Claudette Miller
BSAD 235-D-1
Final Project
March 9, 2016

My personal mission statement is to improve myself professionally and personally through education and open-mindedness so that I can advance in both my life and career in a way that I can enjoy and feel content. I will make efforts to further my knowledge every day through reading books or magazines. I will work towards improving my inferior qualities such as organization, responsibility and compassion so that I can be a better mother, daughter, sister, student and friend. I will continue to strive for a healthy and long life by following a scheduled exercise regimen and a more balanced diet. I will continue my career development by remaining employed in a field where I can grow and continue to improve my income to achieve other personal goals. I will strive to put time aside for family and friends so that I may be able to treasure the connection I have with them while they are in my life. I will attain a respected leadership role to the people around me by taking a more active role in creating initiatives and solutions to problems around me.
My financial goals are to get out of debt by taking stock of all of the debt I need to rid myself of. I will concentrate on paying off credit cards and loans. I will work on setting this goal by paying off my high interest credit cards and loans first and will aim on completing this goal by next summer.
Another financial goal I have is to make and utilize a budget. A few years ago, I made a resolution to better budget my money. It was wildly successful until a monkey wrench got thrown into my finances in the form of a car accident that I was ill-prepared to foot the bill for. Things went downhill from there, and it took quite a while to recover from it. Since then, my modified budget is in place and seems to be working well. I work toward this goal by not purchasing items that I don’t need especially if they are not in my budget.
Another financial goal I have is to save a certain amount of money each payday and put it into a savings account. I will figure out what I am spending my money on and learn to live without certain things. I will start this goal immediately.
I will stop using my high interest credit cards by cutting them up and throwing them away. This won’t be easy for me but I will be able to save a lot of money by not having to make high interest payments every month.
I will also stop buying big-ticket items, like a new car, television or furniture. I will evaluate my monthly budget before I purchase anything like a car, television or furniture and if I can’t afford it I won’t buy it.
My professional goals after I retire from state government are to secure a position that will lead to a lasting working relationship in the field of psychology. This will enable me to use my educational background and ability to work well with people. Early in my high school years I discovered a personal truth that I have no limitations other than those I choose to impose upon myself. Everyone brings to the world unique talents, gifts, and abilities and some of mine include my strong will and my determination to be able to give something back to the communities in which I was raised. My plans are to not only use education as a tool to prepare me for a new vocation, but also to help me become a self-sufficient individual.
No one is exempt from turmoil during their lives, and I can honestly say that I am thankful for the adversities and challenges which have crossed my path because they have strengthened my character and brought forth certain virtues I might otherwise never have known. There are various personal issues with which I have struggled and I have no doubt as to where their foundations lie. Everyone and everything in my past has been my teacher, and I feel that my history has inevitably led me to my major field of study, psychology, about which I am immensely passionate. It has been a wonderful rite of passage for me to learn to accept all the parts of myself.
My goals are to work with children, helping them to maintain their sense of self. I would like to do this through being a children’s counselor. I would like the opportunity to be able to pass along the information I have learned, that no one person other than oneself can keep one from achieving one's goals and that everyone has the potential to share with the world their unique talents, gifts, and abilities. While one may find motivation in one's hopes for the future, one must not devalue the steps one takes to get there, because it is through one's past joys and hardships that one comes to be who they are. A quote I heard once is, “It is good to have an end to journey towards, but is the journey that matters in the end.”
My family goals are to help maintain good health for all my family members and to maintain a home of which we are all proud. I also want to be able to enjoy leisure time with my family and to encourage my son to work towards getting a college degree and to spend fun, quality time with my grandchildren. I also want to maintain open and productive family communications. I believe that in order to realize our dreams, goals, and aspirations as a family I need to be fulfilled, happy, confident and always close to each member of my family. I also believe that each family member should participate in setting and achieving our goals.
I believe that we can achieve these goals by using a goal setting chart and posting it in a visible place where all members of my family can see them. My spiritual goals are to continually grow in my relationship with Jesus, study the Bible regularly and deeply, and serve others throughout my life. I also believe that church is an important component of my spiritual life. It provides a needed opportunity to worship and learn. I attend church weekly with my mother and want my grandchildren to know how important it is to have some sort of spiritual belief. While attending church is important in that it places me in a community of believers, I believe that it is not a replacement for the intimacy of worshipping together as a family. Through setting aside daily time to worship as a family, I seek to provide the spiritual space for modeling applied faith and having honest and open conversations about the Christian life.
I also believe that prayer is the core foundation of a relationship with Jesus and I desire to frequently model a healthy prayer life at home. I desire for my grandchildren to have the opportunity to hear many prayers and say many prayers in order to comfortably embrace prayer in their own lives. This means I will strive to pray at a variety of times.
My physical health goals which I do four to five times a week are walking, jogging, and aerobics. I also run on a treadmill three days a week and strength train four times a week. Strength training promotes endurance, improves muscle tone and increases metabolism. I also eat healthy and try not to indulge frequently in sweets or foods that are not good for my health. My mental health goals are having a positive attitude, which I do by choosing to approach difficult circumstances with a productive mindset. I know that having a positive attitude can lower my stress level, which is good for my health. A positive attitude can also improve my relationships and change how people perceive me. I also stay focused on all of my goals and change paths when needed, to succeed. Hope is perseverance and people with a positive attitude are able to look through the difficulties they face today and believe they can find a way through or around those difficulties. I’ve learned that people with a positive attitude exhibit optimism, and believe in the best possible outcome of a decision or action they take. They also believe that negative circumstances are temporary. Optimism must be grounded in reality; for example, a person cannot jump from a tree and optimistically expect to overcome the laws of gravity.
I also have learned to have confidence. I believe that people with a positive attitude are confident that they can face challenges and believe that overcoming them is within their control. To increase my confidence, I put myself in situations that I can master and break difficult tasks down into manageable pieces and I try to mimic behavior of people who have achieved success. My values goals are ambition, competency, individuality, equality, integrity, service, responsibility, accuracy, respect, dedication, diversity, and improvement, having fun, being loyal, having credibility, being honest, being part of a team, empowerment, dignity, empathy, courage, optimism and wisdom. I believe that living your values is one of the most powerful tools available to you to help you become the person you want to be, to help you accomplish your goals and dreams, and to help you lead and influence others. I also believe a value-based and principled person is most able to create a successful and fulfilling career and life.