by Jenn Givler
© 2005– www.jgivler.com
We hear a lot of talk about how important it
is to have goals. Goals give you a roadmap to your future. They
provide something to strive for – some point in the future
to reach. But, what exactly is a goal, and how do you know when
you have achieved it?
One web site defines a goal as a specific, intended
result of a
strategy. I really like that definition, so lets examine it a
little
more closely.
First, the definition tells us that a goal is
specific. When you set
your goals, you want to be as specific as possible. Setting goals
is
a way to focus your attention on what you want in the future.
If you
are not specific, you will never know where you are going. It
would
be like trying to follow a map that has no street names. You would
have an idea of where you wanted to go, but no real way of knowing
how to get there.
An example of a goal would be "I want to
go back to school and get a
Bachelors Degree in English." This is very specific. It's
not just
stating "I want to go back to school." It's stating
exactly what
type of degree you want to obtain. Think about it, if you just
use "I want to go back to school" as your goal, there
are still many
unanswered questions. Like, which classes should you take, and
where
you do you want to go to school? If you state that you want a
degree
in English, you will able to plan which classes to take, and it
may
narrow down your search for a school, as only certain schools
offer
degrees in English.
Next, the definition says that a goal is an intended
result of a
strategy. When you set a goal, keep in mind that it is a result
–
not a step in the process. The process is the strategy.
Looking at our example above of going back to
school – getting a
degree in English is a result. But, there must be a strategy.
You
aren't just going to walk onto a college campus and be awarded
a
degree in English. You must develop a strategy to deal with things
like which school to attend, how to pay for school, and how many
classes to take at one time.
The end result – the goal – is a Degree
in English. The strategy is
all the steps it will take to get there. Also, a Degree is a pretty
big goal. You can break that down into smaller goals. For example,
you could say "I want to finish 4 classes by the end of the
year."
That is a specific result. But it is a smaller goal than obtaining
the degree.
Setting smaller goals that lead up to the larger
goal is a great way
to progress through your plan. It gives you steps to look forward
to
that you can celebrate along the way to the larger goal.
Another important aspect of setting a goal is
having a plan – or
strategy - to achieve that goal. Writing down your goal
also makes
the goal more powerful. It has been proven that when people write
things down, they are more likely to focus on them and achieve
their
goals.
Exercise:
Think about where you want to be in the next five years. What
kind of work do you see yourself doing? Is it related to the kind
of work you're currently doing? If you don't know what you
would like to do, and feel like you can't picture yourself in
five years, start smaller. Ask yourself, what you would be doing
if money were no object. If you did not have to work for a living
what would you do? Examine your answer to that question. Is there
some small part of that passion that you could develop into a
career? Once you have an answer to those questions, think
about what you could do today to begin moving toward that future.
It doesn't have to be a big step – it could be as small as
researching a degree, a company, an occupation.
Create a small goal for yourself. Then, write
down the steps it
would take to achieve that goal. For example, if you want to begin
researching a new career, your goal could be "find out how
to become
an airline pilot." The steps to achieving that goal could
look
something like this: 1. Do online research. 2. Conduct research
at
the library. 3. Speak to a career counselor about changing careers.
At the end of these steps, you should know how to become an airline
pilot.
