How to set ambitious career goals (with examples)
Ava Arnold
Updated on March 29, 2026
It wasn’t working for my client, Miranda. She’d gotten her degree and was doing well in her role at a Big Four accounting firm, but something was missing.
Sure, she could keep going, receive generous compensation, and continue to advance. But deep down inside, no fireworks were going off; she couldn’t see herself on this path for the long term.
But like so many other employees who feel stuck, she didn’t know how to make a career pivot. On one hand, she wanted to reach for the stars, but on the other, she knew that she had limited experience in a specific industry and needed to be realistic about what she could pursue. Ultimately, she wanted to land a financial leadership role in the healthcare industry.
What Miranda learned is that if you want to change something; for example, chart a new path, ditch a boring job, or pivot in your career, you’ve got to start by setting a goal.
By working toward a goal, you end up getting much more than your desired outcome. Setting and achieving meaningful career goals provides three essential career nutrients: increased job satisfaction, higher self-esteem, and improved quality of your life.
But how do you form a right-size goal that’s ambitious, but doesn’t overwhelm you? Here are a few tips to help you truly understand how to achieve goals.
You Need Clarity
Studies show you’re more likely to succeed when your career goals are specific. So, start by peering into the future and creating a vision for your ideal self and career. What would that look like in one, three, or five years?
Ask yourself: What’s your job like? What kind of skills and responsibilities do you have? Who is your employer, and what is your job like? What are you totally awesome at? What kind of team do you work with?
When you clearly visualize your desired outcome, you begin to see the possibility of achieving it—and you can start taking steps to build your plan.
Miranda wanted a role at a regional healthcare organization, where she would oversee financial planning and reporting as part of a dynamic, progressive team—one with a culture that valued and respected its employees. And she wanted that position by June of 2017.
It Has to Challenge You—But With a Realistic Outcome
If you’re in your second year of public accounting, and your goal is to become CFO of Apple by the end of next year, you have your head in the clouds. Although you may know the basics of accounting, you have a long road ahead of you before you’ll be the CFO of one of the world’s largest companies. Just sayin’.
Miranda realized that for her desired outcome to actually be realistic, she’d need to acquire more knowledge and additional skills. So she did the research, spoke with people in similar jobs, and realized that by taking a few additional courses and volunteering as the part-time CFO of a small nonprofit, she could start acquiring the skills and knowledge to achieve her goal. And that made it imminently more realistic.
You Must Be Committed
I’ve heard so many people say, “I hate my job and need to make a change.” But they take zero action to make that change happen. They’ll give you a hundred reasons why they don’t go after that change, but you can boil them down to one: They simply aren’t committed to that goal.
If you believe your goal is important and attainable, you stand a much higher chance of succeeding.
Miranda committed to her goal by adopting a mindset that set her up for success—she saw herself achieving her goal. She was clear in her desired outcome, and perhaps most importantly, she was willing to share her goal with others, which held her accountable to making progress along the way.
You get commitment only when you are convinced that the goal is important to you and that it’s attainable.
Feedback Is Essential
Miranda identified a couple of key mentors and coaches to share her goals with and committed to providing them with regular updates.
To make sure she could provide a significant update every time she spoke with these mentors, she broke her ultimate goal into more bite sized action steps, which required shorter timeframes. For example, she set a goal to have one conversation per week with someone working in her desired industry and role. From those informational interviews, she identified potential target employers and what it takes to succeed in that role.
Each time she made some progress, she shared her insights with her mentors, and they helped her make tweaks to her other action steps based on what she was learning. Having a feedback process allowed her to stay motivated, stay on track, and feel a sense of accomplishments throughout the entire process.
You Must Create the Right Conditions for Success
Successfully achieving your goal requires just two conditions: time and practice.
When Miranda set the goal to connect with one person a week, she did it for a good reason: It was a realistic goal that she knew she’d have time to accomplish. She could have said, “I’ll connect with seven people each week.” But given her current professional commitments, the complexity required to achieve that objective would have been overwhelming. By week two she likely would have fallen behind, become discouraged, and perhaps even given up.
To avoid burning out and quitting on unrealistic goals, create intermediate objectives that you have enough time to complete, given your real-life commitments.
