Episode 33: The Necessity of Self-reflection, Goal setting, and Self-efficacy

Are you doing these critical things to help your child succeed academically? Take the quiz now to find out the important actions you can take to enhance your child's education. Go to my website, liberationthrougheducation.com quiz and take the quiz today. Foreign welcome to another episode of K12 Education Untangled. My name is Dr. Kim Fields, former corporate manager turned educational researcher and advocate, and I'm the host of this podcast. I got into this space after dealing with some frustrating interactions with with school administrators and educators, as well as the micro discriminations that I faced as an African American mom raising my two kids who were in the public school system. I really wanted to understand how teachers were trained and what the research provided about the challenges of the public education system. If you're looking to find out more about current topics in education that could affect you or your children, then you're in the right place. In today's episode, I'll be providing my Year end message on Self Reflection, Self Evaluation, Goal Setting and Self Efficacy the end of the year is usually a time of self reflection of self evaluation as we move into goal setting for the New Year in order to accomplish those goals. Moving beyond the New Year's resolutions is the necessity of applying discipline a self efficacy each day, each week, each month. In the coming year. As we embark on setting goals for the upcoming year, it's important to remember that self evaluation is a critical part of the process. Taking the time to understand and articulate your strengths and weaknesses will give you a better understanding of what where you need to focus more effort to develop certain skills or attributes. By doing this self inventory, it allows you to become empowered with confidence in your own larger capabilities, otherwise known as your own self efficacy through setting those achievable goals and finding ways to continue honing that self esteem, and it sets up a strong foundation for positive growth. In going through the process of self evaluation, you want to identify both strengths and weaknesses as well as areas of personal growth in order to set yourself up for success. And even more essential is setting your goals with an attitude of self efficacy, believing in yourself and your power to achieve great things. Thinking that your efforts make a difference can be key when setting out on any new endeavor as it helps you stay stay focused and motivated through the necessary steps along the way. So make this process of setting goals with intention and purpose as a priority and really think about where you are now, what you need to do next, and lean on your inner strength instead of relying solely on external factors. Taking the time to assess and reflect upon what you've achieved can help boost your self efficacy. It's easy, especially in times of stress, to forget the successes and accomplishments from the past, especially this past year. Self evaluation is a critical tool for setting realistic goals for the future. It allows you to have an honest understanding of yourself, providing essential insight into which challenges will are worth tackling first. As you look towards setting yourself up with achievable goals, self evaluation is a powerful tool to break down your hopes and dreams into actionable steps. Reflecting on past performance and setting realistic expectations gives you the confidence to take risks and to push yourself out of your comfort zone. This practice helps promote a belief called self efficacy, which I've been talking about, which is basically a belief in your power to cope with obstacles and to attain your goals. Through self evaluation, you become more aware of any areas that need improvement or intention and this again sets you up for success. So what is the relationship between self evaluation, setting goals and self efficacy? Let's look at self evaluation first. When you think about setting new goals, self evaluation is an important first step before setting any action plan in motion and committing to the hard work required to achieve those goals is important to take a realistic assessment of where you are now and how you feel about your ability to reach the goals successfully. One of the most critical elements is understanding your level of self efficacy. If you don't believe that you can do it, setting and reaching goals can be extremely challenging. As such, assessing your skill set, your mindset and motivation provides you with valuable insights into your current abilities and will help you set realistic goals going forward. Self evaluation is a powerful tool tool for personal growth and exploration. Self reflection can help you gain an understanding of your emotions, your behaviors and thoughts where you are your own best observer. Self evaluation makes you more aware of important life issues that can be addressed through thoughtful examination of yourself. It also encourages your willingness to take responsibility for mistakes or bad choices as it teaches all of us that we have the power to identify problems and make needed changes in order to move forward. With this kind of self knowledge, we can work towards becoming more effective in the pursuit of our goals and objectives. Self reflection is invaluable in helping us live meaningful lives. Self evaluation is also an important practice that can contribute to the development of personal resilience. Looking critically at oneself involves both self reflection and an objective appraisal of one's choices and behaviors. It can help us to identify areas for improvement as well as areas of strength, leading to better decision making in the present and greater understanding of one's actions in the past, self evaluation can give a person a newfound sense of insight into how they operate in life, allowing them to make positive changes toward achieving their goals. But there's a difference between setting goals and making resolutions. Goal setting, a common practice of many successful professionals, is more than just creating a list of tasks to accomplish. According to research, effective goal setting requires an individual to define their goals in a clear and obtainable manner, devise specific action plans for achieving those goals, and establish milestones that measure progress toward their eventual goal. Goal setting can not only help provide the focus and motivation needed for success, but also help build confidence along the journey as steps are taken toward your achievement. Goal setting helps you identify your strengths and weaknesses. Weaknesses reduce procrastination, create personal accountability, and develop better planning skills which can set you up for long term success both personally and professionally. Goal setting is something that people have understood for centuries, but the scientific evidence backing its efficacy has grown significantly in recent years. Goal setting has been shown to focus attention, energize behavior, and help create mindsets that favor self regulatory success. Setting goals requires an individual to extensively think about their desired future state and what steps need to be taken to achieve it. Goal setting is also an accountability framework for individuals to track progress toward a specific outcome. As such, when it's done with purpose and clarity, goal setting can be a powerful tool for personal growth and development. Goal setting and resolutions are both techniques used to help realize aspirations, but the two should be thought of differently. Goal setting is a process of determining a