I wouldn’t describe myself as a gambler but I reckon it’s a good bet that if you’re reading this blog article you have at least one goal for your career? A dream you would like to achieve?
There are all sorts of career goals that cover many different aspects of work. Forbes.com’s post “11 popular Career-Related New Year’s Resolutions” lists goals that range from:
- what job people do – wanting to get a raise or promotion or find a new job, to
- how they do it – being more organized, improving relationships with the boss or co-workers and enhancing communications skills, to
- how work impacts on our whole lives – reducing stress and improving work life balance.
You may even have a number of these in your plan for 2015!
Given that research by a British psychologist Richard Wiseman suggests that 88% of New Year Resolutions are doomed to failure – as only 12% are achieved at the end of a year.
That’s pretty disappointing when you consider that any resolution is usually about improving your life. Career-specific goals impact what you do day-in and day-out, how much money you earn, the people you work with and many other aspects of our lives (not that big a deal – just a lot of your life!).
One place to start is by looking at the goals you have set for yourself.
Here’s 5 tips to help you achieve your goals:
1. Have goals that are what you really, really want.
Think about the goals you have set and be sure that they will be what you really want if you are successful. You can only get by for so long on will power and at some point working towards them is going to feel like hard work or a distraction from other things that you want to do.
Ask yourself if what you want will be worth the effort? And if when you get to your goals will you be doing something or working somewhere or in a way that you actually like?
In his book, “The Strongest Life” author Marcus Buckingham says that talking with other people who are already doing what you are working towards is one of the best ways of understanding whether you will be happy when you are doing it. Go out and talk to people. Ask questions. Google it. Find out as much as you can.
When you know that your goals are what you really, really want, (not what you think you want or that someone else wants for you) it will make it so much easier to go from the resolution made over a glass of bubbles to an action plan and the hard yards of implementation.
2. Be specific about what you want to achieve
Once you start developing a plan you will need to know exactly what achieving your goal will look like.
A vague “get a new job” goal is a lot harder to plan than knowing that you want a specific type of role, in the type of company you want to work for, at a certain pay level and where you want the role to be located.
3. Prioritize
Multi-tasking doesn’t really work when you’re trying to eat and type (as a keyboard filled with lettuce has reminded me on many occasions) and it’s not that much different trying to achieve multiple goals at the same time.
If you have too many goals it’s unlikely you will have the capacity to focus on them all.
Work out what is most important to achieve and focus on one, maybe two goals that will help you get there.
One goal, achieved, is better than a long list of fabulous ideas that never get off the ground.
Write your goals down to bring them to life
4. Write them down!
Writing down your goals makes them real…not just a fleeting thought.
When you see one written down it ‘exists’ and helps you validate if this is what you really want.
And it becomes the start of your plan to make it into a reality.
5. Develop an action plan.
A plan of specific, actionable steps is the difference between a whimsy (no matter how much you want it) and a tangible, achievable goal.
If you know what you are going to do and when you are going to do it – you will be able to keep track of your progress and have an anchor to come back to when you are busy with other things. You won’t have to start from the beginning wondering where you were up to last time you were working on the activity.
Break down larger or ambitious goals into smaller steps so that they are more manageable.
Assign due dates to your steps and put them in your calendar, smart phone or any of your devices that is going to be a nuisance and remind you that they are due.
These small steps can help you stay on track and actually turn your dreams into reality.
The Career Tip To Go: [Tweet “Focus on your goal and turn it into a plan”]
Like more career tips to go?
[mc4wp_form id=”1429″]
Karen Adamedes is an experienced executive, author and career-tipster. In her most recent book ‘Professional in Pajamas: 101 Tips for Working from Home’ Karen shares many of the insights she has gained during a decade of working from home, where she has negotiated multi-million dollar deals, led national teams and delivered major projects. She does admit to sometimes working in her pajamas.
Leave a Reply