Then, practice! Miranda was getting great relationship-building practice in her weekly networking meetings. She knew that would be essential for any career move she made. She was also getting great hands-on practice creating financial statements in her volunteer position. This gave her time to learn, experiment, and fail in a safe environment, while she kept moving her career plan forward.
I’m highly confident Miranda is going to achieve the career goal she set for herself. And when she does, it will be a huge win for her. Not only because she’ll achieve her desired outcome, but also because she’ll have built a fabulous winning experience on setting and achieving a career milestone—one step at a time.
No matter your profession, setting long-term goals can help you focus and advance your career. When you interview for a new job, you can often expect the hiring team to ask you to describe your long-term career goals. Thinking about your professional aspirations ahead of time can help you discuss them effectively and position yourself as a strong candidate for the job. In this article, we discuss long-term career aspirations and provide examples so you can formulate your own.
Why employers ask about long-term career goals
In most cases, interviewers want to know how ambitious and focused you are, and they also want to assess whether you are goal-oriented. Asking about your long-term career goals can help them gain insight into your work ethic and the plans you’ve made for your career.
Interviewers also want to assess whether you are a good match for the job and understand how you align with the company’s values and goals. If your long-term career goals meet the needs of the position and the company, you may have a better chance of getting the job.
How to answer “What are your long-term career goals?”
When discussing your long-term career goals with interviewers, prepare your answer ahead of time. Follow the steps below to discuss your aspirations effectively:
- Discuss relevant aspirations.
- Outline a plan for achieving your goals.
- Focus on how you can benefit the company.
- Highlight your achievements.
- Match your goals with your experience.
1. Discuss relevant aspirations
You may have a long list of long-term career goals. When talking with an interviewer, however, you should always plan to discuss aspirations that are relevant to the job in question. By providing an answer that relates to the job opening, you help the interviewer understand how your career goals align with the company’s objectives so they can determine whether you are a good match for the role.
2. Outline a plan for achieving your goals
Interviewers typically want to hear about more than just your aspirations. They also want to know how you plan to achieve your goals. Briefly outline the steps you are planning to take to reach your goals, such as enrolling in graduate school, taking online classes to learn a new tool or participating in leadership seminars. Provide a general timeline so the hiring team understands when you intend to accomplish your goals.
3. Focus on how you can benefit the company
Your aspirations may be personal, but they are likely to resonate better with interviewers if they include the company’s goals, too. If you know that the employer prefers to cultivate talent and promote from within, consider discussing your preference for growing in your role and taking on new challenges. If you understand that the organization strongly values teamwork, emphasize your interest in working closely with teams.
4. Highlight your achievements
As you outline what you plan to accomplish, take the opportunity to highlight what you have already achieved, as long as your accomplishments relate to your long-term goals. If you plan to obtain a graduate degree, you might explain that you already have a bachelor’s degree from a prestigious university. If you want to move into management, you could reiterate that you currently have a supervisor role.
5. Match your goals with your experience
Try to focus your long-term goals on the next five to 10 years of your career, as you can develop a realistic action plan for goals in this time frame. If you are applying for an entry-level job, becoming a team leader or mastering key skills might be appropriate goals. If you are applying for a management position, aspiring to be an executive or a thought leader in five or 10 years could be more realistic.
Long-term career goals examples
When an interviewer asks about your long-term career goals, be prepared to keep your answer clear and concise while providing helpful details. Use the following examples to prepare for your job interview.
Example 1: Mastering a skill
Discussing your desire to learn a skill related to your job can position you as a person who seeks self-improvement, which can make you stand out from the competition. Try to focus on a relevant skill and explain how you plan to master it.
Example: “In the next five years, I aspire to become a data analytics expert. I have already taken basic online courses, and I plan to earn certifications from the major data analytics software vendors to demonstrate my knowledge. I think that this expertise would help me advance as a marketer and contribute more to the company.”
Example 2: Moving into management
Explaining that you want to pursue a leadership position can make you look ambitious, which can be an asset to many companies. Try to discuss what you have done to prepare for a management role and why you believe you are ready for the next step.
Example: “I already hold a team supervisor role, and I want to move into management in the next five years. My current role has given me a lot of leadership experience, and I have enrolled in a leadership seminar to learn how to be a better manager. In 10 years, I would like to apply my management experience and take on an executive role.”
