“A good puzzle, it’s a fair thing. Nobody is lying. It’s very clear, and the problem depends just on you.”
Erno Rubik
One thing that always baffles me is the fact that there are so many people out there who really don’t know where they are heading when it comes to their career.
They just seem to go with the flow. Now this is fantastic if you want a stress-free life, but you may not experience job satisfaction and you may never reach your full potential. All that talent going to waste!
It’s worth explaining here why you want to plan your long-term career goals. This should be a real eye-opener!
Decide What You Really Want
Firstly, why do you need your long term career goals? Well, because everybody deserves to achieve something in their life! If you don’t have some career goals and know where you are heading in your job then it is likely you will become bored very quickly and lose your love for it.
If you have long term career goals then you will be constantly working towards achieving your full potential.
People who have career aspirations tend to be the ones that:
- enjoy their jobs more
- have the most job satisfaction
- earn the most money
Remember, a CEO never get to that position without starting in a more junior position right? If you have a desire and a plan to get somewhere in your career (does’t have to be CEO!) and you remain focused, you stand a very good chance of getting there!
Planning your long term career goals can be a bit challenging. Find yourself a quiet space and give yourself an hour on the time and start asking yourself questions and noting the answers:
Your ultimate goal. It doesn’t matter how far this is in the future. Now, you do need to be aware that you won’t always achieve this goal, the upper echelons of most professions are very difficult to break into. If you write down your aspirations though and remain focused you do stand a much greater chance.
Create Your Action Plan
Once you have stopped to consider your long term career goals, you are going to want to break these down into far smaller ones.
This is going to be your “roadmap” to getting where you want within your job. In general, you will want to highlight what needs to be done.
This will make your position more fulfilling as you really will feel as though you are making progress within your life.
As I mentioned before, it can come boring very quickly if you are not focused on something.
Remember one thing though, when you are planning your long term career goals, you may quickly realize that the job you are in isn’t going to get you there. You will need to make a change, but honestly, your life will end up being so much more exciting.
Now you know all of this, why don’t you sit back and think about what you seriously want to get out of your career, and perhaps more importantly, how you are going to get it.
If you do put your mind to it, then I am confident that you are able to achieve exactly what you need!
