Goal setting for your career

Every month, I write a blog entry for the Outdoor Industries Women’s Coalition blog, based on the monthly professional development topic. The focus for April is “Planning Your Career Path”, a relevant continuation of my own blog entries from January on Goal Setting.

Since access to the OIWC blog is considered a member benefit (so it is located on members-only pages of the website), I have included an edited version of the entry here.

I encourage you to learn more about this amazing professional development and networking organization for women at: www.oiwc.org. [Full disclosure: In addition to developing content for the site, I am on the Board of Directors and sit on the Professional Development and Marketing/Branding committees.]

Get started on planning your career path
You’ve thought long and hard. You know what you want to do. But now what? How do you make your dream a reality? As Stephen R. Covey says in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, "Begin with the end in mind."

With the end in mind, you can start planning how to get there. You would do this if you were driving somewhere, so why not do it for your career. Since a career goal is not on any map, you will need to do a couple of things. First, determine your destination and, second, set some milestone goals. To increase your chances for success, your goals should be SMART — Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely.

SMART goals will help you develop a plan that is realistic and achievable. And, as you create these goals, be as detailed as you can. This will enable you to clearly understand how you are doing as you work towards your end goal.

Not only are SMART goals important, but so is timing. Make sure you check on your progress at regular intervals and consider: How close are you to achieving your goal? What is helping you be successful? What is getting in your way?

In addition, there is nothing that says you have to stay true to your original plan. As you evaluate your progress, consider making adjustments based on what you accomplish — or did not accomplish — so far. Did you set your goal too high? Will it be difficult or impossible to achieve? Did you learn something that changed your mind about what you thought you wanted? Is there now something else that you would rather do?

Don’t be afraid to change direction. Use your knowledge and experiences — as well as the knowledge and experience of others — to shape your goals and your career path.