Setting Obtainable Goals

Ah yes, January. The month of setting resolutions and discovering just how strong our will power is. Deciding to make the commitment to turning over a new leaf is a great thing. Having a formal occasion like the beginning of a new year can be exactly what we need to kick start a change that we have been wanting to make. Sometimes, our resolutions prove to be too difficult to keep, and February finds us saying, “New Year, same me.” Let’s talk about how to set obtainable goals and resolutions.

Step One: Set Realistic Goals. The phrase “shoot for the moon because even if you miss you’ll land amongst the stars” looks great on a motivational poster, but can be rather difficult to implement in day-to-day life. The first step is looking at what it is that you want to achieve and analyze how feasible it is for you to accomplish. Are you going to be able to become the CEO by December? Probably not. Will you be eligible to get a promotion during your end of year review from Design Engineer I to Design Engineer II? That’s more likely! Setting an unrealistically high or big goal with the expectation that you can accomplish it will be setting yourself up for failure and disappointment. The purpose of goal setting is to give yourself intrinsic motivation to create progress, not to discourage yourself when you can’t meet an impractical standard.

Step Two: Break It Down. Okay, so you’ve accomplished Step One. You took a long look in the mirror, and have come up with a realistic goal for yourself. Now what? Have you thought about where to start, or what comes after that? Tackling your goal head on is a great attitude to have, but only when it’s coupled with a plan of how to get there. It’s much easier to stick to your goal when you break it down into more manageable parts. If your goal is gain a licensure by the fall, creating a study plan in which you delegate a manageable amount of study hours (on top of your work hours) with planned out practice test dates will make the action of studying feel a lot less overwhelming. Studying 5 hours a week sounds a whole lot better than saying, “I’m going to study 40 hours a month until my test date.” It’s the same goal and same amount of effort, but in a much more manageable chunk.

Step Three: Be Consistent. Often times the goals we set require a change of behavior. We humans, as I am sure you have discovered for yourselves, are big creatures of habit. Disrupting our set routines is at best undesirable and at worst is stressful. We’ve figured out what works for us, and yes – getting that promotion would be fantastic – but trying to fit in new responsibilities will inevitably change the established workflow we’ve made for ourselves. This is when we need to dig deep, remind ourselves that the disruption is worth it, and follow through on the new arrangement or behavior. By consistently repeating the same action day after day, the new behavior will become our default behavior as our brains automate our actions and new habits form. Habits are our brain’s way of freeing up space to think about other things. As much as you don’t want to go to the gym, your brain doesn’t want to think about it. So, stick to your planned alteration and soon it will become such a part of your routine you won’t even realize that you’re doing it.

Step Four: Just because the time limit is up doesn’t mean you should stop. Here’s another reality check moment: sometimes we work really hard at achieving our goal, but just fall short of the timeline we’ve given ourselves. Don’t throw all of your hard work away! Maybe you didn’t pass you PE exam in April when you sat for it. You still studied for it! Study a little more and take it again in October. A timeline is supposed to be a motivating factor, not the end-all-be-all buzzer you need to beat. It’s a lot better to keep trying and take a little longer to get there than just throwing all of your hard work away because you didn’t meet an arbitrary date.

Goal setting can be tricky, but it really doesn’t need to be. Be fair to yourself by being realistic, breaking your goals down into manageable steps, and be consistent in how you carry them out. Whatever you’ve decided is the thing you want to achieve this year, you can do it! Should you ever need help with career goals – let’s just say I know a guy, and a gal, and another gal.