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Take time to set long-term goals
Several readers have written letters that reveal a need for more goal-setting before they can move forward. Following are three recent letters that reflect the trend.
Dear Amy:
I have worked in the education field as a certified professional for 26 years, and feel I really need a change. The sad thing is that I don't really know what I am qualified for, now that I am considering a change. I know that the education field is my comfort zone, but I want to be challenged in other areas as well. I am working on a doctorate in leadership also.
-- Mary
Dear Amy:
I haven't taken the time to list long-term goals. Do you feel this is a necessary step? I don't see how we need goals, other than making sure we remain employed and don't run out of money once we stop working. I'm trying to decide if I should leave my job now or later. I'm coming up on the five-year mark and get mixed messages from supervisors. I need to calm down, first thing. Next, not sure. Just take it one day at a time, I guess.
-- Jane
Dear Amy:
I have been in my current job as a staffer for four months already, and it feels like more. I do have a goal in life, and that is to enter the entertainment/arts industry, which is what I always wanted to do. My current job is really a means to an end, but as the days pass by, I dislike it enough to say I hate my job.
What is your opinion of my working in something I dislike as a means to eventually become accomplished in a career that I want to do for the rest of my life, such as TV and movie production?
-- Sherry
Although these questions come from very different perspectives, their answers draw from the same well: goal-setting. Most of us know how to set and reach short-term or project-based goals. When we need a used car, for example, we might look at cars, choose a price range, take on a second job for a few months and buy a car. Or, more often, we buy a car on credit, then find a way to pay off the loan.
I think often about why long-term goal-setting seems so much harder than the short-term model. Figuring out how to spend a few thousand dollars is easy. Deciding how to spend one's career or life is so overwhelming that most of us take the default option of doing what comes our way, instead of choosing our paths intentionally. Ironically, the short-term stuff doesn't matter that much, while letting go of the long-term process can affect our lives deeply. So we watch over the small stuff and let the big things take care of themselves, for better or worse.
In the letters above, Mary, Jane and Sherry provide a good cross-section of the stages we go through when faced with the big questions in our careers.
Mary knows she wants more and has started to reach for it by working on a doctoral degree. At this point, she is using intuition by moving forward without a goal, but soon she'll have to make some choices.
Jane is in a short-term crisis at work but knows that it is the sign of a larger problem. Without life or career goals to guide her next steps, she runs the risk of repeating the pattern with a new employer.
And Sherry is struggling with the gap between her long-term goals and the current reality of her work life. She runs the risk of losing her dream if she doesn't act soon. To realize the dream, she will need to make a leap into a situation that supports it -- or make her peace with the work she has, while actively pursuing the dream on the side.
If you struggle with the process of setting large goals, you'll find a variety of methods described in books and articles on the subject. One book to start with might be "Goal Achievement Through Treasure Mapping: A Guide to Personal and Professional Fulfillment" by Barbara Laporte (Heartlifter Publications, 2005, $12.95).
Remember that lifestyle goals are as valid as achievement goals ("I want to live in the country" vs. "I want to have/be _____"). And don't tie yourself up trying to find your one true and perfect goal. In the end, you might discover that attaining a life goal may not matter as much as having had it as a guide during confusing times. Choose something and move forward.
- Amy Lindgren owns Prototype Career Service, a career consulting firm in St. Paul, Minn. She can be reached at alindgren@prototypecareerservice.com or at 1071 W. Seventh St., St. Paul, MN 55102.
