Have you ever set career goals, or any kind of goals for that matter, and been psyched about them for a few weeks, only to see the reality of daily life hit you with all of its obstacles and other urgent matters, and then have the goals fade away?
I think we’ve all been there…
Set yourself up for career success
If you want more career opportunities, it’s always great to have career goals. Working towards your goals can give you a sense of momentum, that’ll help you accelerate your career.
Both you and I know, that setting goals don’t necessarily mean, we’ll achieve them. That’s why it’s so crucial, that you do your goal setting in a way, that’ll set you up for success.
That’s what I’ll give you a few tips on how to do, and a free goal worksheet to download, in this post.
So lean back and let’s dive in.
Write Down Your Goals
According to a research done by Dr. Gail Matthews, it shows that writing down your goals increases your chances of reaching them by a massive 42%.
To me, putting pen to paper is a very effective way to create a deeper connection and clarity on my goals. When you write your career goals down, don’t forget to add why it’s important to you to reach them and what difference it’ll make for you once you reach it.
To connect to your goals like that, will help you stay committed if you should get challenged along the way.
Set your goal line
Once you’ve written your concrete and specific goals either on paper, your phone or computer, it’s time to set your goal line. When do you want to achieve the specific career goal in mind?
Set up a reasonable and realistic timeline that include milestones, and the tasks you need to do, in order to reach your goal in time.
Plan, Prioritized, And Commit
If you’re going to reach your goals, you need to be intentional about it. Block out time in your calendar to work towards your goals and stick to it. Don’t let other less important things get in the way of you moving forward and reaching the goals that will enhance your career opportunities.
Do a weekly review of your progress
Spend time once a week to review your progress towards your goals. Reflect on how the past week’s work was and adjust if necessary for the coming week’s goal schedule.
The ‘If – Then’ Strategy
I bet you can mention a few obstacles, that could be in the way of reaching some of your career goals. But what if you by doing a few things, would eliminate those obstacles when they show up. How likely would it be for you to reach your goals?
When you set your goals, prepare for the obstacles you know will show up.
One of the best ways you can prepare for the obstacles you know might come your way is to tackle it with an if-then strategy. It’s fairly simple but very useful.
All you have to do is to write down the scenarios you can think of, that might throw you off track in order to reach your goals. Then, if these scenarios happen, you write down the action you need to take in order to get back on track.
Example:
If my schedule changes because of an emergency or other urgent matters, then I’ll stay up later, or get up earlier, to get the work done.
Geek Out a Bit (I’ve done that)
I’ve geeked out a bit and created screensavers that show my goals on my laptop, so I keep getting reminders to focus on the things that matter most.
I made my goal screen-savers in iPages and took screenshots of them. You could also use apps like Canva.com to make more sophisticated screen-savers or even go all in and create a vision board with all your goals.
Apps and resources
Trello
I use Trello for many things, including my goals. It’s an amazing tool to help keep your goals and other projects lined up in your different boards for a nice overview.
All you do is to create a board, list your goals, and then add checklists or other next steps to your goals. That way it allows you to track your progress and you can always add or delete action steps to your checklists.
Full Focus Planner
Here I’m going a bit old school.
My FAVORITE goal setting tool is my Full Focus Planner, as you can read more about here.
This planner has helped me accomplish some amazing things in a considerable short amount of time.
What I love about is that you have your top goals top-of-mind every single day and you track the progress you make every week when you do your weekly reviews.
Final Thoughts on Goal Setting
I hope these tips have inspired you to attack your goals in a way, that’ll set you up for career success.
You deserve to hit your goals and if you need help getting the career you dream of, then don’t hesitate scheduling a call with me down below or read more about my mentorship program here.
If you want more inspiration like this, then drop your name and best email down below, then I’ll make sure you get my best career and personal leadership tips in your inbox.
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