Reach for the Stars or How to Set Goals and Reach Them
We often talk about the importance of identifying and defining our goals. This applies to both our personal and work lives. We set goals to lose weight, learn a new language, and land that new job or to make that change in our life or career that we have thought about so long.
Reach for the stars and land in the tree tops is one way of defining a goal. It’s wonderful as a philosophy, but too vague to be a project management tool. We need to find ways to bring the philosophy down to earth to make it soar above those tree tops.
First we need to define the end goal, and then divide it into smaller and attainable goals or steps to be completed so as to reach the end goal. And both the end goal and the interim goals should be SMART goals!
Setting SMART goals is a commonly used strategy in both project and people management, but can also be effective for your own job search strategy, or for implementing change. According to Wikipedia, the concept was first described by George Doran in the November 1981 issue of the Management Review magazine. It has grown increasingly popular since.
SMART goals are: S – Specific; M – Measurable; A -Attainable; R -Relevant; T- Timely. What does this mean for your life and career goals?
Specific: Set hands-on, detailed goals by asking the following questions: What, Why, Who, and Where, include a question on possible obstacles or requirements. What job do you want? Why do you want to work in a specific organization? Who can help you get there? Where are the opportunities?
Measurable: Make the goals measurable so you can identify successes and needs for development. The core questions are: How much, How many, How often and How to know when I reached my goal? For example, how many networking meetings will I attend and jobs will I apply for weekly? How many hours a day will I spend on my job search?
Attainable: Are your goals realistic and meaningful? Are they achievable? The trick is to stay positive but realistic. Set reachable and challenging goals so you feel accomplishment when you succeed. Core questions are: do I have the necessary skills, experience and connections? If not, then focus on improving them so you can attain your goals.
Relevant: Are your goals relevant to the life and career you have or want to have? If not, then reevaluate them and revise. If you have trouble assessing the relevance, ask yourself if the action will give you new skills, required experience and new connections needed to further your career and most importantly if it will meet your needs and passions!
Timely: A realistic time frame makes a difference! It keeps us focused as it prevents everyday urgencies and responsibilities from taking over our life. Core questions are: by when must I reach my goal? If I have not attained it by the set date, what then? What are the short-term and long-term goals I need to define and act upon?
Moving to a new country or city, finding a new job or changing jobs, or redefining my life and career balance requires not only skills and experience but also self-awareness and a plan with SMART goals. The concept of SMART goals can be beneficial for any creative, personal and professional project, plan or dream.
Fall – A New Beginning
Labor Day has passed and fall is almost here, this is the best time for new projects.
I always feel energized in the fall, probably a remnant from my school days when I looked forward to a new academic semester after a long and revitalizing summer. The abundance of sun, swim and plenty of vitamin D provided by the long white nights in Finland made a great platform for launching new projects and activities in September.
My creativity is always soaring in the fall. I burst with ideas and creative urges, for arts & crafts and home remodeling, and for my career. Perhaps it is time to write a book, look for a new job, pursue that promotion, and submit a proposal for a presentation or seminar.
How can we do the most with our re-energized mind and body and use it for our job search, career development or for making some long desired changes in our work and personal life?
- Document your feelings, your dreams, plans and goals, before the busy schedule takes over. Write them down, dictate them to a voice recorder or share them with your 200 closest friends on Facebook. Sometimes sharing our plans with someone helps us follow through since it makes us feel accountable to others and ourselves.
- Creativity is often associated with spontaneity and perhaps chaos, but just as we conserve the harvest of berries and fruit from the summer by freezing, drying or cooking jam we need to conserve our creative ideas for the long winter. Make a folder or portfolio of new ideas. Perhaps use mindmapping, an excellent tool to create a visual overview of a project, subject or plan. I use it often to help my career coaching clients brainstorm opportunities, goals and to prioritize. Take time to return to your mindmap or folder of ideas. Prioritize them and select which to pursue.
- You may feel rested and energized right now, but as the rainy days come, the long days at the office or the challenging job search, you may feel less enthusiastic. To conserve and maintain your energy remember to take care of your physical and mental health. Try to eat healthy, exercise regularly and nurture your friendships. Recent research has shown that those who have enough close relationships, such as friends live longer and happier.
Finally, keep an open and inquisitive mind. While it may feel difficult and hard sometimes, try to look for opportunities instead of obstacles. What matters is not that we avoid any difficulties or challenges in our lives, but how we react to them, how we manage our feelings and how we seek to overcome the difficulties and challenging times.
Careers in Hedge Funds
How I Networked My Way into the US Job Market
I moved to the US over 12 years ago. I still recall my first attempts to look for a job. The economy was strong so there were plenty of jobs around. The New York Times job section was several pages long.
As I was new to the country my initial steps were not so successful. My main strategy was to apply for jobs posted in the NYT or online. I never received an answer. So a friend of a friend suggested I need to network more, but I didn’t have a network, at least not in the right industry.
What could I do?
I began to meet with friends who all happened to work in the financial industry, asking them for job search advice on how to find a job in human resources. Eventually my friends referred me to other people they knew, including their human resources representatives. After a few meetings my network of people began to grow.
