Your Career Goal

How many times have you promised yourself, “I must sort out that staff member who is not pulling his weight”, or “I must get down to the gym and lose some weight”?

Sound like New Year’s resolutions?

Why do good intentions fizzle out? We all hear and read about people who have been successful, yet in many cases we can’t see the difference between these guys and ourselves – in fact, we are “better” than them, so why have we not got anywhere?

To succeed, you need to change “if only” to “I will”.

Goal setting does work.

First and foremost, write down your career goal – much more difficult than you think……

But wishful thinking should not play a part. It has been proven in studies* that writing down your goals really works – it is an incentive, there in black & white.

However ambitious your goals, write them down.

Not small goals, like losing a couple of pounds in weight (your weight varies by more than that every day) or your next promotion or sale.

Bold goals, like becoming a Director or Chairman of your company, or running your own successful business – noble goals.

Christopher Reeves

Think of Christopher Reeves – his goal is to walk again.

The former Superman is paralysed from the neck down after a riding accident. But does he give up?

NO! His goal is to walk again.

He can now move a finger, considered completely impossible by all the experts. In the meantime he has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for research into the condition, and has inspired other sufferers. NONE of this would have happened without his clearcut goal – to walk again.

GO ON, write down your goal in life.

Not something wishy washy, but bold and concrete.

It may be things – a new house away from the hustle and bustle – or one in the centre of things.

It may be a million dollars, or it may be to have a happy and lasting relationship with family all around – or all of them.

Then do what Christopher Reeves did – tell people.

Let someone you admire know your goals – your nearest and dearest, or a respected colleague or friend. You can then no longer hide!

Once you have done that, imagine yourself already there, imagine your feelings, how you are living your life.

Then, imagine how you got there.

Athletes do it……

Now, when an athlete imagines winning Olympic gold, did she just moon around dreaming of the medal being presented?

NO

That was the start of how to get there.

She sets steps on the way
  - she needs to be super fit, so she works out and practices
   – she needs to be competitive, so she looks for and enters
        all the competitions she can
    – she needs to be noticed, so she finds out who are the
        right people and makes sure they know she’s there
    – then she trains some more
    – and again.

Persistence and not giving up at the first hurdle is vital – do you think Christopher Reeves had no setbacks? All the experts kept telling him there was no hope, so he kept at it and proved them wrong.

Yes, but I'll get round to it later

Often you need a kick to get yourself started. There are two ways

  Constant reminders
  Goal Setting Tools

Constant reminders

I'll cover three simple ways here:
a) Write down your Goal and pin it to your fridge door Not a very fruitful method - if you're like me, the fridge door is covered with notes and fridge magnets - not to be recommended!

b) Enter your Goal into your email calendar - easy to set up on Microsoft Outlook.. You can set it to repeat every day or every week. This is much better than above, but again, I find that after a while I am deleting the message as soon as it pops up - feeling guilty, yes, but nevertheless, neglecting due to "pressures".

c) Tell someone, and ask them to prompt you every so often. It is surprising how effective it is not to want to be embarrassed in front of your friends! Make it a "dare".

Goal Setting Tools

THIS SITE IS TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE

I researched this area, and rather than recommend any tools, I examined dedicated sites which look at goal setting for all aspects of life. In particular, I can recommend Make Your Goals Happen, a website run by a guy who has put a lot of effort checking out both methods and the "gurus" of setting and achieving goals. Find out more about the benefits of setting career goals by clicking here.