Example 3: Changing careers
If you are interviewing for a job in a new field, you may need to explain how your background has prepared you for this new role and what you would bring to the new position.
Example: “For the past two years, I have been positioning myself to transition from sales to marketing. I have taken several online marketing courses and am certified in two major marketing platforms. I think that my relationship building and critical thinking skills will also translate easily to marketing.”
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Does your resume look boring? Ever feel like you’re stuck in a rut in your career? Having specific goals to help you become more successful is your first step. Read below for examples of long-term goals for success and how to create them. Also, find out why it is important to create measurable and achievable goals.
What Is a Long-Term Career Goal?
Creating clearly established long-term goals can not only get you prepped for success, they can also show employers what you are working toward. Long-term goals are exactly how they sound: they are long term. This means that they won’t happen in a week or even a month.
Long-term goals are those goals that you would like to see happen in a year or a few years. They’re aspirations to keep you focused on future success in your career. Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and your career goals shouldn’t be either.
Setting Career Goals for Success
When it comes to setting career goals that will be successful, it’s important to use the S.M.A.R.T. method. You need to think of your goals using five different criteria. These include:
- Specific: Rather than just saying you want to earn more money, you need to be specific about how you’ll do it. For example, you might say you want to earn more money by becoming more productive and gaining leadership skills.
- Measurable: If your goal isn’t measurable, how are you going to know you’re close or you’ve achieved it? You must be able to measure the progress that you’ve made. With the earning example, this means naming a specific number.
- Achievable: When setting your goals, you need to think about ones that are realistic. Setting a goal to be a singer, if you’re tone deaf could be unrealistic. You’re trying to push yourself, not set yourself up to fail.
- Relevant: If you have a degree in human resources, you might want to set your career goals in relation to this background and career trajectory. Setting goals for an artist wouldn’t be relevant toward your overall life goals.
- Time-Bound: To create a sense of urgency, you want to give a clear start and end date for your goals. You could even set a potential end date, like how you’ll earn X dollars in four years.
Using this method will help you create specific, measurable goals that set you on the path to a successful future.
Reaching Your Career Goals
Long-term goals are supposed to happen in the future. That means you need milestones and short-term goals as a way to help you track your progress. For example, say you have a long-term career goal to “gain a management position in two years.” You can set short-term goals to increase your productivity monthly or weekly, reduce your errors, learn new productivity methods, and check for new opportunities every two weeks. These shorter goals become a guide on your path to long-term success.
Long-Term Career Goal Examples
When it comes to your long-term goals, you should tailor them to your specific career field. However, there are a few career goal examples that can be molded to any profession.
Gain Leadership Experience
Acquiring leadership experience is typically one of the first steps toward advancing in your career.
You might choose to gain leadership experience by taking classes or attending seminars. For example, a structural engineer might choose to create a goal of attending 10 engineering convention seminars before graduation. An HR professional might choose to set a long-term career goal of attending two Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) conventions.
Build Your Network
In order to be successful in any career, you need to build your network and brand yourself. This is especially important in business.
For instance, a business analyst might work to get 50 professional recommendations on LinkedIn. An accountant, on the other hand, might work for 20 professional recommendations in a year. No matter what your goal is for networking, just make sure to keep it realistic and relevant.
Publish Professional Articles
Writing professional articles in your field is a great way to demonstrate your expertise. The number of articles you choose to publish is going to depend on your field.
For example, an HR professional goal might be to publish three HR articles a year in a professional journal or magazine. A medical doctor might have the goal to publish 20 professional articles within a year.
Gain Global Experience
Gaining global experience in your field is important to widen your network and understand new and dynamic markets. You could gain global experience through professional seminars and conferences or charity work and trips abroad. Try to set an attainable career goal for gaining global experience, like attending two national conventions a year. This can be a great opportunity especially for recent graduates, providing a broader perspective on the industry.
Explore a New Technique
Sometimes in your field, you get stuck in a rut of completing a process the same way every time. While your current method might lead to good results, not examining new processes or techniques can be limiting your career. Depending on how long they take, you might set a long-term career goal to try a new method every two years or a few methods each year.
