Setting goals is important if you want to excel in your career
We have officially stepped into 2018 and people have started taking the phrase ‘New Year, new me’ a bit too far with New Year’s Resolutions lists that are becoming longer than their post-holiday credit card statement. Whether you’re a fan of it or not, New Year’s resolutions is a popular phenomenon which begins to lose its charm within the first few months of the year once people begin to discover that they can’t keep most of the promises that they made to themselves...
But just because most people can’t keep their new year’s resolutions, it doesn’t mean that they’re not important. There are several reasons why goal-setting is important for your career, whether it is getting a promotion, finding your dream job or simply taking up more challenging projects in the new year. Here are a few easy ways to ensure that you follow through with your new goals and don’t fall back into the pattern of over-promising and under-achieving.
Transform your goals into a habit
The best way to achieve a goal is by turning it into a habit and practicing it regularly until it simply feels like a part of your daily routine. The process of breaking goals into habits is exceedingly difficult to do but putting it into practice would make a world of a difference in how we succeed in the personal and professional aspects of our lives.
Once you translate your career resolution into a habit, it runs on autopilot and you no longer have to make a conscious effort to push your goal into motion.
This is also beneficial if you have more than one goal and you can’t focus on all of them at once. Once you’ve changed your behavior pattern and your goal breaks into a habit, you can move on to the next resolution on the list while the first one runs on autopilot.
Work With Others Who Are Trying to Achieve the Same Goal
People tend to be more motivated to achieve their goal if they surround themselves with others who want the same thing as they do
Setting a goal is often the easiest part of New Year’s Resolution but, creating a roadmap for achieving that goal, is often the hard part and since most people don’t have a plan to achieve their goals, they can’t succeed at making their resolutions stick.
Social support and accountability are two main ingredients for achieving goals which is why popular fitness apps let you connect with others who have similar weight-loss goals so that you are more motivated to reach the finish line once you realize that you have people cheering you on.
This technique doesn’t only apply to health and fitness – you can also translate it into your professional life by communicating with your colleagues and finding people around you that have the same goals as you so that you stay accountable.
Map Out Your Success
Most people fail to meet their goals because they’re often too big or overwhelming. Now, there’s nothing wrong with dreaming big but, if you don’t have a plan of action to put your goals in motion, you’re setting yourself up for failure. One great way to make your New Year’s resolution stick is by dividing it into small actionable chunks and using a commitment device to map out the game plan.
This device can be as simple as deciding how you’re going to divide your goals into milestones and set reminders for the dates for each milestone. These milestones can be as small as asking a mentor for a lunch meeting or scheduling a LinkedIn post every month to get noticed by potential employers.
Take Small Steps to Achieve Your Resolutions
Turn your goal into a series of milestones so that you are likely to be overwhelmed or give up
The bigger the goal, the longer it might take to achieve it – but also, the more likely you are to become overwhelmed and give up on it quickly. To make your career resolution seem less daunting, split it up into smaller parts that can be executed on a weekly basis. This practical approach also affects your motivation positively so that you are more likely to stick to your goals.
So are you ready to take your career to the next level? By following the four steps mentioned above, you may become one of the few people who actually end up sticking to their new year’s resolution.