Career Goals

Your career goals probably occupy the largest part of your day and in most cases is the main source of your income – so having goals for your career is important for financial security and your own personal happiness and satisfaction.

And you can be happy at work – job satisfaction and success is an excellent driver of personal happiness and satisfaction, and is one of our highlighted success secrets. Conversely, having an unsatisfying job is likely to cause great stress and unhappiness.

So choosing the right career in the first place and then managing your career to get the most out of it, is the key to setting successful career goals.

What can you do to get the most out of your career goals?

• Work out what you REALLY want from your career – what do you like doing and what are you good at doing.
• Manage your career goals so you can achieve what you want to achieve.
• Know what to do when your career goes bad or when you have a sudden change in direction.

It’s important to note that a career doesn’t have to result in a source of income – but it is the job you do that occupies most of your waking hours.

You could be a stay-at-home mum or dad, or a full-time volunteer worker – both valuable and rewarding careers, that don’t produce an income. But they can result in great personal satisfaction and happiness, and represent a significant contribution on your behalf to your family or your community.

Whether you career is a paid one or not, to get the most out of what you do, you need to set goals for your career.

And career development goals also have synergies with other goals you may have for other life aspects. Your career in particular may also enhance:

• Your ‘Financial’ life aspect, obviously – since your career is usually your main source of income, so then naturally your ‘household’ life aspect as a means of financing a new home or renovations.
• Your ‘Personal’ life aspect, by fulfilling your passion or life’s purpose!
• Your ‘Friendship’ life aspect, by introducing you to people with common interests and motivations. You may even find a new partner!

Depending on your career, you may even improve your level of fitness or health!

Take these synergies into account during your goal-setting journey to kill 2 birds (or 2 goals) with the same stone and get the most out of your experience.

Online networking is another way to expand your network and boost your business or career. I recommend this article - “Seven ways to generate business on LinkedIn” by Zale Tabakman on the use of online networking using LinkedIn. The article includes an audio/ visual presentation which is very clear and gives practical step-by-step advice on how to get the most out of LinkedIn whether for business promotion and career development or for social networking.

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