Career Development Goals - Time For Dreams, Not Fantasies
If you are working without a clear set of career development goals then what you have is a job. A job is something you get up and do every morning to earn a crust. It’s not necessarily something that you dislike, but it certainly isn’t a career. A career implies progression and you won’t get that without those important goals.
But be careful. Dreams are good. Dreaming of the career before you and the rewards that achievement can bring is a good thing. So long as your dreams stop short of fantasy. While you might dream of reaching the stars you need to keep your feet on the ground!
Career goal setting, and the visualization of the actions required, is a useful exercise only if it is believable. Dreaming is great but in this case it needs to be based on solid, definable, achievable targets. If you just fantasize about being the CEO of Sony or Apple you might as well go out and buy yourself a lottery ticket.
I’m not trying to rain on anybody’s parade. Massive career development goals can be reached with the right approach. That approach is not to try to make one big ten-year leap into the future but to break it down into what you need to be doing in six months, a year, two years and so on. Bite-size, believable goals. Ones that can be reached in a time span you can visualize and concentrate on.
It also leaves room in your career for modification. Sometimes things just don’t go to plan. You can map out your career path in tiny detail but there will always be things outside your control. If you get sidetracked from a massive goal several years in the future there seems no way back but if you get knocked back from a six month goal you can probably work out a way around. A way to get back on track.
Never lose the dream. It’s the thing that drives us and helps us achieve much more than others might think. It’s the thing that gets us back up when we stumble. It’s what gets us out of bed in the morning! Just make sure while your head is in the clouds, your feet are at least somewhere near solid ground.
We’re just scratching the surface. Get all the right tools and tactics for success plus more free help and important advice here: Career Development Goals.
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