A fresh new year is the perfect time to reassess what you want next from your career – in fact, 78% of everywomanNetwork members who joined our recent webinar are doing just that, asking themselves what they can do more of and what they can differently to ensure 2017 is the year they forge ahead.
But the path to goal completion is awash with abandoned dreams: 31% of our webinar attendees said they lack the confidence to achieve that which they desire, and 39% admit they’re prone to giving up at the first hurdle. So how can you become one of the 29% who regularly succeeds in achieving goals?
#1 DREAM BIGGER THAN YOU’VE EVER DARED TO
What would you do with your life if no obstacles – money, family commitments or skills – stood in your way? Knowing the answer to this question might seem counterintuitive to creating a realistic goal plan, but it can give you some real insight into who you are now and what you want to become. Forget all about practicalities for now, and let your imagination run free.
Once you’ve clearly seen the bigger picture, you can ask yourself what the journey looks like. What are you doing right now to both enable and inhibit the transition? Say your blue-sky thinking sees you at the helm of a tech start-up, challenging the digital status quo, receiving recognition from the industry and making good money. Perhaps allowing yourself to coast in your corporate role while you network with gusto is more on the money than throwing your time and energy at winning a promotion?
Every time you feel that you’ve bitten off more than you can chew, remind yourself that the biggest, hairiest, most audacious goals also offer the most rewards and satisfaction. “If there’s no chance things can go wrong,’ says everywomanExpert Pippa Isbell, “perhaps the goal isn’t enough of a stretch – but always remember that ‘stretch’ doesn’t mean ‘impossible’. As Nelson Mandela said, ‘There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living’.”
#2 START A JOURNAL
Starting a notebook where you record thoughts and ideas about your professional development is a fabulous resource to draw on when your motivation slumps and you need reminding why you embarked on this goal. It’s also a great tool for reflection and gaining self-knowledge that can help you understand how your own limiting beliefs and personal drive can hinder and help you as your journey unfolds.
Consider the many talents and skills you possess that will facilitate your success; list your strengths, recall past successes, delve into positive feedback you’ve received. Some questions to get you going include:
1. Of what are you most proud?
2. What tasks do you perform that most fulfil you?
3. When have you been most committed, passionate, enthusiastic?
4. When have you been most sure of yourself and your decisions?
5. When have you enjoyed work the most and what talents were you relying on in those situations?
6. What currently fuels your career – specifically, what are the transportable skills, meaningful experiences and enduring relationships that you can carry with you from job to job, company to company, industry to industry?
7. When have you taken measured risks and what was the outcome?
8. How have you coped when you’ve experienced a setback, negative feedback or rapid change?
Any limiting beliefs you hold can be just as revealing, so acknowledge and record rather than simply dismiss these. When you tell yourself that you can’t do something, write ‘because’, and then finish the statement. Only by clearly articulating the problem can you take steps to address it.
#3 BE TRUE TO YOURSELF
We each hold dear to us values fundamental to who we are. And when we behave in a way that is out of sync with those values – for example by working at an organisation whose operations are incompatible with our belief system – our wellbeing is at stake. Ask yourself what isn’t negotiable in your business life; what factors are essential for you to be at peace to do your best possible work. Now ask in what ways your goal supports these values, and allows you to flourish as your authentic self.
#4 TIME TO GET MICRO
Weight loss clubs report that members who set interim weights on their journey to target are more likely to succeed than those who embark on an eating plan without a staggered approach to a healthy body. It’s easy to see how the same relates to professional goals. Take that overarching goal and break it down into achievable and meaningful steps. As well as considering what small milestones you’ll aim for and when, consider how you’ll reward yourself at each pass, and how work and life commitments might impact at each stage.
#5 MANAGE YOUR ENERGY, AS WELL AS YOUR TIME
Achieving your goal requires careful management of your daily schedule. In order to maximise output, you’ll need to draw on your energy reserves. So whether you’re a morning person, a night owl, or are at your most productive in some other situation, shuffle your schedule to take advantage of the peaks in your natural rhythms.
In order to ensure you have plenty of energy to draw on throughout the demands of your schedule, you’ll need to look after yourself. Tony Schwartz, CEO of The Energy Project says that your capacity to work depends very much on the harmony in your mind, body, spirit and emotions. How much sleep, exercise, good nutrition and exercise you’re getting will be key, as will understanding and controlling your own emotions and stress levels.
Remember that obstacles may arise that will prevent you from optimising your time and energy for the purpose of your goal. For 29% of everywomanNetwork members attending our recent webinar, family commitments are the main concern, while 15% say their day jobs are the biggest inhibitor to achieving a professional goal. For many, confidence issues are likely to be the biggest energy sap; while 27% say that slipping back into a comfort zone is the biggest potential detractor. Whatever your reason, anticipate it and make a plan for how you’ll grit down and get through. Be kind to yourself too – there’s no shame in putting things on hold temporarily when unforeseen circumstances arise. Just make sure you get back on track just as soon as you possibly can.
To discover more insights like these, including how visualisation and networking can help you inch closer towards your goal, listen on demand to the everywomanNetwork webinars Balancing your professional development with your day job and Finding your passion and purpose – new year, new you.
