Goal-Setting Developing a Vision & Goals for Your Career Plan

We’ve gone over a ton of stuff already but now we’re getting to the most important part…how to set your career goals. When it comes to setting your own career goals, it’s important to look first at the big picture, and then focus in on the smaller steps you’ll need to accomplish in order to achieve that end result.  That means looking at the long-term and then the short-term. 

First identify exactly what you ultimately want to achieve with your career.  Is it a management position? Leadership role? CEO? Now is the time to think BIG! What are your goals?

Next, start outlining what you’ll need to do in order to achieve this ultimate goal. These are your short-term supporting goals and should include:

·      Learning more about what it takes to achieve your long-term goal.

·      Getting the education and training you need.

·      Gaining the experience and developing the associated skills related to your long-term goal.

·      Making the connections and networking with the people in your chosen field who can help you achieve your goal. 

Here is how to approach setting your career goals:

·      Get real -- Making measurable career goals and setting success metrics will go a long way towards ensuring that your career roadmap is realistic. Once you have those benchmarks in place, you can track your progress in a meaningful way. 

·      But not too real -- Your career roadmap should be a challenge, not a cakewalk. If your goals do not make you at least a little bit uncomfortable, set your sights higher. Push yourself in your overall vision and in the tasks that will carry you there. You might just be surprised with what you can achieve.

·      Write it down -- Research shows that people who write down their goals are significantly more likely to achieve those goals. There are several benefits. One is that it forces you to think through what you want to achieve in a concrete way -- if you have a hard time finding the words to explain your goal in a sentence or two, you probably have not thought it through.

·      Share the plan -- Another benefit of writing your goals down is that it makes it easier to share them. It might be a dirty trick to play on yourself, but once you have told your friends and colleagues about your goals, you will feel a sense of disappointment if you do not follow through. That is some good motivation!