Chapter 10: Setting Goals and Creating a Plan
Setting Goals
It’s important to think about short and long term goals, write them down, and pursue them! A long-term goal is usually something that is big and takes a while, and may feel daunting to you! A short-term goal is smaller, more manageable, more concrete, and immediate. In order to be successful, one must learn how to set and work towards both.
Here’s an example: Let’s say you want to become an RN. Well, that may seem like a daunting goal since nursing programs are highly competitive and require excellent grades in science and anatomy classes, along with some medical job experience. How do you break this into manageable goals? By setting short-term goals that lead to your long term goal! It might look something like this:
- First: Become a certified nursing assistant.
- Second: Earn really good grades in all your basic classes.
- Third: Earn really good grades in anatomy and physiology.
- Fourth: Maybe do some volunteer work in the community to set you apart from other candidates.
- Fifth: Apply to nursing programs (tip: apply to all community college and university nursing programs to improve your chances of getting in!).
- Sixth: Get a nursing job and start your career!
This process could take five years just to get into nursing school, depending on where you start when you begin.
Perhaps you are planning to get a BA or BS degree? Why? Why not? Do you need more time to consider? What are your long-term goals? Perhaps you prefer to break down your goals into small steps and see where they lead you, rather than making a final long-term plan now, not knowing what opportunities might appear for you in the future?
As you think about your many options, do reassure yourself that the best laid plans can go awry! There is a certain magic in trusting that the path will reveal itself as you move forward, without knowing exactly where you are headed. As long as you carry your career development tools with you and ask for lots of input and guidance along the way, good things will happen, surely!
Many people do plan to get a bachelor’s degree, and for good reasons. Although this degree takes longer and costs more money than a vocational degree at a community college, it can eventually lead to higher wage jobs and opportunities. In the case of some careers, you HAVE to get the bachelor’s degree because you are required to go even further and get a master’s degree.
For example, to be a social worker with an MSW (Master’s degree in Social Work = better pay, better benefits, better security) you would have to earn a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree, too. Some bachelor degrees have a career path, like the MSW; however, some do not. Simply earning a bachelor’s degree, without any job training or vision with it, could land you a low wage job at first, but then open more doors for you later! However, it will always be up to you to take the initiative needed to get into the career you want.
Below are three articles that discuss the process of setting goals. The first article, Balance Your Goal Setting, reminds us that it is also important to set goals in other areas of your life. The second two articles are aimed specifically at your career development goals.
Balance Your Goal Setting
To give a broad, balanced coverage of all important areas in your life, try to set goals in some or all of the following categories:
- Artistic: Do you want to achieve any artistic goals? If so, what?
- Attitude: Is any part of your mindset holding you back? Is there any part of the way that you behave that upsets you? If so, set goals to improve or cure the problem.
- Career: What level do you want to reach in your career?
- Education: Is there any knowledge you want to acquire in particular? What information and skills will you need to achieve other goals?
- Family: Do you want to be a parent? If so, how are you going to be a good parent? How do you want to be seen by a partner or by members of your extended family?
- Financial: How much do you want to earn by what stage?
- Physical: Are there any athletic goals you want to achieve, or do you want good health deep into old age? What steps are you going to take to achieve this?
- Pleasure: How do you want to enjoy yourself? – you should ensure that some of your life is for you!
- Public Service: Do you want to make the world a better place by your existence? If so, how?
Source:
Mind Tools Content Team. (n.d.-b). Personal Goal Setting: – Planning to Live Your Life Your Way. Mind Tools. https://www.mindtools.com/page6.html
How to Set Short- and Long-Term Career Goals
You may feel setting long-term and short-term goals is a waste of time, especially if you live by the old proverb, “Man plans, God laughs.” Don’t make that mistake. Not planning for the future can make for a chaotic one.
Setting goals is a significant component of the career planning process. To have a successful and satisfying career, define your goals and devise a strategy to achieve them. A roadmap that will take you from choosing an occupation to working and succeeding at it is called a career action plan.
The Difference Between Short and Long Term Goals
Goals are broadly classified into two categories: short-term goals and long-term goals. You will be able to accomplish a short-term goal in approximately six months to three years, while it will usually take three to five years to reach a long-term one. Sometimes you can achieve a short-term goal in fewer than three months and a long-term one may take more than five years to complete.
