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Health & Fitness

New Year, New Career Goals

So you've set your 2013 resolutions. Good for you! But setting goals is just the first step. How do you go from establishing them to actually accomplishing them?

 

So you’ve set your 2013 resolutions. Good for you! And included in that list are career objectives, such as learning some carefully selected new skills you expect will help you do your job more effectively. Even better.

But setting goals is just the first step. How do you go from establishing them to actually accomplishing them? Here are some tips to help you out:

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Focus on what’s doable. While you’ll want to stretch your goals from what they were last year, don’t make them so grandiose that you have no hope of accomplishing them. Select goals you can realistically reach. Unless you’re already a high-ranking executive, for instance, becoming CEO of your company isn’t an effective goal to work toward. Instead, come up with something that will be challenging but still doable.

Also consider how many goals you can reasonably accomplish. You may, for instance, set several objectives if they are spread out over the entire year or just one if you hope to accomplish it within the next couple of months. Be careful: Overextending yourself could prove more frustrating than motivating.

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Break it down. If one of your objectives will take the entire year to accomplish, you might be better served setting smaller, “check-in” goals along the way. This approach will give you reachable targets and make the progression toward the overall goal more manageable. In addition, when you meet the smaller objectives, you can reward yourself, providing further motivation to succeed.

Re-gear when necessary. If in the course of the year you determine that one of your goals is no longer pertinent, there’s nothing wrong with adjusting your targets.

Or, if you gave yourself too many objectives at the beginning of the year, and it’s become apparent you won’t be able to accomplish them all, postpone one or two goals that aren’t as crucial as the rest. It’s better to prioritize and reach your most important targets instead of stretching yourself too thin and jeopardizing your success with all your objectives.

Maintain your momentum. When you reach the goals you’ve set, by all means, celebrate. But then, start working on new goals so you don’t lose your momentum. It’s best to continue setting objectives and challenging yourself to reach for greater successes so you can continue to move your career forward.

Even if you aren’t able to reach all of your goals, don’t despair. By making the effort, you’ve given yourself direction and made a sizeable investment in your career progress.

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