Join Professional Organizations
Not only are you looking to join a professional organization, but you’d also want to gain a leadership role in that organization. Many organizations have specific criteria that you must meet to qualify for membership, and these could take years to complete.
For example, to join the SHRM and gain a leadership position could be a successful long-term goal for an HR professional. Similarly, a business analyst might set a two-year goal to gain a leadership role in the American Management Association (AMA).
Get Professional Certification
Professional certification of any kind from a recognized professional organization is a great way to make yourself stand out. Consider setting a long-term goal of working toward professional certification.
A bookkeeper might set the goal to become a certified public accountant (CPA), which requires meeting education and testing requirements. Short-term goals could be to take classes to meet the education requirements, study for the test, and take the exam. HR professionals could set a goal to achieve professional certification through SHRM.
Career Goals for Interviews
Your long-term goals are important to future employers. In a job interview, more than looking at your resume, they want to make sure that their employees have drive and a vision for their future. This means that you might come across questions about your goals during the interview process. Having short- and long-term goals already in place will prepare you for their questions and show your initiative.
Career Goals for Success
When it comes to your career, you want to be successful. Having long-term goals to follow can help you build the path to your success. In addition to career goals, you might want to explore some worthwhile personal goals as well.
Here comes a new year..
And with it, a wash of New Years resolutions. Some of them will see the fruits of success, others won’t, some won’t even get off the ground.
It’s this time of year we’re compelled to evaluate our lives. We look back and judge our year, what we succeeded in and what could have gone a little better. Which naturally leads us forward and to the future, to what we want to change and improve upon.
It’s a perfect time to think of a new life, and to set our goal to be fitter, healthier, better paid, or more traveled. We’re driven by this vision of our future selves, and the determination we feel is never stronger than at its first inception.
But even with this motivation, despite our enthusiasm and our drive, too often we fall short, the effect wears off and the inspiration dies down. Worse yet, giving up on our goals creates psychological conflict, the mental equivalent of throwing in the towel and this has negative effects beyond the lack of achievement.
So why do 92% of New Years resolutions fall short?
We have to start on the right foot. Most meaningful goals take time, they need constant effort, and they contain many smaller steps. Yet in our enthusiastic new year splendor, we often set goals that are too lofty, are vague and don’t have quantifiable end points, and then we race towards them as if it’s a sprint.
6 Steps For Setting Clear Goals:
To better our chances of triumph, it’s a good idea to start with a plan, and write it down. So here’s a 6 step plan for setting clear goals this year, following them should help keep your resolutions rolling along.
1. Be clear and specific with what you want to achieve. Don’t just say you want to get fit or healthy, say you want to run a mile in 6 minutes, say you want to lose 10 pounds. Make it a clear goal that you can measure.
2. Break the goal down into steps. Have smaller goals to reach throughout the year, and reward yourself with something when you reach them.
3. Track your progress. We feel good about ourselves when can see our improvements. There’s plenty of great apps out there in which you can do this, I recommend Lift.
4. Acknowledge your weaknesses, and take note of any setbacks. If you know when you’re likely to trip up then you can prepare yourself in advance, or avoid it altogether.
5. Be accountable, and get a friend to make sure you follow through. When you don’t go for your weekly run, or you indulge in that chocolate cake, set consequences–donations to a charity work well, try creating a commitment contract on StickK.
6. Make sure you have fun. If you’re enjoying the ride, that long road to a new you will fly past, and you’re far less likely to give up.
What’s better, with repeated success in achieving your goals, the plan you have in place and the method you use to reach them can form a habit. Each new challenge you succeed in will make the next one even easier. The thrill and rush of success never wears off, instead, with each accomplishment you’ll only increase your appetite for more new and exciting challenges.
All the best in achieving your goals this year!
Sam is a writer with the ambitious goal of figuring out how the mind works. An advocate for self-education, his recent book Connecting the Dots explores the importance of learning how to learn in a time of the internet and information overload.
Does your resume look boring? Ever feel like you’re stuck in a rut in your career? Having specific goals to help you become more successful is your first step. Read below for examples of long-term goals for success and how to create them. Also, find out why it is important to create measurable and achievable goals.
What Is a Long-Term Career Goal?
Creating clearly established long-term goals can not only get you prepped for success, they can also show employers what you are working toward. Long-term goals are exactly how they sound: they are long term. This means that they won’t happen in a week or even a month.
