First step to growth – know what goals are right for you

By Our Special Correspondent

Growth is about setting and achieving goals. Setting the ‘right’ goal is important for achieving it. And once you set it, you need a good strategy to achieve it. Then comes executing the action plan diligently.

A right goal is the one that works for you. So your first step to growth is to understand what works for you. For this, first take full responsibility of your career. Though you have all the support from, your boss, colleagues, and friends and family, it is you who needs to take the hold, it is only you who knows what is right for you. Nadine Katz, senior associate dean at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York City says, “Your success and your promotion should be your focus.” So, do not wait for someone to tell you what to do.

When you take the responsibility of your career, you begin your self-exploration, which will help you set right goals.

Awareness about your abilities and inabilities is an essential criterion to understand what works for you. Make use of online tools to assess your skills and strengths. Write down your areas of interest and evaluate whether you are fit enough to pursue your aspirations. Identify areas of improvement. More importantly look at what energises you.

Assess: A right goal is the one that generates strong positive emotions in you. The thought of it makes you cheerful, optimistic, enthusiastic and proud. The feeling gives your goals power. It is the driving force that makes you to act in the direction of attaining them. It is the assurance that you really want them and that you can get them. It gives you the strength necessary to overcome the obstacles in the way. So to set the right goal, assess the energy associated with your aspirations. After all pursuing it should make you feel fulfilled!

Once you have identified your interests and aspirations, and assessed your abilities, it is time to define your goal.

List out the attributes of your goal. Describe what success means; identify conditions you have to meet to mark your goal as ‘successfully attained.’ Break the goal into short-term goals. From this point, everything you do, whether it is improving your performance, learning new skills or sharing your colleague or boss’s work, should contribute to attaining the actual goal. Katz who taught at Association of American Medical colleges on the theme ‘how to pick and

stick to career goals’ advises, “When you choose projects and you get involved in service work or committees, there should be a strategy to that.”

Short-term goals should complement each other and the main goal, and be quantifiable.

For example, you start a business; your goal is to double the turnover in six months. Now you set the short-term goals, say for the first month as – triple the number of clients, take on board two more partners and tie up with three online businesses. But, setting so many specific goals will only scatter your attention. It could even prevent you from achieving at least one of them.

Instead set short-term goals such that they serve as a part of the strategy to achieve the long-term goal but not as independent goals. Priorities them. This is useful when two of them conflict with each other. Be flexible to alter them if necessary.

Set your subconscious mind on the target. Subconscious mind is a tool that can do wonders when it is tuned properly. To make it begin the work. Imprint your goal on it.

You do this by visualization technique. Repeatedly, see yourself achieving your goals. Feel the emotions – feel the happiness in attaining your goals. Experience the hardships in overcoming the obstacles and take pride in going through the process.

Find mentors:

Count on the support mentors. Find someone who have achieved goals similar to yours and seek their guidance. Talk to them about your vision. Share your success stories. Allow them to assess you. Do not expect them to devise a strategy for you and teach you how to execute it. Learn to grasp the tips they give. Be flexible to change your perspective, if it can lead you to success.

Evaluate your success periodically. In other words, measure how far you have achieved your short-term and long-term goals. This will help you to be on track. Your achievements can boost your confidence and keep you going. Use your failure to learn. Celebrate significant achievements.

Throughout the process, fighting the negative feelings is the biggest challenge. Elements like time commitment, defeating thought about capabilities doubts about the credibility of your goal and fear of failure can hinder your pursuit. You have to keep yourself on track by being aware of your thoughts and replacing them with positive ones. People fail to attain their goals because they set them without considering whether they are right for them. Even if they manage that part, they fail at devising a good strategy or at the execution level. To attain goals, you should pay attention to each of these levels.