completing online degree. Taking online courses through Ashford University will help me to achieve my goals in life and create future success for myself.
My Goals and SMART Goal Process After asking myself what personal goal I wanted to achieve in life, I decided that I wanted to be financially stable. It’s very important for me to be financially comfortable so I can provide for my family. I’ve been very fortunate to be in the military and to have the luxury of purchasing the wants in life. To accomplish my personal goal, I will finish my degree in Business Administration within the next three to four years by taking one course at a time. Each course I complete will get me three credits closer to achieving my degree. This is how I will achieve my personal goal according to the SMART goal process. The next goal I will describe will be my professional goal. My professional goal will be to obtain a career that allows me to be happy and successful after I retire from the military. By using the SMART goal process, I will narrow my job search to careers that will make me happy and still provide the necessary income. After I completing 12 more years in the military, I will find a career that suits my wants and needs. This goal will be attainable by finishing school and retiring from the military. Lastly my academic goal will be complete my bachelor’s degree. I will do this by taking one course at a time over the next three to four years. By completing assignments and scoring well on quizzes and test, this goal will be achievable.
Accountability and Overcoming Obstacles To achieve the goals I have set for myself, I must be accountable for my behavior throughout the process. My accountability plan will include setting and completing task that will help me achieve the goals I have set for myself. My family and military career will be two obstacles that I need to overcome in order to succeed. My family plays a huge part in my success when going to school. I know I have their full support for going to school to complete my degree. My wife will spend time with me studying and helping me complete the task necessary to succeed in online learning. Included in my plan will be spending quality time with my wife while going to school and being able to balance the two. With out the help and support of my wife and family members, I would have never gone back to school to complete my degree. So setting aside time in my daily schedule is the least I can do to show my support. My military career is the second obstacle I will need to overcome to complete my degree. I am very fortunate to work in a job that allows me to keep my work at work, instead of bringing it home to complete. Deployments are definitely an obstacle when it comes to completing school. You have some locations that have consistent internet access, so it is easy to accomplish task related to school. Other locations are very inconsistent when it comes to having access to the internet. One way to get around his obstacle would to complete school task when internet access is available. At this time you could get ahead in your task, so there would be no issues turning in those assignments. Creating a schedule allows me to set aside time for the matters that are of more importance. By sticking with a set schedule, I can control my time and attitude in school and my career. When doing anything dealing with school I always stay organized and focused to stay on task. I set aside 30 minutes every day for school related task, so I don’t fall behind on any assignments. This allows me to stay ahead in school and correct task that need to be corrected. By creating a schedule and sticking to that schedule, I am able to achieve personal, academic and professional success.
Predict Success and Personality Traits Predicting success for me will rely on how well I am able to stay accountable and focused on the goals tasked. I am a very driven and focused individual, so my future success is very realistic to me. My past positive experiences have given me the skills necessary to complete my goals in life. My influences in school play to both my weaknesses and strengths. My conscientiousness trait keeps me organized and self-disciplined when it comes to completing my schoolwork. My openness to past experiences could pose issues when going to school. If my past experiences weren’t working, then falling back into those practices could get me in trouble. Being creative and original tend to excel in most assignments in school, which is something I'm striving to achieve. My experiences for a job play more to my strengths in this situation. Staying organized in a fast paced job will always help in a crazy environment. Also, staying calm in high-pressure situations helps me complete a task without getting over stressed. My agreeableness will help me work well with others to complete the task at hand. All of these traits will help me later in my career. These personality traits will allow me to be successful in all the goals I want to achieve in my life. Reaching my educational goals will not only help me with my current career in the military, but it will also set up a job when I complete my military career. In the article achieving student-learning outcomes and agency goals through a multi-layered campus-community partnership, it states "In these times of increased accountability, dwindling resources, budget cuts, and widespread unemployment, stakeholders expect colleges and universities to use innovative yet evidence-based strategies to prepare students to be actively engaged citizens of the world and competitive players in a new global economy" (Miolo,2012). In summary, I explained my three goals in the online environment, applied the SMART goal process to each of these goals, created an accountability plan, and predicted my success. Overall I’m excited to start my educational journey, and since I’ve started this course it has helped me gain momentum in achieving my personal goals. "Enrollment is the very first step of the ladder but it should not be considered as the only source of achievement" (Moosa,2013).

References:
Moosa Sadruddin, M. (2013). Millennium Development Goals: Are We Really Achieving Universal Primary Education?. Dialogue (1819-6462), 8(1), 53-67.

Miolo, G., & Parys, J. (2012). Achieving Student-Learning Outcomes and Agency Goals through a Multi-Layered Campus-Community Partnership.Interdisciplinary Humanities, 29(3), 56-72.