None of these meetings led directly to a job, but I learned immensely about the work culture in finance, in HR and in New York. I received my best interview coaching ever from a friend working at one of the large investment banks. He advised me to write down at least 30 possible interview questions and prepare answers for each of them. Then he sat down with me and practiced my answers with me. I have never felt nervous about a job interview since.
For a Finn who had recently moved to NY, this was invaluable. The job interviews I had had in Finland were much more relaxed and indirect than the ones my friend prepared me for. I learned how to be assertive, how to talk about my successes and mistakes and what I learned from them. I was learning direct communication as opposite to the Finnish more indirect communication style.
How did I find a job?
On the advice of another friend I signed up with a staffing agency as a “temp”, that is, a temporary administrative staff member to be assigned to short term jobs. My first assignment was in HR at a large investment bank, processing data. I did well and was assigned to another assignment in the same bank, this time working in the Controllers Office processing sensitive data on initial public offerings. I stayed there for four months and was offered to stay on longer but decided to leave to pursue a job that I liked better. At that point I had US work experience and great references.
I wanted to go back to working at a university or a non-profit. So I began applying for jobs at the local universities and colleges and eventually landed an interview at Columbia University. My diligent interview preparation and great references from the investment bank helped me get a job I loved and start a career in my preferred field.
Lessons learned?
When you move to a new country, be prepared initially to adjust your expectations. I did feel my data entry job was below my expectations; I had a master’s degree after all. Consider accepting a job that you may be overqualified for, do it well and make sure your bosses support you. Doing a great job processing data and getting good references eventually opened doors to more interesting jobs later. Learn the local culture, job search strategy and interview culture. Work hard. You are competing with the locals who have home field advantage. Do not be afraid to ask for help.
Rites of Passages- a New Year’s Eve Meditation
This time of year we often look back at the past 12 months. What took place in the world and in our lives? It has been a turbulent year in many aspects. The global economy continues to be wobbly, there has been social unrest in many places and also Mother Nature reminded us of her powers through earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
Add to that your own personal experiences. Maybe you lost your job, found a new one or were promoted? Maybe you left what had been your home for many years, or a short time and moved far, or not so far away? Perhaps someone close to you passed away or is no longer in your life? Maybe someone new has entered your life: a friend, a child or a spouse? Whatever it is, we tend to want to look back at our life and find meaning and purpose in it as we approach the transition into a new year.
I find it fascinating that we as humans have a need to create times of transition and celebrate or mark them with rituals, so called rites of passage; such as end of summer celebrations (Labor Day in the US, Venetian Evening in Ostrobothnia in Finland where I grew up), coming of age rituals (Bar and Bat Mitzvah, Sweet 16, Confirmation), or funeral traditions. It seems to be an innate need we have as human beings, but why?
I lost my father recently and the meaning of a funeral as a rite of transition has been on my mind. What is the transition in a funeral? The funeral is the rite when we by remembering and honoring the life of the deceased simultaneously allow the surviving family and friends to openly grieve the loss of the loved one and thus help them move on. The grieving process is longer than a funeral, of course, but the role of the funeral rite is to encourage us to mentally and emotionally begin the process of letting go of the deceased. The funeral is really the beginning of a new phase in our lives.
New Years Eve celebrations are also a rite of passage when we mark the end of a phase in our personal lives and the beginning of a new one. We will add or celebrate another anniversary of our birth in the New Year, we will file taxes according to the annual cycle, our society is constructed around our concept of time and would not function without it (remember the panic at the New Year transition 1999-2000?). But it is really a human creation, created by us to help us understand and create meaning in our existence.
Now let us adapt this concept to more common events in our personal lives, such as leaving a job or moving to a new region or country. They are both significant events in our lives, but sometimes we fail to remember that. We are used to seeing weddings, childbirth and funerals as significant lifetime events, but ignore how important the more mundane times of transitions are.
Losing a job is significant. It entails missing colleagues who also are friends, it entails the loss of core aspects of our identity and for many the loss of the feeling of being part of a group, a community, and the society at large. Not to mention the loss of financial security and plans for the future.
We need rites of passages for losing a job! Maybe some of you have them? You go out for drinks and dinner with colleagues and friends; you take time off to travel or focus on a longtime dream project, such as building a boat.
If you have lost or left a job or relocated globally, have a rite of passage! Create your own! Next allow yourself the time to miss and grieve your previous life; your friends, the house, the climate, the job, your office, and perhaps your daily routine. Then begin the processes of creating a new life for you. Explore your opportunities; be open to your thoughts, feelings and dreams and, experiment.
Not all career transitions and global relocation are painful. Maybe you were excitedly looking forward to the change, to a new beginning, just as many of us look forward to a New Year with new possibilities. Seize that positive energy and conserve some of it (keep a diary of thoughts and feelings, for example) for times later in the transition when life may feel like an uphill battle and the first enthusiasm for the New Year, the new career, new home, new country or new project has waned.
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