Here comes huge insight to help you set, reach, and talk about your career goals.
Why do you need it? Well—
You work. You grind. You chisel out a living. But you get the creeping feeling you’re just spinning wheels.
In the long, dark night of the soul, you ask, “What am I doing? Where am I going?”
Is this all there is?
To quote Pete Townshend, “There’s got to be another way!”
There is. Lift up your heart. With some fun head-scratching and a few quick tools, you’ll get up among the clouds where you belong. Not in five years, but right now.
This guide will show you:
How to Set Career Goals That Power You
There’s nothing worse than aimlessness.
It’s exhausting. Demoralizing. You go through the motions. It’s like eating rocks.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
The right career goals can light you up inside so everything just happens.
How?
Author Steven Covey said to vividly imagine your own funeral. What will they say about you? Did you do everything you hoped?
Focus on the prize. Cozy up to a notebook and paint your dreams in big, bold strokes.
Professional Goals Checklist
Beware.
Don’t go shallow when you plan professional goals. Too often we say, “I’d like to make six figures.” But money isn’t everything. What if you hate your job, your life, and your commute?
Consider all the things:
- Money. Don’t short yourself in this important step. You’re worth it. Set an income you’ll be happy with.
- Passion. It keeps spare time from slipping down the Facebook hole. In Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert says it feels like falling in love. What makes you feel that way?
- Strengths. What are your core skills? Does your future self use them every day to great effect? Tie career goals to your strengths.
- Challenge. Passion comes from skills plus challenges.
S.M.A.R.T Career Goals
SMART goals are: Specific, Measurable, Action-Based, Relevant, and Timeline-driven. They have start and end dates and exact metrics.
SMART goals map to scheduled actions that make them easier to reach. The goals turn into doable calendar items.
So—
Make your career goals:
- Specific. A “better job” is nice, but “$110,000 a year for 30 hours a week of fun, engaging work as a remote DevOps engineer” is specific.
- Measurable. Specific goals are measurable. How much money? How many hours? What you measure, you improve.
- Action-based. I want a magic genie too. But—set realistic goals and break them into doable chunks.
- Relevant. Do your professional goals inspire you, or make you think, “oh, yuck.?” Come back to your passion to make work goals relevant to you.
- Timeline-driven. Keep your list of objectives short. Then put the action-items in your calendar. You’ll do what you schedule. The rest will disappear.