A lot of people want to accomplish something in life. To start with some examples: “I want to become rich”, or “I want to become a professional football player”, or “I want to be happy” or “I want to become a managing director”. It is easy to make such statements, but I believe it’s not effective if we don’t have a solid plan to support any goals. To make or develop a plan we need to set a SMART defined goal first. SMART means Specific, Measurable, Acceptable, Realistic and Time bond. Then we can take actions and I believe a lot can be made possible. Otherwise it will be no more than just a wish.
For now I would like to limit my blogs about developing a career and or achieving job satisfaction, valid to both the employee as well as the employers. In the early days of my career I was often asked: “Where do you want to be in five years from now? In which position?”. I didn’t have a clue. The first thing I undertook was to make a function ladder. After making that I asked for the common timing to achieve next levels. To my opinion it took me way too long to get where I wanted to be. However, it became visible and it helped me to answer the relevant question by setting a SMART defined goal.
Before we go to career or job goals I would like to set the scene with a following goal: “After ten years from now I want to own more than one million Euro’s on my bank savings account.”
Specific: It is specific because an amount of savings is specified you want to achieve.
Measurable: Steps can be defined over ten years, by stating after every year you want Euro 100.000,- growth.
Acceptable or Achievable: If you have a well-paid job and a supporting home regarding investment decisions you can define steps.
Realistic: with a well-paid job with potential growth opportunities, investment opportunities, a good health and a happy and stable relationship (or friends and family life) it can happen.
Time bond: a time of ten years is set.
For your jobs or potential job(s) you can define similar type of goals and I think the most common pitfall is to not properly assess the reality. Don’t want to become a professional football player if your talent is not good or strong enough, or don’t want to become a general director at your company if you don’t have sufficient competences which are achievable for you. It will prevent disappointments and or demotivation.
Steve Jobs once said: “The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet keep looking. Don’t settle.”
It might speak for itself but I believe a lot of people, or anyway too many, are struggling with their work or fail to get job satisfaction. Loving what you do may be influenced by a horrible boss and or colleagues. You could have a great talent, but you don’t like to do it, but it provides you financial stability. You could commit to your passion and use great talent but lousy payments hit you in your life. Could all be, but to my belief Steve Jobs quote was spot on. This is the starting point and change may help you to achieve your goals, get job satisfaction by both yourself as well as your employer or clients. I will post more about this in future blogs.
Let’s face it, if you love what you do it will provide you satisfaction and happiness. Most people would like to contribute and want to provide added value. It’s much easier if you have a role you love to have. If you don’t have that, make sure you get it. Make it your goal!
It will deliver you a lot, and as a minimum a SMART defined goal and a solid plan to support it will provide you a huge potential in personal development and growth.
So in my next blog(s) I will continue by making steps to develop a career plan. I hope to see you than on www.yourjobguide.com and I would appreciate any feedback. Thank you very much!
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