The Career Woman’s Guide to Goal Setting

October 15, 2023

Setting goals can be a fantastic method for propelling your career or any of the other facets of your life, for that matter. This is because the process of setting goals allows you to live with a greater sense of purpose. When it comes to our career aspirations, maintaining the perspective that the sky’s the limit can truly help us reach our wildest ambitions. In order to do so, however, we do need to take the plunge and be ready to persevere.

This is by no means a linear process, and there is guaranteed to be plenty of self-doubt and a healthy amount of imposter syndrome along the way. Thankfully, having clear-cut and realistic goals in place can also help dispel any of those nagging doubts in your head too.

To help you in your goal-setting process, we’ll be sharing some tips and tricks on how you can structure your road to success and triumph as a boss babe. Here are the best ways that you can integrate the power of goal-setting into your own personal and professional life.

Write out your goals and your ideal timeline

When it comes to setting certain goals, especially career goals, getting trapped in the daily grind can be among the many things that cause us to lose focus or put our path on the bottom of the pile. With the help of an annual diary, however, you can map out your whole year and ensure that you can hit all the milestones you’re hoping to reach. So why not start the new year off with a 2024 diary at your fingertips? That way, you can make sure that your career goals stay in mind, and that you don’t allow them to fall to the wayside amidst all the hubbub that accompanies daily life.

You’d be surprised how much more information we retain, or the tasks we remember to do when we take the time to write it down. It’s a way of reminding ourselves, as well as acknowledging tasks as we complete them. So whether you’re looking to keep track of dates in a major project you’re managing, assigning a date to arrange a salary negotiation meeting with your boss, or are even going for that promotion and are looking to pinpoint when it may come your way, make sure you set your sights and put pen to paper.

Be precise when it comes to your goals

As I mentioned earlier, being precise about your goal-setting can help you close the gap between meeting your goals and falling short of them. With that in mind, it’s important to be clever (or to be S.M.A.R.T., rather) when outlining the goals you’re hoping to accomplish.

A popular goal-setting methodology, S.M.A.R.T. basically stands for:

Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time-based

As you can see, the S.M.A.R.T. methodology is actually pretty simplistic and easy enough to put into effect. Goals that are more specific and measurable are naturally going to be easier to attain than goals that are less defined. When our goals are too vague or cover a broad spectrum, we often lose motivation because there is no set task to achieve or obtain in the short term. In other words, it’s easier for us to lose our way.

As a career-oriented woman, you’re probably already all too familiar with the practice of setting and adhering to deadlines. This is why having time-based goals to obtain can help you, as they allow you to maintain focus and perspective whenever life gets in the way.

Track your progress

Speaking of setting time-based goals, it’s important that we examine the relationship between adhering to deadlines and also tracking your progress along the way. As we mentioned, maintaining goals that are measurable can help you celebrate incremental progress, which can be a nice source of motivation as you continue working your way up to those more ambitious personal and professional goals.

For example, say it is Tuesday and your specific goal is to complete 2 writing assignments by the following Friday and you have to obtain a minimum word count of 800 words for each. Say to yourself, “Okay, that’s a minimum of 1600 words in 10 days, and I want to have the first piece completed by this coming Friday so that I can focus on the second piece in those last five days.

You can track your progress by using a calendar to keep these self-assigned deadlines in mind. First, focus on the piece that is due this coming Friday. Once that’s been crossed off, you can take comfort in the fact that your workload has been cut in half, and you only have one task taking up your time for the next few days.

This can allow you to pace yourself and complete your work mindfully, instead of panicking, procrastinating, and then writing it all out in 6 hours straight.

Make it attainable and stay accountable

When we have multiple projects on the plate, all too often the workload piles up, or we lose motivation to keep going. Yes, we can say to ourselves “I want to have half the pieces done by Friday”, but how do we go about it? The answer: Set mini-targets and maybe even have a friend help to keep you responsible and accountable.

The next step is to break it down into attainable steps. So if you want to have 600 words done by the coming Friday, it means that you only have to focus on 150 words a day. Makes it feel easier, doesn’t it?

And once again, don’t be afraid to have a friend or colleague hold you accountable by letting them hear or read your progress. You’d be surprised by just how impactful an ally to report to can really be when it comes to reaching your own mini goals every week. And you may even be able to return the favour for them too!

Relevance equals result

When it comes to achieving your goals, particularly those of a professional nature, it helps to make them relevant to what you want as the acquired result. If your goal is to improve your communication in work meetings and around your work colleagues, a good way to make your goal applicable could be by undergoing some personal development, with a focus on public speaking and communication skills.

By making your goal relevant to a common or necessary objective, you are more likely to pursue it in order to complete your goal and achieve your desired result.

Be bound by a time frame

Finally, as I hope I have been hinting through this piece, make sure you structure your time wisely with the goal you need to achieve. If your goal is to hone your computer skills, ready for a project, look for short courses that may do studies over 6 weeks. This way, you have a structure by knowing that you have a task to attend to each week, in an effort to achieve your goal.

As maintaining time-based goals in the final component of practicing the S.M.A.R.T. methodology, you should find that this particular inclusion into your own goal-setting process can help set you up for success within the timeline that you outlined in your goal-setting diary or planner.
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So, when it comes to goal-setting for career women, remember:

Specific is better than vague.
Make your progress trackable and measurable.
Attainable goals are better when broken down (so long as you hold yourself accountable!).
Relevant goals are also more likely to be achievable goals.
Time sets structure for your goal-setting.