Make a Commitment to Reach Your Career Goals
Too often, people establish career goals the same way they make New Year’s resolutions. The problem with resolutions is that they fade away, are forgotten, and are only a distant memory by February. To actualize your desire for a change, exchange your resolution for a COMMITMENT to action.
Why a commitment and not just a wish?
Achievement of a goal doesn’t happen overnight. Job seekers are confronted with many issues beyond their control—economic conditions, competition, HR, and internal politics for a start. These issues can be very daunting and discouraging. The fact is you can’t reach your goal until you choose to face these challenges head on, with a plan of attack. Making the COMMITMENT to do so is within your control. Your goal becomes more than a “wish”.
Don’t rely on your employer, market conditions, or your family obligations to dictate what happens to you (or doesn’t). Make a decision about what you need to do, commit to it, then adjust as events occur. Commitment to your goal and acting on it is more likely to produce the results you want than sitting idly as you wait for things to change.
Make a commitment to reach your goals by first being committed to the process, no matter what.
- Keep yourself in check for things you can control. Recognize that you can make a choice each and every time something comes up that presents itself as a challenge.
- Write out your goals. Make them specific and measurable.
- Proceed through your outline of specific actions that lead to your specific goals.
What kind of resolutions are you planning for the New Year that could more effectively be treated as a goal?
Goals are always easier to hope for than to consistently apply the effort necessary to achieve them. So often we continue to lower our bar in order to be satisfied. But we still know in the depths of our hearts what we are doing when we lower our expectations. Setting our sights on less, or not setting our sights at all is when we actually make ourselves more dependent on our circumstances in order to have something or someone else to blame.
Accomplishing goals require faith or a belief in ourselves. So think about what it means to have faith in yourself. (meant to be a question that is outside of your religious beliefs). Think about the fact that even if you may not have an idea of how things will ever turn out that the pursuit of goals means you are living your life. You will always learn more through the pursuit, no matter how short lived.
So keep up your good work. Remember a job or facet of your career you are proud of and what acts of faith in yourself it required of you. Then ask yourself what it means to go from vision to faith, from to gratefulness to love, from integrity to action. Learn how to keep your promises to yourself. Never forget these and you will keep your self moving forward.
Faith in yourself is what keeps the fires of commitment burning to achieve what you set out to do.
A belief in yourself and having faith in your ability to accomplish your goals is the foundation behind a plan of action. Dedication to accomplishing the goals you sent out and following through with your plan can take you closer to your dream. In order to keep your promises to yourself, make an action plan and commit to doing it. You will learn how close you are or how far off you are by taking action, monitoring your progress, and changing course as needed. Your belief in yourself will prompt you to keep moving, and creating new data to support your choices will keep you focused.
I forgot where I saw this trick. After your write down your ‘Commitment’/resolution, pin it on the wall over your desk. How’s that for having your goal in front of you? Also, dedicate yourself to making change over something you have control over. For example, if you’re a writer, commit to writing 10 pages a week — that’s in your power; don’t commit to reaching some best seller list.