Long-term goals are those goals that you would like to see happen in a year or a few years. They’re aspirations to keep you focused on future success in your career. Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and your career goals shouldn’t be either.
Setting Career Goals for Success
When it comes to setting career goals that will be successful, it’s important to use the S.M.A.R.T. method. You need to think of your goals using five different criteria. These include:
- Specific: Rather than just saying you want to earn more money, you need to be specific about how you’ll do it. For example, you might say you want to earn more money by becoming more productive and gaining leadership skills.
- Measurable: If your goal isn’t measurable, how are you going to know you’re close or you’ve achieved it? You must be able to measure the progress that you’ve made. With the earning example, this means naming a specific number.
- Achievable: When setting your goals, you need to think about ones that are realistic. Setting a goal to be a singer, if you’re tone deaf could be unrealistic. You’re trying to push yourself, not set yourself up to fail.
- Relevant: If you have a degree in human resources, you might want to set your career goals in relation to this background and career trajectory. Setting goals for an artist wouldn’t be relevant toward your overall life goals.
- Time-Bound: To create a sense of urgency, you want to give a clear start and end date for your goals. You could even set a potential end date, like how you’ll earn X dollars in four years.
Using this method will help you create specific, measurable goals that set you on the path to a successful future.
Reaching Your Career Goals
Long-term goals are supposed to happen in the future. That means you need milestones and short-term goals as a way to help you track your progress. For example, say you have a long-term career goal to “gain a management position in two years.” You can set short-term goals to increase your productivity monthly or weekly, reduce your errors, learn new productivity methods, and check for new opportunities every two weeks. These shorter goals become a guide on your path to long-term success.
Long-Term Career Goal Examples
When it comes to your long-term goals, you should tailor them to your specific career field. However, there are a few career goal examples that can be molded to any profession.
Gain Leadership Experience
Acquiring leadership experience is typically one of the first steps toward advancing in your career.
You might choose to gain leadership experience by taking classes or attending seminars. For example, a structural engineer might choose to create a goal of attending 10 engineering convention seminars before graduation. An HR professional might choose to set a long-term career goal of attending two Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) conventions.
Build Your Network
In order to be successful in any career, you need to build your network and brand yourself. This is especially important in business.
For instance, a business analyst might work to get 50 professional recommendations on LinkedIn. An accountant, on the other hand, might work for 20 professional recommendations in a year. No matter what your goal is for networking, just make sure to keep it realistic and relevant.
Publish Professional Articles
Writing professional articles in your field is a great way to demonstrate your expertise. The number of articles you choose to publish is going to depend on your field.
For example, an HR professional goal might be to publish three HR articles a year in a professional journal or magazine. A medical doctor might have the goal to publish 20 professional articles within a year.
Gain Global Experience
Gaining global experience in your field is important to widen your network and understand new and dynamic markets. You could gain global experience through professional seminars and conferences or charity work and trips abroad. Try to set an attainable career goal for gaining global experience, like attending two national conventions a year. This can be a great opportunity especially for recent graduates, providing a broader perspective on the industry.
Explore a New Technique
Sometimes in your field, you get stuck in a rut of completing a process the same way every time. While your current method might lead to good results, not examining new processes or techniques can be limiting your career. Depending on how long they take, you might set a long-term career goal to try a new method every two years or a few methods each year.
Join Professional Organizations
Not only are you looking to join a professional organization, but you’d also want to gain a leadership role in that organization. Many organizations have specific criteria that you must meet to qualify for membership, and these could take years to complete.
For example, to join the SHRM and gain a leadership position could be a successful long-term goal for an HR professional. Similarly, a business analyst might set a two-year goal to gain a leadership role in the American Management Association (AMA).
Get Professional Certification
Professional certification of any kind from a recognized professional organization is a great way to make yourself stand out. Consider setting a long-term goal of working toward professional certification.
A bookkeeper might set the goal to become a certified public accountant (CPA), which requires meeting education and testing requirements. Short-term goals could be to take classes to meet the education requirements, study for the test, and take the exam. HR professionals could set a goal to achieve professional certification through SHRM.