path to a desired outcome and outlining specific steps that you'll take to reach that destination. Although goals and resolutions can be similar, goals have a more structured approach and are often attainable through small intermittent steps that may not completely resolve the problem at hand. By contrast, resolutions often aim for an immediate solution that requires larger commitments over long periods of time and may be longer term in nature or even lifelong objectives. That's why resolutions often fall by the wayside by the time March rolls around, especially the New Year's resolutions. Goal setting is therefore not only an effective method of reaching your ambitions, it also provides you with direction to achieve your intention. Intentions in an organized manner, goal setting can be a powerful tool in helping to achieve your short and long term goals. Setting goals requires you to identify areas you'd like to improve upon as well as to assess your current abilities and available resources. Making a resolution, on the other hand, is a general commitment to take action. Resolutions are often slogan like statements that are formed with little thought since the aim behind them tends not to be so concrete or measurable. Goal setting is about taking small steps that will lead toward tangible success, whereas making a resolution involves more of an emotional commitment without necessarily putting in place any resources or plans to reach that goal. Goal setting is then distinct from making a resolution in both intent and execution. How can Self efficacy help and how is it related to Self Reflection, Self Evaluation and Goal Setting? Self efficacy, or the belief that one has the capabilities to achieve goals and objectives, is a powerful tool that can help you in many areas in your life. Self reflection and self evaluation are key components in developing self efficacy. They enable you to gain insight into what works and what doesn't work. Self reflection allows you to establish a clear goal while self evaluation gives you the ability to track progress toward that goal. It also helps you to identify any areas where improvement may be needed and allows you to adjust the approach as necessary. Self efficacy is further linked with setting effective goals. By combining confidence in your own abilities with achievable goals, you stand a better chance of meeting those goals and having a feeling of accomplishment when doing so. Ultimately, it's by using self efficacy approaches such as self reflection, self evaluation and goal setting that you can make positive changes in your life. Self efficacy is a psychological concept that concerns your belief in your ability to succeed. Self evaluation and self reflection are components of self efficacy and they make an effective use of of the available resources. Self efficacy is related to goal setting as it involves recognizing challenges, losing unrealistic expectations, and coming up with practical solutions. Self efficacy can help you tackle difficult tasks through motivation and a recognition of how you might achieve success. Research has shown that strong self advocacy beliefs encourage an internal locus of control which motivates most people to take responsibility of their own lives and make appropriate decisions in a broad range of circumstances. Finally, self efficacy is a great tool for setting and achieving goals. Self reflection, self evaluation and goal setting are integral components of developing and maintaining high levels of of self advocacy. Self reflection allows you to observe your personal behaviors, identify areas for growth, and recognize and celebrate your strengths. Self evaluation provides an opportunity to develop an understanding of your current level of proficiency and assess where you may need more practice or improvement in order to achieve your goal. It's okay not to have all the answers. Seeking out where to find the answers is an important skill set as well. Goal setting is important because it gives you a target to work towards while also allowing you to measure progress based on milestones. Taken together, these three components, self reflection, self evaluation, and goal setting help create the foundation for establishing a strong sense of self efficacy. Which will in turn promote healthy and successful living habits. Maybe you're in the process of doing some self reflection, some self evaluation as you close out 2022 and open 2023 with fresh insights and energized intentions. Be honest in your self evaluations. Give yourself some grace when evaluating and reflecting on who you were and what you accomplished in this past year. Set bold, audacious goals that take you out of your comfort zone and push you to new heights of personal and professional development. If your goal is to learn more about educational progress of your child and to be even more involved, then be fully committed to that. If your goal is to lose weight, to be a better parent, to be a better spouse, then be committed to those goals with a specific plan on how to reach them. Planning is important. It's often said that if we fail to plan, then we plan to fail. I believe in you and I know that you have the capabilities to accomplish every goal that you aspire to. Go complete as is my usual format for these personal episodes in which I close with a quote or a clean joke, here are a couple of quotes for you to ponder. A man must find time for himself. Time is what we spend our lives with. If we're not careful, we find others spending it for us. It is necessary now and then for a man to go away by himself and experience loneliness, to sit on a rock in a forest and to ask of himself, who am I and where have I been and where am I going? If one is not careful, one allows diversions to take up one's time. The Stuff of Life by Carl Sandberg the second quote is the state of your life is nothing more than a reflection of your state of mind by Wayne Dyer and the final quote is People are too quick to pass judgment and too slow to self reflect. Reflect. That's Anonymous. If this is the type of subject matter and discussion that resonates with you, please subscribe to my podcast or whatever service you're listening to this. Also, I'd love to hear from you. So please leave me a writing a review or a comment and share this episode with anyone that you think would find it valuable. Be sure to tell your friends, family and community about my podcast. I'd really appreciate it if you would recommend my podcast to a friend directly on Twitter and to mention my show in your tweet. Additionally, connect with me on Instagram and Facebook with the handle kimjfields. Thanks for listening today. I hope you'll come back for more K12 educational discussions with even more exciting topics to untangle. By the way, if you have a burning question about a particular issue going on in your child's schooling experience, or a specific topic that you'd like me to explore and discuss, shoot me a quick email@kimliberationthrougheducation.com to let me know what your question is. Anyone whose question is selected to be discussed on one podcast episode will receive a 25Amazon gift card and be sure to stay tuned. On the next episode of my podcast, I'll be discussing the Common Core State Standards and what they mean for your child. Until next time, aim to learn something new every day. Love my show. Consider being a regular subscriber. You can subscribe for as little as $3 per month. Just go to there's no contractual obligation. You can cancel at any time. If you choose to subscribe, I'll give you a special shout out thanking you in an upcoming episode. Remember, that's tinyurl.com podcastsupport to subscribe.