It’s a long vacation not only for the workers, employees, managers, supervisors, freelancers, part-timers but also for job seekers. Almost everyone forget their work problems for a while to enjoy time with family and friends this Christmas season.
But even though we need the break from work and instead spend the holidays merrymaking, we should also allocate at least a day setting career goals for the year ahead or if you have career goals already, assessing whether you are accomplishing them or not.
If you are accomplishing them, well, that’s good. But if you feel that your career goals and your work condition do not in any way jive, then maybe you need to sit down and start setting career goals again.
Career goals are important because they give you the focus, motivation and inspiration to work. If you know where you are heading, you will not likely be lost along the way. You’ll make the right career decisions when you are clear what your career goals are.
What are examples of career goals? It can be as simple as to be a volunteer youth organizer. All of the things that you will decide on like the course to take in college and the kind of company and work to look for will be dependent on this career goal.
For those who are already in a job that they love, career goals can be to increase sales or to be promoted to a certain higher position.
Setting career goals may be one thing that you can do before the New Year arrives. What do you really want to do in life? What are the things that are really important to you? Is it really important to get the highest salary in the company? Or are you happy serving people in your work, having less stress and having lots of time with your family?
Do you want a position because you want the status or because you really feel that the company will benefit if you are in that position? Do you really need that much stress? Is your stressful work fulfilling enough for you that you are willing to endure the stress for the work?
These are some of the questions that you need to answer when setting career goals. Career is not just about money. Money is an important consideration because you have to pay rent and pay the taxi or bus when going to work and of course, you need to eat.
But money is not everything. If you look at the wealthiest shoppers in the trendiest malls in the country, you’ll notice that there are a very few of them that look happy.
If you compare them to the people in slums, you’ll see more smiling faces and more people laughing.
Why?
Because money doesn’t necessarily make people happy. Setting career goals mean not just thinking about money but also thinking about other things that will make you happy in your work such as having the opportunity to help to others and having more time with family and having a work that you are passionate about and being in a work that gives you the opportunity to make a difference in other’s lives however small it can be.
As they say, if the work that you are doing is the work that you love, you’ll never really feel that you are working. Setting career goals this New Year may give you that feeling.
