Cue Card 2020 #4: Describe a goal that you achieved, which was set by yourself

You should say:

• What it was
• When did you set it
• How did you achieve it
• Explain how it influenced your life

Model Answer:

• I don’t think I have a strong willpower and many times I set have set goals but failed to achieve them.
• But last to last year, I made a new year’s resolution and I made sure I completed it.
• In 2018, I took my board exams and I unfortunately I spent a lot of time sitting at home for two to three months.
• Because of the lack of physical activity, I gained 5 kgs of weight in those months.
• Due to the weight gain, I also lost confidence and stopped talking to my friends.
• Thus, I started staying indoor and I gained even more weight.
• So, at the beginning of 2019 I decided to lose all the weight that I gained and regain my confidence.
• I mainly did three things to achieve it.
• First, I joined a gym and stayed regular with it.
• Every day I used to wake up at 6 AM and go to the gym.
• I spent about 45 mins to 1 hour at the gym.
• The second thing I did was to control and manage my diet.
• I stopped eating sweets and packaged products.
• This was really hard for I love sweets.
• It was especially hard to give up on chocolates.
• The last thing I did was to sleep on time.
• I could only be regular with the gym if I woke up on time and that meant I needed to sleep on time.
• Earlier I had the habit of binge-watching TV shows and so I used to stay up late at night.
• I used to wake up just very late and thus if I did that, I would never have been able to go to the gym.
• I didn’t stop watching TV shows, I just made sure I watched only 1 episode every day.
• My gym trainer also told me that proper eight hours of sleep for muscles to regenerate and heal so sleeping on time was very important.
• After three months of this schedule, I was finally able to lose all that weight.
• Doing this made me really confident and I started going out and meeting my friends again.

Follow ups

1. Do people need to write down goals or simply memorize them?
   Well I live to write down my goals. It just provides that extra motivation in that weak moment or when we are having a bad day and we feel like giving up.
2. Do Indian people usually set goals.
   Yes, many Indian people do. In fact, I remember on 1st of January a lot of my friends and I share our new year goals and resolutions.
3. Should parents set goals for children?
   I think parents should motivate children to keep goals, but I don’t think parents should themselves keep the goals. Because I think if children don’t keep the goals, they won’t have the same level of motivation to fulfill them.
4. When do young people start setting goals for themselves?
   I think there is no fixed age. It all depends upon the persons maturity and level of responsibility. Some people start keeping goals at a very early age like at twelve or thirteen, while others start keeping goals after reaching adulthood. Goal setting is much more about self-fulfillment and making oneself better and this realization to make oneself better sometimes come early and sometimes late.
5. What are the kinds of goals that are unrealistic?
   I think goals which are in tune with a person’s personality are realistic. I mean if I decide to do something which would require me to make a drastic change in my personality, I would not be able to achieve it. So that would be unrealistic for me.
6. Do young people and old people have different kinds of goals? What are they?
   I think both yes and no. Yes, in the sense that young people goals are more about achieving something in life, while goals for old people are about helping their young achieve their goals in life. No because sometimes goals can be similar too, for example see both young and old trying to lose weight and look smart in the gyms.
7. What is more fulfilling working towards a goal or achieving it?
   I think both are fulfilling in their own sense. Working towards a goal is about meeting and overcoming challenges, it is about failing and getting back up. Finally, achieving a goal brings a feeling and that efforts did make a difference. However, if we didn’t struggle to achieve something, neither the work we put in nor the final goal brings in fulfillment.
8. Do you think it’s important to have realistic goals?
   I think being realistic has its own advantages and disadvantages. Its advantageous because if the goals are unrealistic it is very easy to give up and believe that it was not possible in the first place.It’s also harmful in the sense that we never test our limits. We never try to go beyond. So, I generally set goals to just beyond realistic.

Other Sample

Described a success you have had in your life

Describe a time when you had to work hard to achieve a goal