In high school, students are beginning to learn the basic skills of project management. Students must learn how to manage their academics, social life, and goals. 

Big goals are hard to achieve for a variety of reasons: time, motivation, and logistics. Yet, for progress to be made, goals must be completed.

A great way to complete a goal is by creating small goals to work towards the end goal. These small goals can help plans seem more attainable.  

Eva Wilson, Leesville’s Executive Council President, constantly works against deadlines to create events for the community. 

Wilson, senior, said, “(In exec,) we have dates, really important dates. We make a really big list of what we want to do. Lists really help to get you started. If you have no place to start, making a list will help you start on what you need to do.” 

Another way to complete a big task is to work backwards from the end goal. 

Full Focus Leadership said that developing a detailed action plan is an essential part of actually following through with big plans. An action plan can help break up a big goal into smaller, more manageable tasks. Every step forward, no matter how small, is a step towards completing a mission.

Tessa Byers, freshman, is a part of the Girl Scouts of America program. Through this program, she has worked toward receiving her Silver Award — a project that implements a sustainable solution to  community issues. 

Byers said, “My silver award focused on nutrient pollution. I had to figure out how to help the community, and I had to teach the community and figure out who I really wanted to educate. I wanted to educate the younger community because they’re the ones who are gonna help with that, they’re gonna be the next generation. I focused on the last step and then worked backwards. I knew I needed these students would be at school, so I figured out how to contact the school, what information I needed to give the school. And then I just followed the steps from there.” 

While there are many ways to complete a goal, teenagers are bound to face obstacles everyday. 

While time management is an essential part of being successful, it can be the hardest part of completing a goal. Some people take on so much that there is no time to do everything. 

Byers said, “When I approach a goal, I make it and set it aside. I keep working until an opportunity will come up that will help the goal — sticking to it, not giving up, and not procrastinating it [will help someone complete a goal]. I do it in small parts and give myself a time limit for each thing. ” 

While there are many struggles to completing a big goal, there are various ways a person can break it into more attainable tasks. A step, no matter how small, is still progress.