How to Set Your Career Goals for 2018 and Achieve Them

The new year is 11 days old and fresh in our minds. A regular new year quote is, "bye bye old year and welcome new year". A new year calls for new beginnings - that applies to the career as well. Many start to set new year resolutions and would like to change a personal habit and culminate better work habits. In terms of work or career January is the prime time to hunt for new jobs, seek promotion, learn new skills etc,. Some set very ambitious goals to achieve and may fall short after few days or month. The key is to set realistic goals and have an action plan along with the will power to achieve them.


So, whatever is planned by you, here are few tips to succeed in achieving your career goals in 2018.

Reflect on Recent Past

With 2017, just passed by you will have memories of last year and may not completely focus on the present year. But, if 2017 was the worst year, then you would definitely
like to forget it as soon as possible. 

Whether the year was good or bad, take time to ponder look back over the last year. Reflect on things that had been bad and take positives out of them and think what 
would you have done better. Ask yourself what have achieved and what you have not and how you could done things differently to achieve them. 

The reason for reflecting over 2017 is to understand where have been and what you have achieved and make plans of what you want to achieve in 2018. This will give you better chance of understanding of where you went wrong and chart out an initiates to be taken of what needs to be accomplished. 

What Do You Want To Accomplish?

After reflecting on where you stand and it's time to thing what you want to achieve this year. Some of the things you may want to achieve in 2018 could be looking for 
new job or getting a promotion in your job. 

Think about where you want achieve in next 12 months. Decide if you want work in the same field or you want to take up new challenges and look out for new opportunities. The first step if you want to take up a new challenge is to set a solid career goal and write you how you plan to achieve it. There exists a direct correlation between framing specific career goals and career success. These goals have to be smart, realistic, specific and measurable and attainable. 

It is important to cater some time in your daily or weekly schedule in the process to achieve them. For example, if your goal is to land in a new job and you need to 
have a skill to achieve it. Then take time to practice that skill in scheduled time. Next thing is to break this larger goal into smaller chunks and think about forming sub steps to achieve them and get moving in the next 12 months.

Small Start 

The key to achieving your planned career goals is to start small and take one step at a time. Most people start their New Year's resolutions ambitiously and fail midway. Though setting broad and sweeping goals sound great, they very difficult to achieve. 

Instead, start wisely and take short steps towards your broader goal. For example, if one is seeking a new job opportunity, the candidate would be very enthusiastic to attend few interviews to start with. However, if you are not shortlisted in the interviews as you don't have the required skill, one may feel like they have failed.

Instead identify the job requirements and the particular skill required. Learn it and then apply for job interviews. You would be bound to succeed. Hence you should start with a more reasonable, achievable goal first, have a plan towards achieving your ultimate goal and work towards it in steps. 

Chart Out An Action Plan

Don’t be afraid to look around the world wide web for ideas on getting started. You may even ask a your dearest friend or mentor to get some ideas. But, charting out an action plan is important in achieving your final career goal. The action plan contains smaller achievable steps towards the mightier goals. 

Blogs, websites, or training courses that can help you to start getting ideas to achieve your goals in the coming year. Websites like The Motivated Job Search, Careerbliss, Skillshare can help with anything from free training to major tips to advance in your career.

Taking the same example of switching fields, you have identified that additional skills are required. So, you may need to do some more training, and may be some work experience in the later part. 

After training you might decide to volunteer some time for gaining experience, then take a few courses if required to fit perfectly to the aspiring job, then switch jobs to work toward the final career change you sought for.


Track Your Progress

After charting down your goals, designing an action plan, and exploring various resources, you need to keep track of your success. As mentioned, your goals have to be measurable. You can monitor your numbers and statistics in a Ms-Excel spreadsheet or even on simple tool like Ms-word that you might be well versed with, on a regular basis to keep yourself motivated. It's up to you chose if you wan to do it on a daily or weekly or monthly basis as long as you keep a track of your betterment to successfully achieve your goals by the deadlines that you have set.

Liked this Career advice? We have more advice in store for you. Please keep checking our blog for latest advice on jobs, career, interview tips. In case, in this new year if you are looking for any freelance or contract opportunities, please reach us at info@radiants.com. Our recruiters would call you with a job matching your skills and accomplishments.

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