Six month career goal setting
We're halfway through the year - time for some planning!
Well, well, July, where did you spring from?
We’re six months through the year and this week I have a challenge for you.
I know it can feel like a cliché to be saying let’s set some six-month goals but if you, like me, said WTF IT’S JULY this week, then perhaps it’s time to think about two important questions when it comes to your career plans:
How do you want things to be when it comes to your career in six months’ time?
How do you want to FEEL about work in six months’ time?
Goal setting and pledging to make big changes in our work often happens at new year, in January, when we set out what we feel we want to achieve in the year, through resolutions.
There is a lot at the moment (including me!) being said on Instagram about looking back at the six months gone and forward to the six months ahead.
I’m keen on this see saw pivot moment in the calendar as a way of reassessing goals and setting new goals because it feels like just that: a see saw. A happy balance of before and future, with us at the centre.
There are many see saw moments in our careers but right now we can choose how things are balanced. We can say what we want to change and we can begin making steps immediately.
While this is a challenge to think big and make wild dreams it’s also a chance to think about the small steps that lead us to those mega wins.
So for example if the big goal is promotion, what small goals take you towards that? What small goals get you in the right mindset and zone for the big goal down the line?
If you dream of being self employed in six months time, going freelance, then what smaller steps and goals start that journey?
When you think of the answer to the ‘six months’ time’ question, what other little things come to mind? And what could you do TODAY or this week to make a quick simple in the moment change towards the big goal?
Before a client begins coaching with me I send a questionnaire to get them focusing on what they want from the coaching.
Part of it gets them to list three things that are going well and three things they’d like to change.
It’s an exercise you can do today to help you think about what the six month goal might be, and also a nice way to say ‘hey I’m not doing too badly, actually!’
So here’s the challenge - to think about and set those six month goals. The only warning I have? Beware the very smug feeling in December when you look back to now and see how far you’ve come.
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