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It is probably your goal to find a career that you love. This is a good goal to have. However, preparing for and reaching that goal takes some work. In some cases, it can be a long process. It helps to make a plan that includes various career goals which will help you reach your ultimate goal. Being able to reach smaller milestone goals along the way will not only keep you on track but also keep you encouraged as you work towards reaching that ultimate career goal.
Setting career goals and actually reaching them can be challenging. However, here are some tips that you can use to help you along the way.
Set SMART Goals
SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. Setting SMART goals will go a long way towards helping ensure that you can reach your goals and make progress. Make sure you run any goal you set through a test to ensure it meets the SMART criteria.
It should be specific, meaning that it states a definitive goal that is easy to understand. It should be measurable, which means you need to have some way to measure when it has been completed. It needs to be attainable, which basically means it needs to be something realistic. In many cases, an unattainable goal simply needs more steps leading up to it in order to be attainable, so you may need to reassess your overall path. Finally, it needs to be relevant to your ultimate goal, and you need a specific time limit set for reaching it.
Write Out an Overall Plan
When you are first starting, it helps to develop a plan. This will help you see what goals you need to set and how you will work from one step to the next to reach your ultimate goal. Creating a plan will also help you focus better on what your ultimate goal is. It provides a clear path for getting from where you are now to where you want to be.
Do Your Research
It’s important that you really understand what you have to do to reach your ultimate goal. This may require research. You need to learn everything possible about what educational background and skills you will need. You have to find out what path people working in your desired profession took to get there. Learn as many details as you can. Make sure your research is as complete as possible. This will really help you as you develop your goals and plans.
Conduct a Self-Assessment
You need to do an honest self-assessment. Look at your skills. Figure out which ones you need to meet your ultimate goal. Are they strong enough, or do you need to develop them? Are you missing essential skills? Take a look at your education. Do you need to go to college, or can you get the education you need some other way? Is your career goal something where you will have to work your way up through promotions or through gaining experience? Do you have experience in the field? Knowing where you’re starting is essential to understanding how to get where you want to go.
Get Support
Trying to reach your goals all on your own can be very hard. It can be helpful to get a mentor, someone who can guide you and help you as you embark on this journey. A mentor has likely been where you are and can help you through the process by giving you advice and introducing you to the right people. You can also get valuable feedback from your mentor that can help you stay on track and make sure you’re fully prepared.
Be Committed
This won’t be the easiest journey to take. Along the way, there will be challenges. You may stumble a few times. However, the only way to ever reach your goal is to be fully committed to what you’re doing. You can’t lose sight of that ultimate goal. If you do, it will be too easy to give up and walk away. However, if you stay committed, you will reach your goal and be a better person for it.
Reaching a major career goal can be a daunting challenge. It can be difficult to do it, but if you plan things out, stay focused, and commit to the process, you can end up reaching whatever goal you want.
