Why Is It Vitally Important To
Develop Short & Long-Term
Career Goals?

Career aspirations and goals are imperative for professional success in any career field. Not only do short and long-term career goals help you ultimately move up in your chosen field, but the accomplishment of professional goals will also promote higher self-esteem, increased job satisfaction, and overall improved quality of life.

Do you have professional goals? Are you continuously accelerating your career path? If your answer is no, then I’m going to push and prod you here a bit and ask WHY THE HECK NOT?

I hate to sound judgmental here, however, neglecting to create and follow a career plan with the best career goals for you, is just plain lazy. When it comes right down to it, the future of your career rests in YOUR hands. There is no employer out there that will care for the future of your career in the same way you do (or should care), so it’s time to put yourself in the driver’s seat of your professional life and steer your focus towards clearly defined outcomes. Ready? Let’s get to work!

Best Examples of Professional Goals to Consider

You may have heard of smart goals, but have you set them for your career plan? Smart goals are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timebound. Smart career goals can help you have a clearly defined career plan and get you moving on the absolute best career path for you.

What are some of the most common career goals? 

• Gain a new skill (that is highly sought after in your field)
  
  
• Earn a new degree or certification
  
  
• Achieve impressive results with your existing job responsibilities (increase KPIs or create new KPIs)
  
  
• Take on additional responsibilities at work
  
  
• Expand your project ‘portfolio’
• Transition into a different industry (that is better alignment with you)
  
  
• Land a new job with an organization (that will help you build a stronger reputation)
  
  
• Gain a higher title
  
  
• Move into management (or a higher level of leadership)
  
  
• Get a raise
  
  
• Boost networking contacts
  
  
• Improve time management skills
  
  
• Enhance presentation skills
  
  
• Volunteer with a non-profit you admire
  
  
• Increase work/life balance
  

Now, it’s your turn. What career goals speak to you the most? What else is important to you? What will give you greater satisfaction in your work (which will likely carry over to your life as well)?

Whatever goals you commit to for yourself, ensure they are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timebound. Otherwise, how will you know when you achieve them?

Having a Clear Career Roadmap Provides Guidance

As the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland so eloquently warned, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”

As previously mentioned, setting your professional navigational course is your responsibility. Otherwise, just like Alice in the crazy world of Wonderland, you may find yourself chasing the white rabbit, wandering aimlessly down an endlessly long and dim hallway, and continuously trying to solve perplexing puzzles.

Once you possess a clear, customized, career plan, you can start taking action and feel confident in where your career path will lead you.

So…on which career path do you currently find yourself? Is it clearly defined? Does it help you know what actions to take next? Or are you aimlessly wandering around hoping something gives you the guidance you need?

Is it just ANY path that may or may not get you where you want to end up? If so, now is probably the time to refocus your path and start fulfilling your career goals.

At Dynamo Careers, we strongly suggest creating a comprehensive career roadmap with short, mid, and long-term goals.

Short-Term Goals (1 Month to 1 Year)

As you move forward towards setting future goals at work, short-term goals are your immediate next step. Ask yourself, do you have enough work success stories to sing your praises when aiming for career advancement? And do these work stories represent your skills and capabilities accurately?

When taking part in career goal setting in the short term, now is the time to also identify whether it might be time to make a career change. Furthermore, you might also want to picture what that change might look like.

Mid-Term Goals (1 – 3 Years)

Mid-term goals help identify what additional skills you should be working towards learning now. Ask yourself, is your current organization capable of providing the opportunities necessary to accomplish these goals? If the answer is no, it might be time for you to start searching for an organization that will feed and nurture your future.

Long-Term Goals (3 – 10 years)

With the best long-term career goals in place, you have an effective guidepost that will steer you towards professional success over a longer period of time.

To help accelerate the achievement of your longer-term career goals, we here at Dynamo Careers, a career coaching service, recommend switching jobs every 2 – 3 years. This can help ensure you line up ample opportunities to nurture your career success and ensure you make serious advancements over time. For more info on why changing jobs, this frequently is so beneficial for your career success, read more here.