Career Goals for Interviews
Your long-term goals are important to future employers. In a job interview, more than looking at your resume, they want to make sure that their employees have drive and a vision for their future. This means that you might come across questions about your goals during the interview process. Having short- and long-term goals already in place will prepare you for their questions and show your initiative.
Career Goals for Success
When it comes to your career, you want to be successful. Having long-term goals to follow can help you build the path to your success. In addition to career goals, you might want to explore some worthwhile personal goals as well.
“What are your career goals?” is a common question you’ll hear in many interviews.
And you need to prepare an answer because employers ALWAYS prefer to hire someone who can show they’re goal-oriented and have long-term objectives in their career.
There are also a couple of big mistakes you need to avoid when you describe your career goals in an interview, so we’ll cover how to avoid those mistakes, too.
Let’s get started…
How to Answer “What Are Your Career Goals?”
You always want to seem goal oriented, so it’s not a good idea to say, “I’m not sure” or “I haven’t thought about that.”
That’s NOT going to impress hiring managers.
But you also need to make sure the career goals you mention fit into the job you’ve applied for.
Here’s how this can hurt you if not:
Imagine you’re interviewing for a customer service position. And the hiring manager asks about your long-term career goals. If you say, “My goal is to move out of customer service and find a role that doesn’t involve working with customers as much. I prefer to work behind the scenes,” then the hiring manager is NOT going to hire you for their job.
Employers want to hire someone who really wants this specific job, because then you’re more likely to be motivated, have a great attitude, etc.
So prepare a few goals and aspirations you can talk about, but make sure your goals fit with the job you’re interviewing for. Otherwise, adjust the goals you plan on talking about for the interview.
Be strategic and think about what’s going to get you hired for the job you want, and don’t say anything that suggests you’ll be bored, frustrated, or want to leave this job quickly.
One more note: Just like with the question “where do you see yourself in 5 years?” you’re not expected to be able to predict the future accurately.
Nobody’s going to check on you in two years and see if you’re following what you said in a few years.
Hiring managers just want to see what your interests are and whether you’ve thought about this at all. And they want to make sure they’re not hiring someone who’s going to be bored in their job.
That’s why they ask questions about your long-term career goals and ambitions in an interview.
“What Are Your Career Goals?” Examples
Now that you know how to answer questions about your career goals in the interview, let’s look at some word-for-word example answers.
First is an example of an entry-level job seeker.
After that, we’ll go through an example for job seekers with more experience.
Entry-Level Example Answer for “What Are Your Career Goals?”
I just graduated with my degree in Finance, and I’m excited to get my first position in the industry, now. My longer-term goals are to learn a variety of areas within the field of finance and work toward deciding what area of specialization I want to take. I’d love to become an expert in one specific field of finance in the long term, but I know the first step is to build a solid foundation and learn the basics in an entry-level role. I saw this job offers exposure to a variety of areas, which is something I liked.
Notice that the end of this example answer includes a line about why their particular job interests you.
This is a great tactic you can use with a variety of your interview answers. Answer their question, but then conclude by putting the focus back on their job and why you want this position!
Most job seekers don’t do this. You’ll really stand out with this tactic and put their mind at ease that you’ll love their job.
(Employers are REALLY scared of hiring someone who won’t love the job, even if you have the necessary experience. Because it costs a lot of time/money/energy to hire and train someone, and that’s all lost if you leave in the first year).
Mid-Level Example Answer for “What Are Your Career Goals?”
My goal for many years was to become a Manager. I achieved that last year. Now as I look forward in my career, I’d like to build and manage larger teams and continue advancing as a leader. I’ve found I really enjoy mentoring and leading a team, even more than I enjoyed working as an individual contributor earlier in my career. When I saw your job description mentions a chance to hire and lead a team of five, I knew I should apply.
Again, this sample answer for “what are your career goals?” does a lot more than just answering the basic question. You start by mentioning a past achievement, then you answer the question, and then you mention what you saw in their specific job that excited you.
This is a great formula to follow when answering this question as a mid-level or senior-level job seeker.
