At the start of a new year, many of us like to set new goals.
Most of them are geared towards exercising more, eating healthier, or other things in our personal life, but how about setting a goal to improve yourself professionally this year?
Whether your goals are personal or professional, they can really help give a sense of direction. Don't make them lightly. - it is important to really sit down and think through what you really want to achieve and what the steps are to get there.
At the start of a new year, many of us like to set new goals.
Most of them are geared towards exercising more, eating healthier, or other things in our personal life, but how about setting a goal to improve yourself professionally this year?
Whether your goals are personal or professional, they can really help give a sense of direction. Don’t make them lightly. – it is important to really sit down and think through what you really want to achieve and what the steps are to get there.
The more vague the goal, the more difficult it will be to stick to. Just consider the difference between the goal of living a healthier lifestyle versus exercising 3 times a week for an hour. While having a goal of being healthy is great, it is difficult to measure, whereas exercising a certain amount every week is a concrete, measurable goal for which you can hold yourself accountable.
When setting those types of goals, it is important that they are tangible and in your power to achieve. Just having the goal of getting a new job or getting a promotion is risky, since achieving those goals may not be entirely in your hands. Instead, if you are looking for a new job, set the goal of updating your resume or applying for a certain number of jobs per week.
If you are going for a promotion or a raise, make it a goal to take on more responsibility at work or volunteer to help manage a new project. If you are gearing up to move on from your PhD lab or postdoc lab, make it a goal to publish a certain number of papers. Those are all steps that are achievable and will get you towards what you ultimately want, yet they are still all in your control.
The most important aspect of being successful in achieving your goals is to not give up. If you are a procrastinator like me, you may want to set short-term, rather than long-term, goals. Instead of taking on 6 new projects in the next 6 months, divide it into months. Give yourself specific deadlines, and do your very best to meet them. If you don’t, then keep going. Meet the next one.
Even if you don’t meet all your goals, you are still doing a lot more than if you didn’t set those goals. I think a lot of scientists tend to be perfectionists, at least to a certain level, and that often comes with a lot of self-doubt and a deep sense of having failed if we are not perfect. But instead of getting frustrated, it is much more productive to restructure, maybe modify the goals, and stay motivated. That way, we will be able to get much closer to our ultimate goals, and also be much happier along the way.