To achieve each long-term goal, you must first accomplish a series of both short-term goals and additional long-term goals. For example, let’s say you aspire to become a doctor. That may be your ultimate long-term goal, but before you can tackle it, you must achieve a few others, for example, complete college (four years), medical school (another four years), and a medical residency (three to eight years).
Along the road to reaching those long-term goals, there are several short-term goals to clear first. They include excelling in entrance exams and applying to college, medical school, and eventually residencies. Since grades matter when it comes to achieving those goals, it is necessary to break your short-term goals down even further, like earning a high-grade point average.
7 Ways to Increase Your Chances of Reaching Your Goals
Your hard work will play the most prominent role in your success, but if you don’t formulate your goals correctly, it will be much more challenging to accomplish them. Your short-term and long-term goals must meet the following criteria:
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- Have specific goals. You might say, “I want to be successful.” Well, who doesn’t? But can you define what success means? Success to one person may mean becoming CEO of a company while to another person it may mean getting home from work by 6 p.m. every day.
- Your goals must be measurable. Have a timeframe for achieving your goals and a way to determine when you have reached them.
- Don’t be negative. Your goal should be something you want rather than something you want to avoid. It is much better to say, for instance, “I want to improve my skills over the next four years so that I qualify for a better job” than “I don’t want to be stuck in this job for another four years.”
- Be realistic. Your long-term goals must be compatible with your abilities and skills. Stating “I want to win a Grammy Award” if you can’t sing or play an instrument will set you up for failure.
- Your goal must be reachable within your time frame. Break a long-term goal down into smaller goals. It is better to take baby steps than one big giant leap.
- Pair each goal with an action. For instance, if your goal is to become a writer, sign up for a writing class.
- Be flexible. Don’t give up if you encounter barriers that threaten to impede your progress. Instead, modify your goals accordingly. Let’s say you need to continue working will keep you from going to college full-time. Although it won’t be possible to finish your bachelor’s degree in four years, you can enroll in school part-time and take a bit longer. Flexibility also means being willing to let go of goals that are no longer meaningful and instead put your energy into pursuing other ones.
Source:
Rosenberg Mckay, D. (2019, December 9). 7 Ways to Set Short and Long Term Goals for Your Career. The Balance Careers. https://www.thebalancecareers.com/goal-setting-526182
How to Set and Achieve Goals
Stay motivated, committed, and moving forward
SUSAN M. HEATHFIELD Updated September 03, 2019
Goals Accomplishment Based on Values
One recommendation is to link each goal to a value. For example, if diversity in the workforce is a value your organization advocates, then at least one goal must further diversity.
Establish short-term, mid-term, and long-term goals based on the solid foundation of your values, or your company’s values. If your goal is congruent with and allows you to live your most important values, you are more likely to accomplish the goal.
Your work-life balance is an important part of achieving your goals. When you are achieving your personal goals, you are more likely to succeed in achieving organizational goals because you are balancing your life.
If you have not considered setting goals for your non-work life, you could set goals such as time with your family, continuing education or physical fitness.
You are less likely to experience conflicting priorities if the important aspects of your life have a value-based goal. Some areas to consider having goals set in might be:
- Family and home
- Financial and career
- Spiritual and ethical
- Physical and health
- Social and cultural
- Mental and educational
Create a Plan
The problem most people have with goal accomplishment is creating a workable plan. Creating a plan might seem to be complicated at first, but it doesn’t have to be.
Your plan for your goal should be set up in smaller achievable milestones that relate to the overall goal. If your plan is to complete your bachelor’s degree, there will be specific tasks you need to accomplish, which are measurable and achievable. These goals will be realistic and be time-based. This is known as a SMART goal.
The tasks you need to accomplish for your degree are the classes you need to take. The classes will be measured by the grades you receive, and they will be achievable with hard work.
College class completion is a realistic goal, and there are time limits to each class. As you complete each one, you move to the next.
As you set your goals, think of moving to different classes in high school or college. You always have to complete one to move to another, and you can do several subjects simultaneously.
SMART Goals
Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timed (SMART) goals allow you to develop objectives which you can attain. Goal failure usually occurs when the goals are not achievable or realistic, which leads to frustration and eventually quitting.
A specific goal is not ambiguous. Going to college is an ambiguous goal. Achieving a bachelors of science in management is a specific goal.
A goal needs to be measurable so you can track your progress. Each level of education is labeled as a grade or level. Each level and grade have a number of class credits required for progression. Classes in each level are worth a certain amount of credits. This system allows you to measure your progress.