Answering “What Are Your Career Goals?” – Quick Review
- Never say you don’t have any goals or haven’t thought about it
- Always share a goal that’s at least somewhat related to the job you’ve applied for
- Start your answer by explaining your current situation and what you accomplished previously in your career
- Next, explain your future career goals and how you plan to achieve them
- Conclude by telling the interviewer what interested you in their particular job (based on the job description) – make sure they can see how their job fits into your bigger career goals
If you follow the advice above, you’ll give a great answer when interviewers ask about your long term career goals and objectives.
This will show them that you’re someone who has long-term ambitions and plans. They’ll love this. You’ll also show them why their job interests you, which tells them you’ll be motivated and work hard. This makes them FAR more likely to offer you the position than someone who can’t clearly explain their career goals and how those goals fit into this job they’re discussing.
Hold Up! Before you go on an interview.
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Ashley Carty
Our ancestors were asked to go to war, but today, most of us are asked to remain home. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, if you’re not working in the trenches, you’re likely at home in self-quarantine. Rather than focusing on the negative, you can use this time for self-growth; set achievable ambitious goals.
Are you looking to build your career or change your habits? Setting objectives and outlining a clear roadmap can help you apply your time and resources in the most effective way to make significant progress. Goals push you forward, provide a constant reminder of what you want to achieve, and give you motivational energy to carry on even when motivation is low. We’ve outlined how to set achievable ambitious goals the SMART way.
When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps. – Confucius 551-479 B.C.
SMART
The Acronym SMART has been used since 1981 to help people outline clear, specific, and achievable goals. The acronym gives you a roadmap to follow to help you reach your destination. People who write down their goals and make sure they are reasonable and actionable are 50% more likely to achieve their goals than those who don’t.
S = Specific
What are you looking to achieve? You’ll need to be as clear and as specific as possible. Rather than saying, “I want to be a leader,” you’ll want to write, “I will achieve a position as the Director of Nursing.” The more specific you can be with your goal, the more you’ll be able to understand the precise steps you need to take to get there.
M= Measurable
Setting measurable milestones will help guide you in the right direction. When you understand the steps you need to take, you can outline each specific milestone to help you reach the finish line. Such milestones in our example above include needing to obtain a few years’ experience as an RN, become a Charge Nurse, take additional courses, apply for positions, then get hired.
A = Achievable
When setting any goal, it needs to be within reach. Setting a goal that’s hard to reach may be inspiring, but when it isn’t achieved, it more often than not deters people from setting additional goals that are within reach. The most common example of this is when people set new year’s resolutions of losing more weight than is physically possible or pushing themselves beyond their reasonable limits. Make sure that your goal is still ambitious but within reason. Are there steps you need to take to be more prepared for this goal? Go back a step and add it to the list.
R = Relevant
Making sure that your goals are relevant is the next step in this sequence. It may seem redundant or even common sense to most, but relevance is key. Do each of your goals directly align with your end goal? If it doesn’t directly relate, you’ll need to go back and revisit the previous steps. It can be easy to drift away, add too much to your plate, or add in goals that don’t directly relate to your overall end goal [in this example, of becoming a Director of Nursing].
T = Time-based
Setting a deadline, much like anything in life, can help keep you on track and motivated. For example, if your end goal is to become a Director of Nursing, you’ll set the goal to become one in 36 months, allowing you to get enough years under your belt, additional schooling, and time to apply, interview, and get hired. Make sure you set your deadline for each step and that they are each realistic. Do your research on how much time it’ll take and set alerts or save notes in your calendar. Additional tip: set a date for each minor step; this way, you keep yourself accountable daily or weekly.
The more goals we set within healthy boundaries, the more likely we are to build self-confidence, autonomy, and happiness. And now, more than ever, it’s important to spend our time on ourselves and our future rather than getting sucked into tv programs or social media. Use this time to follow the SMART method to set your achievable and ambitious goals to help build your future.
Accountability Partner
In addition to following the SMART method, finding an accountability partner can prove to be beneficial. Your accountability partner doesn’t need to set the same goal(s) as you, but they should have their own goals that you keep them accountable for. By making sure you both have your own goals, and you’re each responsible, you’ll be more likely to succeed. When you’re hard on them, they’ll understand and vice-versa. When it’s a family member or friend who doesn’t have their own goals, they are more commonly less involved, and it can be easier to brush them off when they try to keep you accountable.
What goals are you setting for yourself? Have you recently achieved your goals? Let us know in the comments below.