Want help clarifying your short and long-term career goals? Plus define your best career path, make more money, and gain real career satisfaction without exhausting yourself in the process, or sacrificing your personal values?
Discover How To Increase Your Income By $20K to $100K or MORE Per YEAR!... By Making ONE Simple Change To Your Career! Watch this short 9-minute FREE Masterclass to learn more featuring Chief Career Strategist Sonja Price.
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Having Solid Career Goals Helps You Earn More Money

Once you are set on your short, mid, and long-term career goals, you can successfully decipher the pay ranges associated with each step of your future career plan. In terms of approaching your career goals, you can do so from a myriad of perspectives. Here are a few to consider:

• Identify the scope and responsibilities you desire
  
  
• Decide how much money you want to make
  
  
• Identify the impact you want your career and organization affiliations to have on the world
  
  
• Compose a list of your decision-making criteria. Figure out what truly matters to you and construct an efficient plan. For example, if you want to be earning $x by X date, it will be helpful to identify the career opportunities that will allow you to do that. From there, identify the skills needed to qualify for such roles, and go after it!

Shorter Term Career Goals Will Help You Achieve Your Ultimate Goal

There are many benefits of career goals and objectives, however, one of the more promising benefits is the fact that short and long-term goals can help you achieve and even surpass your ultimate goal. The importance of smart goals for a person’s career planning cannot be emphasized enough because nobody wants to become ‘stuck’ where they don’t want to be.

Depending upon where you are in your current now (early, mid, or late-career), your ultimate goal should be within your 3–10+ year plan, and you should start taking the small actions that will consistently lead you towards your ultimate goal. Be careful and remember the seemingly insignificant micro-decisions you make now will lead to a much larger outcome. While our culture emphasizes the weight of big decisions, it is the small ones that build character and clarify your identity.

The Anticipated Results Will Motivate You to Take the Next Step

If you find yourself lacking motivation, solid career goals and aspirations can easily help. For example, the possibility of making more money might motivate you to learn new skills and take action in progressing forward. If it helps, you could also imagine being in that big office, working remotely permanently, leading the team of your choosing, having your desired title, etc. It is these kinds of career goals and aspirations that will propel you forward.

Career Goals Increase Creativity and Innovation

The best career goals will push you to learn and adapt and keep up in this fast-paced world we live in. They will encourage you to think differently about things, causing you to refine your goals and continuously plan out your career until you find what works for you. Do not worry if your goals are not perfect at first, because the simple act of creating and observing them will encourage consistent growth.

With your professional goals worked out, you are likely to find yourself coming up with creative, innovative ideas that will help you surpass the competition. As you aim for higher aspirations in your career, you will continuously learn new skills, successfully breaking up the monotony, and constantly achieve bigger and better results. Finally, an excellent career plan promotes happiness and satisfaction – things we could all use a lot more of.

Career Setbacks Take a Greater Toll When You Do Not Have Career Goals in Place

There are many common setbacks within every industry, and it is much more difficult to recover when you lack goals. Unfortunately, we all encounter setbacks from time to time. Perhaps you don’t receive your desired promotion, you get laid off, or your organization decides to reorg, and you are left with less than desirable projects or a new manager that you really don’t care for. These are all disappointing challenges that can make your entire life much more difficult. When a solid career plan is in place though, making shifts is suddenly so much easier. When the current makeup of your career is no longer in alignment with your personalized career plan, you can make the necessary adjustments to get your path back on track (and make a meaningful difference for you – without wasting a bunch of time waiting for things to magically come back into alignment for you). You can be proactive and cause the results you desire!

The Importance of a Mentor in Achieving Career Goals

Mentors are an important component of any successful career plan as they ultimately help you reach your goals in various ways. For starters, mentors allow you to receive valuable advice from someone more experienced than you. Mentors also generally encourage you to expand your knowledge and skills in ways that can significantly grow your career and open up more possibilities for you to pursue. Finally, mentors can help grow and expand your professional network - which is always good for discovering new and promising opportunities.

For a TRULY REWARDING Career Path - Start Clarifying and Implementing Your Career Goals Today!

You should now have a good understanding of why career goals are essential for anyone looking to advance their career. Do you need help identifying your ideal short- and long-term goals? What about accountability to ensure you actually pursue and achieve your goals?

Dynamo Careers exists to help you clarify your goals and ensure you are extremely confident in your future career path. We love helping people achieve higher levels of career success!

We work with career professionals across a wide range of industries and roles and can help ensure your next career move produces the absolute best results for you – including a fulfilling role, that produces opportunities to continuously advance your career, and earn you significantly more money!

FYI - We have helped some clients earn up to $100,000 MORE per year (than they were previously making in their last job). For the very best chance of achieving your desired career results, send us a message or watch our free career masterclass today!

Sonja Price

Dynamo Careers

Chief Career Strategist