The first thing to remember is that career goals are personal and require self-reflection. Start by thinking long-term. Where do you envision yourself in three years, five years, etc.?
Once you’ve answered this honestly for yourself, think about what you can be doing now that sets you up for success to achieve those goals.
Create objectives or milestones for yourself, and work towards these short-term successes to keep you on track to reach your long-term goals. It’s easy to get distracted and lose sight of your goals; these milestones will keep you motivated and can help you stay focused. Remember to celebrate and reward yourself when you reach your milestones.
For example, let’s say you decide you want to lead a marketing team at a Fortune 500 company. Now let’s think backwards to where you are now and what you would like to achieve along your journey to achieving this goal. Maybe you decide you need to develop a particular skill. Create an objective to learn this skill either through your job or outside of work. Don’t forget to be specific and think of how you will measure this success, as well as set a timeline to achieve this objective. SMART goals are a great technique when creating goals and objectives.
By setting your goals in the SMART format, you create a clear and actionable goal to work towards.
You can set these types of goals and objectives for nearly everything you want to achieve in your professional and personal life. Remember that your career goals are not set in stone and may change overtime, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t set them now and begin working towards the goals that you want to achieve today in your current situation.
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