subject: Setting Daily Goals: How to Enhance Your Career [print this page] Setting Daily Goals: How to Enhance Your Career
Having goals and working towards them is an important aspect of your psychological and physical well being. Your goals are related to your well-being, thought, mood, behaviour, and motivation. The quality of your goals is also important for achievement, success, and career enhancement.
Your career goals are specifically connected to your level of motivation to achieve your professional dreams. Without conscious career goals you are unmotivated to act on anything. Motivation is the desire to achieve a goal. The strength of your motivation will predict the amount of energy you are willing to use to work towards that goal. People who are motivated to enhance their career have a desire to undertake their responsibilities and complete their obligations at work.
Long-term Goals, Short-term Goals, and Daily Goals
You may have long-term career goals, the big things you would like to achieve in your career 2 or more years from now. You may even have created short-term goals, the things you plan to accomplish in 2 to 24 months from now. Do you, however, have daily goals, the various actions you can take each day to bring you closer to completing your short-term and long-term goals? Daily goals are steps you can take today to start enhancing your career immediately.
Although short-term goals are important to have, they may still be far away enough to allow you to procrastinate in making the necessary steps to get to where you want to go. With a 6-month deadline there is enough time to say "I'll do it tomorrow," thus, wasting time to start improving your career today. In addition to wasting time, a lack of daily goals may cause you to become distracted and to lose motivation to accomplish your big career dreams. To keep your level of motivation at its highest, small, non-complicating daily goals can and will divert your attention from becoming discouraged as you move towards your professional goals.
In addition, long-term goals are usually abstract and it can be hard to know how much effort is needed to achieve them. The ambiguity may lead you to feel helpless and unmotivated. When you break down the big goal into short-term goals and the short-term goals into daily goals, you know exactly what you need to do to today to bring you closer to achieving your grand goal. If you long-term goals are compatible with your values they will keep you motivated to achieve your daily goals.
What are Your Daily Career Goals?
So, what are your every day career goals? When you wake up, do you form a small target in mind of what you can do this day that will bring you closer to achieving your career dreams? If I asked you to tell me right now, what will you do (or did you do) today to get you closer to achieving you long-term career goals, would you be able to give me an answer without stuttering, stumbling, or grasping for something to say?
To set your daily goals and keep your motivation high, you may wish to take into account what is happening at work today. Your daily plans may include activities such as:
Responsibility and accountability
a. Will you take responsibility for everything you accomplished or have not accomplished today? Will you choose to blame your coworkers, family, or unfair boss for undesired outcomes?
Attitude
a. How will you change your attitude today to help you go where you want to go?
i.Will you approach your day with passion, pride and belief? Will everything that you do today be done with pride, passion and belief in your work and goals?
ii.Or, will you have a pessimistic attitude that will negatively influence those around you?
b. Will you provide energy and support to your coworkers or will you bring them down with you?
c. How will you go about completing the tedious parts of your work? Will you sit down and just do what needs to be done or will you procrastinate and complain from here to yonder?
Awareness
a. Will you take the time today to become aware of your strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes, and your surroundings?
b. Will you take the time to become aware of where you are, why you are there, where you can be and how you could get there?
Get involved:
a. Will you search to join a professional association or a networking group?
b. Will you join a project that will demonstrate your skills and build your visibility?
c. Will you volunteer to help out with a particular event?
Networking
a. Will you take the opportunity to network with the people who cross your path today?
Assert yourself
a. Will you remember your value at work today so that you may stand up for yourself in a professional manner?
b. Will you remember to project confidence, control your emotions, address issues directly, and be willing to compromise without selling yourself short?
Embrace all changes
a. Desired and undesired changes are inevitable. Will you make a point to embrace all changes today and to look for ways they will benefit you? Will you use these changes as an opportunity to learn new approaches and skills that can make your path to achieving your big career dreams easier?
Opportunities for long-term goal completion are everywhere if you bother to plan daily goals to stay involved. If you give yourself a 6-month time limit, chances are you will forego the opportunities presented to you today because you will not recognize them as such! When you plan to achieve a daily goal you will be motivated to use the presented opportunities to help you achieve what you have planned out.
Daily Goals Allow You to Act Intentionally
When you have daily goals, your actions become planned, purposeful, engaged, and strategic. You are motivated to take the extra steps today that will bring you more success in any career of your choice. Having daily goals prevents you from being distracted and taking unnecessary time off from completing your goals. When working towards your goals, it is essential to do a little each day. More importantly, what you do each day will not go unnoticed by your co-workers, bosses, and work acquaintances. These are the people that are likely to point you in the direction and provide opportunities that will bring you to where you want to go. Remember, you only have the power to figure out what you want and to take the daily actions that will bring you closer to your goals. You do not have the ability, however, to figure out how this path will unfold and what is the best and fastest way to achieve your dreams. This will come from people and places least expected. All you need to do is achieve your daily goals today.
Enhancing your career starts today. What will you do to bring yourself closer to where you want to be?
