Career goal setting

One of the toughest issues in making a good career choice and career goal setting is identifying what you want. Even when it seems that you know what you want,you may still have doubts on if your career choice is the right one for you.

Reaching clarity in those issues may be the most important thing you can do in your career planning and goal setting. Here are a few career goal setting guidelines that can help.

Most people, even very successful ones, have some periods in their career path when they seem unsure about their career choice and goals. It is totally human to feel that way.

Often, such periods just come and go. For example, they come when you face some overwhelming obstacles on your way. It is all over as soon as you get through these obstacles.

That situation by itself is not a problem of choosing a career, only a test of your perseverance in seeing it through. But what if those doubts persist, or if they always live somewhere in the background of your thoughts? If it just does not feel right?

If this is the case, then it is time to look more carefully at your career choice and overall career objectives.

Often we choose or are placed in a career because it just seems like the right step to make or that is what your studies have focused on.

The only problem is that sometimes that passion that we once had as a young adult are now gone, or the realism of the job has taken the interest and joy out of it.

This is when it is time to set a new career goal or objective. Choosing the right career goal to sink into requires a great deal of soul searching. You need to ask yourself these questions beforehand:

1. Am I making the kind of money that I want to make?
2. Do I want to make more money?
3. Does money even matter to me?
4. Do I like what I am doing right now?
5. What am I passionate about?
6. What could I be doing that would make me happier than I am right now?
7. Would I be happier simply switching positions or getting a promotion; or would I be happier changing careers all together?
8. Why am I still working here?
9. What is stopping me from leaving this job or getting that promotion?
10. What is stopping me from leaving this job?

These are all vital questions that you have to ask yourself before deciding what your career goals are going to be. If you are honest with yourself, you will know exactly what direction you should be going in.

Without being honest with yourself you can't expect to better your life, you can only expect to have to ask yourself these questions all over again until you find happiness.

Career goal setting plan

The following provides you with a simple outline of the factors you may want to consider and identify when setting your career goals in a step by step format.

1. Career goal you must define and write them down in order of priority.

2. Benefits and advantages of achieving this goal. Listing these may help to motivate you.

3. Key steps that you need to take

4. When will I do this? Give yourself deadlines

5. Support and resources. What support and from whom do I need, what resources, such as time, money, contacts.

6. Outcomes and reflection. Record whether you achieved the goal and what worked or did not work along the way for future reference.

The above shows you the who, what, where, when, and how of career goal setting. It is just like finding the facts for a story. Journalists have to answer all of these questions in order to get the full story.

That is the same thing that you have to do when setting career goals. Let me show you in exact detail.

Who
Who will I ask for help? Who will benefit from my career goal? Who will I work with to accomplish my goal?

What
What do I want the outcome to be? What will I do to get started? What will really make me happy?

Where
Where should I start? Where will my career goal put me in 10 years? Where will I apply my resources?

When
When should I begin? When do I want these goals to be reached? When will I apply my knowledge to begin attaining my goals?

How
How should I begin? How will these goals affect my future? How do I really feel about the goals that I have chosen?

All of these questions have to be directed before you can begin to work on your career goals.

They will take some real thought and honesty to set them properly. When you have answered these questions, you need to develop an action plan.





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