Every time we talk about personal or professional development, we cannot afford to neglect the aspect of goal setting. It is very much an essential and integral component of development in any aspect of life, particularly in career development. Yet what really matters is what we do with the goals that we have set up for ourselves and how we manage them.
It goes without saying that this is all the more critical for the youth in a career development scenario. Goal setting is a much wider canvas that has to be properly handled and managed. We come across many youth who miss out on prosperous and professionally enriching career opportunities due to lack of application in the goal setting aspect during their career development phase of life. As a human resource mentor, I would like to suggest youngsters the following points:
Make sure that you set realistic goals for your career. Aim high but be practical. Every goal needs to have time and energy spent to achieve it. You have to allocate sufficient time to work on the goals that you have set up for yourself and direct all your energy and resources to make it happen.
Do not set big goals at one stretch. Goals are better achieved if they are broken into smaller segments and achieved one by one.
Set up goals from within yourself and not ones which are by others. Often, we find youth failing miserably when they act on the words of others.
Have a well-established road-map for your goals. You have to set a clear time frame to work on the goal accomplishment process with specific details based on a sequence which is logical.
Do not mess up with many goals that are conflicting. Often, the youth are prone to impatience and are found to be unorganised. You must be determined to work on one goal at a time so that you are completely focused.
Write, evaluate and review your goals periodically — you will know how near or how far you are to your goals.
