What is your career goal? Do you even have one? How many times have you written your goals down in a beautiful notebook, felt really inspired by them, got on with the day to day and forgotten all about them? Maybe you’ve set yourself some goals in the past (probably in January) but you never seem to reach them despite your best intentions. Does this sound familiar? And it’s hard isn’t it? Life is busy, and you want to enjoy it, plus time just seems to slip by and before you know it you’ve ticked off another year in your job.
Don’t despair, I have a simple technique to share with you that could help you make real progress with your goals this time.
If you want to move forward with your career goals and actually turn them into reality, you need to really connect with them. This will both motivate and inspire you to take action. And the key is inspiration – if you have motivation but no inspiration then you are unlikely to succeed.
Step 1:
Write down your career goal. It could be an immediate goal e.g. I want to take the lead role on the next project team, or I want to present a proposal to the SMT, or it could be more medium term, e.g. I want to achieve promotion to x role within 1 year. Remember all the tips about making it SMART.
Step 2:
This step is REALLY important and often missing from our planning, and the reason we don’t make progress. Ask yourself what your purpose is and how it is connected to your goal. For example, it could be to stretch yourself and learn something new; earn x amount to fund x in your lifestyle; to influence change, achieve a challenge/milestone for yourself. Really think about WHY you want to achieve this career goal – what is it all for? Write it down next to your goal.
Step 3:
Then connect your values to your WHY. Could it be integrity, authenticity, challenge, making a difference, being true to yourself or something else? If you’re not sure about your key values then get in touch and I’ll send you my FREE values exercise to work out what’s important to you.
This will be your inspiration for making it happen. By linking your goal to your core values it gives it more meaning and is therefore more powerful.
Step 4:
Now connect these all together and visualise how you will feel when you achieve your goal. Take some time out, find a quiet space and imagine what your life would be like when you have achieved this goal. Bring into your imagination your why and your values. For example, if you’re visualising starting a ‘side hustle’ alongside your day job imagine how your life will change when your side hustle is launched, what it will enable you to do, how you will feel doing it and how it will satisfy your values or motivators. Then write down the key elements of your visualisation or draw a picture and keep this to inspire you to move forward with your goal.
Step 5:
Now you’re ready to plan. Break your goal down into key actions needed to make it a reality and create a plan. Keep your plan visible and celebrate when you achieve your milestones.
Step 6:
Change your mindset. To create a new approach to achieving your goal you need to zap your mindset and identify any blocks that are getting in the way, and what you need to do to get over them. Shake things up a bit and start your day differently when you’re working on your day. I like to start with some yoga and mindfulness when I’m about to work on something new as it gets me in the right headspace but you might want something energising or creative before tackling part of your plan. The key is to identify what would help you feel positive about starting on moving forward with your goal.
Use the opportunity now to work on your career goal now – get ahead of the game and start making progress in a new way.
If you need help or support with achieving your career goal get in touch for a FREE consultation.
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