A career goal is a great tool in your hand to manage your career effectively. A career goal is like a compass on a dark and endless ocean and it guides your progress in the proper direction. Without a compass, you would be lost in the high seas. Similarly, without a proper career goal, you would be lost in the world of jobs and will find yourself unable to reach your full potential.
Benefits of Career Goal Setting
Setting a career goal for yourself may be one of the most effective tools you have to motivate yourself and to make significant progress in your career. Career goals help you stay focused on your chosen career path and work as great indicators to measure the progress you have made. Career goals also give you directions that you need to follow to reach your full potential. Having your final long term goal in mind will inspire you to face challenges and obstacles with grit and determination. Additionally, career goal setting gives you a sense of control over where your life is headed and helps reduce the stress and anxiety of not knowing where to do next.Career Goal SettingIt is important to set proper career goals to ensure that they realistic and achievable. If you set goals for yourself that are more like fantasies and have a very slim chance of being realized, you are likely to feel frustrated and discontent. Keep your personal strengths and limitations in mind before you set your career goals. Prioritizing your goals is also a very important aspect of career goal setting. Classify your goals as very important, important and good to have accomplished. Once these are in place, you can then create a plan of action to achieve these goals.
Long Term & Short Term
It is important to create both short term and long term career goals. While the long term goal will give you the overall context within which to operate, short term goals will help you create milestones that will pave your way to your long term goals. Your long term goal should be akin to your life’s ambition, while your short term goals should include progress that you intend to make in the next few months or years. Some people even create daily and weekly career goals to help them stay focused on the task at hand.
Flexibility is Key
The process of career goal setting should include a measure of time and results. You need to set a fixed result that you need to achieve in a fixed amount of time. This is how you will be able to measure your progress. However, it is important to remember that the plan you have created is meant to assist you in reaching your goal. Sticking to the plan should not become your goal in itself. It is important to have the ability to be flexible in your goals to account for life events that are not in anybody’s control.