My mother is the biggest influence in my career. I'm not saying it because she is my mother; instead, because she was one of the hardest working people in our family. Once, she taught me one key lesson when she bought herself a horse. You see, while growing up, we lived on a budget, and my mother would give us a money envelope that we had to live off of for at least two weeks. So, here is already one huge lesson she taught me in my childhood. But the biggest one came with the last pie.
You see, my mother used to make a homemade dessert for all of us. After dinner, everyone would grab a piece of pie for themselves, and my mom used to take the last remaining one. However, the last remaining one was the smallest of them all. At that moment, my mother told me one key thing when I told her, "If that's what being a mom is about, I'm not doing it. I don't want the last piece of the pie. While having the pie, my mother told me that she didn't care about the pie or how small or big it was. She said, "The key in life is what you care about, matters."
It is then I learned the lesson about the value of time, trade-offs that we must make, willingly, to get what we want after she bought a horse for herself sometime later. Yes, she bought a horse by saving lots of money because it was what she cared about, what mattered to her. She taught me a lesson that I've carried all through my life: You can have anything you want, as long as you’re willing to make the trade-offs and hard choices to get it. Also, it is important when you lose interest in work you must know to rediscover joy at work.
Choose the Career Goals that Matters
Likewise, our career depends on the choices we make or don't make as it helps with career advancement while working from home or office. Ultimately, what matters is what we can trade-off or how much time we can dedicate to achieving the loftiest career goals in life. It is something that only you can decide – choose the career goals that matter. Set your short term and long term career goals. After all, only when you have a set goal can you give yourself the best chance to achieve them. However, I understand that today, people lack awareness about goal setting. Therefore, let’s revisit it.
Goal Setting
Most of you must have set some goals at one point or the other. However, how many of you have stuck with them? Not many, if I'm right. It happens mainly because we don't really distinguish our goals from our casual daily life that remains devoid of self-improvement efforts. So, here is what goal setting means.
Goal setting refers to selecting a purpose and explicitly planning the required process to achieve it, right from the beginning till the ending. Goal setting is important to achieve the loftiest career goals as it helps us move upwards in our careers. Furthermore, setting goals and achieving them one by one is critical for our overall well-being. You can notice for yourself that when you achieve your set goals, you will experience a sudden rush of happiness and accomplishment. Not to mention, career perks such as promotion and salary hikes come as a by-product.
Steps to Achieve Career Goals
If you have your career goals set already, then here are a few steps that can help you achieve them.
Step-1: Think of the Result You Want
The process of setting a goal is directly proportional to the outcome we wish to attain. Therefore, before you set a goal, ensure that you have considered everything required to achieve it. In the process, you can ask yourself the following the question:
If you don't find yourself convincingly saying, "Yes" to both the questions (above), then you can conclude the goal is not worth pursuing. You can repeat the whole step with the entire list of goals you may have created.
Step-2: Have SMART Goals
Before you get confused about what SMART goals mean, let me tell you that it is an acronym. It stands for:
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Specific
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Measurable
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Attainable
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Realistic
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Time-bound
You must-have SMART goal setting. It is, in fact, critical to ensure you can keep track of time while you are working on a goal. The process effectively raises the probability of achieving the set goal. Also, you achieve the set goal within a set frame of time.
Step-3: List Down Your Goals
It is best to always list your goals. Thinking about goals and not writing them down is as good as never getting them ffulfilled. The goals we set always come from the vague ideas we believe can transform our life for the better. Not documenting them anywhere can lead to the idea fading quickly or taking a long back seat in the course of action you may take. But when you list them somewhere visible and accessible, you set up a reminder about the set goals. The tactic is extremely beneficial as it allows you to work on your goals daily.
Step-4: Set up an Action Plan
So, you have figured out the worthy goals for yourself to achieve, and you have even decided on the time frame you want to accomplish. What's more, you even have a list stuck or written somewhere to constantly remind you about the set goals. Now, only one thing remains and a very important one, i.e., set up an action plan. After you have an action plan set, you will know how to achieve your career goals. Also, ensure networking is a part of your action plan as it is critical to achieve career goals efficiently.
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Shellye Archambeau is determined to help you with all possible strategies to climb the ladder of success. She values your feedback. Do mention them in the comment section below.