Your future life goals & current habits

Goals and habits shape our everyday lives, whether we intentionally pursue them or not. Goals and habits are distinct from one another – goals drive behaviors that are undertaken to achieve a certain outcome, while habits are behaviors taken in response to a direct stimulus. The behavior may be the same, but the motivations driving the behavior and influencing its ability to stick around for the long term differ. For example, you may have habitualized brushing your teeth every night in response to someone saying you should, but once you get a painful root canal you learn to brush your teeth every night to avoid dental decay.

Evaluating your goals and habits before grad school will save you a lot of headache. It may even change the path you take. When evaluating them, be honest with yourself and open minded. They are subject to change of course, but I encourage you to write down what immediately comes to mind then take a few hours or even days before you revisit and revise it.

Without further adieu, here are the 2 prompts:

What are your long-term post grad school life goals?

I used to find this to be an overwhelming question, in fact, I used to find goals terrifying. Especially when I saw the trigger word “SMART” in an article. But taking time to guesstimate where you want to be after grad school, and if grad school will help or hinder your path there, is well worth overcoming any hesitations. 

Some clarifications before we get into a step-by-step: (1) we’re talking about life goals, not just professional goals, and (2) these are goals you have for the years immediately following completion of grad school. Everyone’s timelines are different, but assuming your goal is to finish an MS in 2 years, plan your goals for 3-5 years out from your expected start. For a PhD that is expected to take 5 years, plan goals for 6-8 years out from your expected start.

But why? Considering and setting these goals now allows you to see, before you get into the throes of grad school, that you have a life and goals outside of your professional career. Making these beforehand can align you into what grad program, if any, you would like to embark on. If you do decide to go to grad school, revisiting them regularly will help ground you and make you more intentional. 

In brief, you should first separate your life into categories that are meaningful to you. An example is to include four areas: (1) physical and mental health, (2) wealth, (3) friends and family, and (4) profession. Then list goals under each. If you’re a numbers person, assign a score from 1-10 for each goal to signify how important that goal is to you (with 10 being the most important). Tally up all the points in each category. This is where the evaluation really begins. Which category has the most points? Basically, will grad school help you and allow you to live your most valued life?

Which habits would you like to develop or improve?

Grad school will shine a spotlight on your current habits. If you’re not satisfied with them they may stack up on your list of little things that (even unknowingly) add stress to your daily life. 

This may be more challenging, because sometimes we are blind to our own habits. I like to categorize habits as well, and I’ve found that the same categories I use for my goals apply (i.e. (1) physical and mental health, (2) wealth, (3) friends and family, and (4) profession). To start, for just one day, write down all your activities and most prevalent emotions. To make it less overwhelming, start at lunch by taking a few minutes to write down what you did for the first few hours of the day. Write down at least one emotion next to each action. Repeat a few hours later, and then repeat right before you go to sleep. The next day, categorize your behaviors (with the emotions linked to them) and see what the distribution looks like. Ask yourself questions to find patterns, e.g., is your day mostly spending on social outings and little physical exercise? Importantly, how did you feel about it, i.e. which categories had the most positive emotions associated with them?

Location, location, location!

Location is so important when it comes to grad school. You will be rewarded generously if you take the time to pursue grad school in a location that you didn’t just settle for. Things to consider: Does it have my hobbies? Do I like the weather? Can I meet people? Can my existing family integrate well/do they like it? Is it affordable on a grad salary? Is housing available? Would I have opportunities to get a side job if needed? Does it excite me? 

Depending on where you are financially and how much time you have before the start of grad school, try to save some money to take a short trip to the school and surrounding area. Usually you can get a grasp in 1-2 days if you stick to your first feelings and gut reaction. While you may think you have to explore every inch and many different aspects to know if its a right fit, from my experience, you’ll have a feeling right away if you love it or not. 

Closing notes

You may be surprised I didn’t mention anything about picking the right advisor, program, research topic, etc. These are also major considerations which I personally feel should be considered after the ones mentioned in this post. Why? No matter how much dedication you have to your studies, grad school will be difficult if you don’t have balance and internal peace/happiness. Share your thoughts via email at gradspost@gmail.com, thanks for reading, and have a wonderful day!

P.S. As the blog progresses, I will update this page with links to other posts and workbooks. For now, I hope you enjoy the content.