How to Clarify your Career Goals

Shweta Khare

18 years ago

Many people fail in life, not for lack of ability or brains or even courage but simply because they have never organized their energies around a goal.
— Elbert Hubbard

Consider these two questions. If you are looking forward to identifying your goals these are the two essential basic questions that you have to ponder on. It is not easy to arrive immediately to the answers, but the quest to finding the solutions and musing over their interpretations is worth the effort.

What are your personal goals?
What are your career goals?

How different are the two answers? When exploring at depth, do you see a correlation between these two answers?

Sure enough, they could be different, but in true essence they should not be. The answers to the above questions give you a broader outlook on where you want your career to be and how you want your future career to shape up. When you combine your personal goals and career goals you can arrive at a more satisfying career and job than when you judge them as two separate concepts.

In the short-term answer these questions – again honestly and with some insight:

Is this the job or career you want to be in?
Are you using your skills effectively and to your satisfaction?
Does the present job / career inspire you?
Do you aspire for more success and contentment at work?
Would you work better in a different work environment?

When you go through this process of questioning yourself in order to find the right answer, you are well on your way to analyzing your present career health. And, thus in the process of finding a path to a healthier future career.

Stop what you are doing now and spend time to investigate what you want to do in future. Make short-term and long-term goals, your short-term goals must be such to move you towards your long-term dreams of a satisfying career. The answers will come once you are clear on your goals on what you want to do. Don’t consider it a small step or a quick answer; most of us go through our whole lives without even taking time to question, let alone finding the answer to this ever important question of our lives. Don’t just keep doing what you are doing right now and be in waiting to expect a different result.

“If You Always Do What You’ve Always Done, You’ll Always Get What You’ve Always Got”

Stop, think, take charge of your career, but clarify your goals first.

When you discover your mission, you will feel its demand. It will fill you with enthusiasm and a burning desire to get to work on it.
— W. Clement Stone