A new year provides a fresh start to build momentum and reestablish yourself as a professional. Part of the growing process is setting goals for your career to create a clear path towards improvement. Whether you want improve your skills, get a promotion or find a new job, a goal will help motivate you to stay on track and attain your career goals this new year.
#1 Find the RIGHT Goal
Setting a professional goal is more than just dedication. If you choose a goal that is unquantifiable or too general, you won’t be able to track your progress throughout the year. By setting a goal that truly means something to you and making it undeniably attainable, you allow yourself to create a pathway to achieving this goal.
#2 Create a Plan
Once you’ve come up with the right career goal, you have to generate a strict and comprehensive plan that will all but guarantee this goal will be reached. It doesn’t have to be a plan that changes your entire life, but it does need to include an exact date by which the goal must be achieved and benchmarks to reach to stay on pace. If you create a plan that is open-ended or too lenient, you allow for the less important parts of your life to get in the way of your success.
#3 Stick with It
Don’t let doubt or bumps in the road get you off track. Stick with your plan throughout the first few months of the year and you will have a more informed perspective as to whether or not your plan needs to be adjusted or your goal is truly realistic.
#4 Track Your Progress
If you have been consistent with your plan throughout the first few months of the year, monitor your progress. Is your schedule too lenient to reach your goal by the deadline that has been set? Early April is the perfect time to make any necessary adjustments to your routine to stay on track to achieving your professional goal.
#5 Foster Your Goal
Make sure that you are being your own best advocate when it comes to this all-important career goal. Make it as important of a part in your life as it deserves to be. This may mean informing those around you that there may be some changes to your normal habits or routine. The more open you are about your goal, the more real it becomes.
If you start to receive criticism or doubt from certain people in your life, you owe it to yourself and your career goal to limit your exposure to this unwelcomed negativity.
#6 Take Time to Reflect
Fully achieving a yearlong goal can be challenging. You often run into a rough patch in the middle of the year where the goal is too far to conceptualize, yet you have put forth so much extra work to make it achievable. It is at this point you need to reflect back on why you set this goal in the first place. What impact will achieving this goal have on your life? This will give you a second wind as you head closer towards your goal.
No matter your professional goal, a seasoned staffing agency can help you achieve it. The Reserves Network and its HR experts are extremely talented at matching candidates with the best available light industrial jobs, assisting candidates with every stage of the application process and informing employees on how to ask for a raise or promotion. Contact The Reserves Network to find the job that is right for you.