A goal that is not achievable isn’t a goal. You’ll need to ensure your goals are obtainable, similar to the way classes are achievable.
Realistic goals are much more likely to be completed. Completing a college program without studying or attending classes is not a realistic goal. There are some people capable of this, but realistically you’ll need to work for it.
Goals should be time-based. This means that you should set deadlines for yourself. If you decide to get your degree in accounting, but don’t give yourself a deadline, the chances of succeeding are low because you won’t be driven to finish.
Advertise Your Goals
Remind yourself of your goals daily. It helps to write them down and place them where you can see them. You might think about motivational notes to yourself at your workspace, on your dashboard, or on the mirror. Reminder alarms set on your phone with motivational messages might work for you.
Whichever method you choose to advertise your goals, read them every time you see them, and re-commit to them every time you do.
Share Your Goals With Others
Friends and family will almost always support your goals. You should consider sharing them. Your manager is likely to support your objectives as well since your successes are her successes.
The people closest to you are the greatest source of motivation you have. They can remind you that you should be doing something, or check in on your progress. Even the comments you receive from naysayers can be turned into motivational energy. You’ll never do that, you might as well give up! is a statement that might fuel you to achieve more.
Check Progress Regularly
One of the weaknesses of the annual performance review system is the lack of frequency of progress measurement and tracking. You are more likely to accomplish the goals you set if you review your progress at planned intervals as part of your normal routine.
Whether you use a paper planner, a smartphone, or a computer, enter your goals and schedule daily and weekly actions that support their accomplishment. The discipline of the regular review is a powerful goal accomplishment tool.
Address or Eliminate Obstacles
Simply tracking your goals daily is not enough. If you’re unhappy with your progress, assess what is keeping you from accomplishing the goals. Ask yourself questions such as, “Is there something I could be doing differently?” or “is there a different approach to this?” Perhaps you could reevaluate the goal-related task to ensure it aligns with your plan and is attainable and realistic.
If you are not making progress on a particular goal, attempt to do a root-cause analysis to determine why. A root-cause analysis is a systematic way of identifying a problem, such as reviewing all the steps in a process to figure out what is wrong.
Only by honestly analyzing your lack of progress can you determine the steps to take to change.
Reward Goal Accomplishment
Even the accomplishment of a minor goal is cause for celebration. Don’t depress yourself with thoughts about all that you still have to do. Celebrate what you have done. Then move on to the next milestone.
Changing Goals
Periodically look at the goals you have set. Are the goals still the right goals? Give yourself permission to change your goals and resolutions based on changing circumstances.
Don’t spend an entire year failing to achieve a particular goal. Your time is better spent on achievement than on beating yourself up for lack of progress. Maybe you made the goal too big or maybe you set too many goals. Do an honest assessment, change what needs to be changed, and keep moving on.
Source:
Heathfield, S. (2019, September 3). How to Set and Achieve Goals. The Balance Careers. https://www.thebalancecareers.com/how-to-set-and-achieve-goals-1918137
Chapter Activity: 5 Year Goals & Plans
Is it realistic to write a Five Year Plan? Who knows what will happen in five years? And, what if you aren’t sure what career or program you want to pursue? Many of you will need more time to complete your research and decision making.
Here’s the good news: There is no need to rush or be impulsive. You can still write a Five Year Plan without a specific career decision. If you haven’t made a decision, however, your plan must include:
- What research and investigation will you complete to help you make that decision?
- When do you hope to have finalized and committed to a specific college program or degree?
- In the meantime, what courses and resources will you pursue to continue on a successful college journey?
This plan will help you to at least set some short-term goals for the next six months to a year. And, this plan will also help you evaluate your strengths and weaknesses as you move forward. Take some time to consider the following questions:
- Are you as confident as you would like to be?
- Are you exercising, eating right, and getting enough sleep (7 – 8 hours each night)?
- Are you avoiding alcohol and drug excess that might be getting in your way?
- Do you have the funding you need for school or do you need to apply for scholarships?
- Do you need to spend time with an academic advisor?
- What steps do you need to take in order to be successful in school and to create a clear academic and career path for yourself?
- How will you know you have achieved your short-term goals?
- How do your short-term goals lead to long-term goals?
This is your opportunity to reflect on the work you’ve done this term and to use your new knowledge to plot your course forward.