subject: Goal Setting For Career Change Success [print this page] You can't have a plan without goals-something you want to do or to achieve. But in order to achieve your goals, it's important to know what to include as part of your goals.
When it comes to setting up your goals, you will want to make sure to keep the following in mind:
* Your goals should be measurable / specific: When setting up your main goal and your goals along the path, you want to be as detailed as possible. For example, if you need to go back to college to obtain more education, then state exactly what type of education, degree, license, or certification you will need as well as the steps you will need to take in order to meet your goal.
Don't just state "Obtain more education." A more specific and measurable goal would be to say, "Obtain a bachelor's degree in business administration." You will then list the various steps you will need to take to obtain that degree. These would include things such as researching the various schools and degree programs, obtaining necessary literature and enrollment forms, reviewing and planning out each class you want to take during each semester, and the list goes on.
* Goals should include a completion date: Each goal you set, including their accompanying steps, should have a specific date of completion tied into it. This will help you to stay focused and moving forward with your overall mission or goal. Make sure to take into consideration various aspects of your life before deciding on your timeframe for completion.
You want the timeframe to allow you enough time to achieve your goal but not so much time that you lose your motivation. The date should help to drive you to get things done but not stress you out. For example, if you want to enroll in some online courses but still need to do your research into the various online schools, then write down the date you want to have all of your research done by and the date you want to be enrolled in the school of your choice.
* Goals should be realistic: It is always important to think realistically when setting up your goals. This means you will need to make sure you are capable of achieving the goals you set for yourself. If you want to obtain a new job in sales but you have never had any sales experience, setting a goal to find a new job in sales within 30 days may not be that realistic. However, if you have years of sales experience, then setting such a goal shouldn't be too hard to achieve. So keep things within perspective and be honest with yourself when it comes to your abilities.
* Focus on your short-term goals: One thing you want to avoid when setting up your goals is focusing too much on the big picture. The reason for this is because sometimes the main goal you want to achieve is way off in the distance. If you are constantly thinking about what you want to achieve but keep thinking about how long it will take to achieve it, you might begin to feel down about it and lose your motivation.
This is why it is important to break your main goal into smaller goals and break them down into even smaller goals or steps/actions you can work on each and every week. Focus your attention on your daily or weekly action plan and every time you complete one of your smaller steps or goals, check them off and give yourself a nice reward. You may not have achieved your main goal yet, but you will have completed a very important step and be closer to obtaining your main goal than you were before.
Proper goal setting is very important when it comes to following through with a career plan. The more thoroughly you define your goals, the more successful you will be at achieving them.
