by Lou Belcher

Created on: January 28, 2009

How to set goals in your career path

It is never too late or too early to set goals for your career path or to revise the goals you set a while back. Here are some simple steps to map out a career path:

1. Assess. The first order of business in setting goals in your career path is to assess where you are in your career right now. First, you need to determine if you are even on the correct path for you. If you aren't on the correct path, then make the more desirable path the subject of your goals and determine where you are on that new path. If you are on the correct path, determine where you are on that path.

2. Define. The next step is to determine what success on your chosen career path means to you. For some, you will define your goals based on money only. For others, success will be based on the status of becoming "director," "head salesman," or "supervisor." For still others, successful achievement of career goals means reaching levels of increasingly more meaningful work.

3. Make a quick list of how many goals it will take to reasonably reach the end goal of your career path.

4. List the goals in more detail. Be sure to write the goals in measurable terms. Each goal must be something tangible enough that you'll be able to assess, at any given point, how you are doing in achieving the goal and you'll know immediately and triumphantly when you reach each goal. For example, instead of listing, "Be recognized for my work," be specific and measurable in writing your goal by saying, "Be recognized for my work by being promoted to assistant director."

5. Once you've written the complete list of goals, put it away except for the current goal and the one that follows it. List under each of these goals the steps you must go through to reach them.

6. Then break it down by listing under each step what you must do to achieve that step. This is your blueprint to achieving the goals in your career path. Keep it handy to remind you each day where you want to go with your career and how you plan to get there.

Write your career goals and the steps under them in pencil. As you progress, you may find your goals will change or you will need to revise them. Don't be afraid to make these changes as you go along. It's only natural that as you mature, your goals will mature with you. Make those changes to your goals so you won't lose your way on your career path.

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