How to develop your personal vision of career success (without ever using the word "success").
A lot of people have good intentions when it comes to setting professional goals. They establish goals such as, “achieve career success” or simply, “be a successful lawyer/doctor/business person.” These people are on the right track. They understand that goals act as a roadmap to get you from where you are to where you want to be. They help you define your purpose and keep you motivated to stay on track. By setting a concrete goal, you can then structure your daily activities to make sure that your behavior is in line with your desired end result.
Unfortunately, the goals mentioned above don’t amount to much in reality. They don’t truly define what “success” means. In fact, a lot of people use success as a “blanket goal,” stating simply that their objective is to “be successful.” How will they know when they’ve actually reached their goal? Success is a very subjective term. It means something different to everyone. Without clearly defining what it means to you, you’ll be wandering around without a clear sense of direction. Furthermore, your vision of the future will constantly shift and change based on your daily whims. You’ll have nothing to remind you of the “big picture.” The idea of being successful one day can mean something entirely different the next based on circumstances and emotions. There’s no consistency and thus, the goal itself is pointless.
The word “success” is actually very generic and bland. It’s uninspired. When setting goals, try to avoid using the word entirely. Instead, use as many words as it takes to define exactly what success means. Imagine what success looks like. What does a successful life feel like? Take note of the details and be specific. Carefully select numerical goals to reflect your idea of success. Even better, create a step-by-step numerical goal ladder that tracks exactly what you want to achieve at each point along the way. Be as explicit as possible.
Articulating your goals with precision and distinct vision will help provide you with a clear course of action. For professional goals in particular, this can be extremely useful when setting priorities and making big decisions. For example, let’s say you set a sales goal of $2 million which you are very close to reaching. You have the opportunity to go to an out-of-town conference where you’ll learn a wonderfully useful new computer program or you can stay in town and meet with a potential buyer. Knowing your goal, the decision is easy. Alternatively, let’s say your goal was to become more familiar with the technological side of your job. In that case, you would surely decide to go to the conference to learn more. Decisions become clear when you’re working with an overall structure.
Remember that setting appropriate and sustainable goals can be a very involved project, of which this is only a part. Use the SMART acronym to help you – make sure your goals are Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-based. There are several variations of this but it all amounts to the same thing: don’t be vague. Saying you want to be successful is like saying you’re human. We all want to succeed. But that one tiny word can mean something enormously different for each of us.
Next time you sit down to review your professional goals, try removing the word “success” and all variations of it. You may be forced to think much harder about what the goal really means to you – and that’s how you know it’s working!
For more articles like this, check out Balancing Work and LIfe and Defining Your Dream Job.
