Six steps to success

Six steps to success

Alan Naylor continues his weekly career advice aimed at ambitiousaccountants

Now you have set your goals, the next step is to secure their realisation. You should take between a week and a month to do what is set out below.

Initially, you need to examine your goals in terms of your long-term objectives. The ten or 20-year scenario will challenge your imagination in terms of visualising where you would like to be. When the 20-year goal is written out, then you need intermediate goals by which to measure your attainment and keep sight of how accurately you are travelling towards your objective. One- year and three-year goals will give you additional marker points, against which to measure your journey.

The six steps in this process are as follows:

Lifetime goals

Outline your values and goals over your lifetime. Imagine your life the way you want it to be rather than waiting for fate (frequently unkind and unjust) to decide. Many of these objectives relate to non-work areas, such as what you would like to do with leisure time in your later years.

Twenty-year goals

In order to be on track for your lifetime goals, you must examine your 20-year goals.

These become more specific in areas such as: finance; family demands, such as housing needs; and retraining.

Ten-year goals

Your ten-year goals have to be outlined even more clearly because it is harder to change direction or start anew if you are wildly off course at this stage. Take into account the skills and the degree of financial security you will have acquired by then and assess the impact of these on your 20-year goals.

Three or five-year plan

Your three or five-year plan is next (depending on the type of career structure you are in). It requires even more detail since it is the setting of this goal which will keep you on track for the longer term.

One-year goal

The importance of the one-year goal is that you must ensure that in the coming months:

– you are on the right path by gaining the correct work experience;

– you make the changes to achieve this experience;

– you apply self-feedback and seek feedback from others, so you are encouraged by your achievements and learn from your mistakes.

Your one-year goal requires regular review and updating. It forces you to examine all the key areas in your life on a regular basis. Commit to a particular time in the month for a formal review, so that you teach yourself the habit of taking this exercise seriously.

Your short-term plan

This can relate to a day or a week depending on the nature of your job and the type of person you are. It will require you to prioritise the crucial immediate items and distinguish between important and urgent items.

The nature of your plans, the methods you adopt, depend on what you feel is most appropriate to you and your circumstances. Bear in mind goal-setting is a skill. Just like any other skill it cannot be acquired overnight.

The important thing is to start, not to spend time judging, criticising or initially thinking about whether or not you are doing it well. Within one-month you should have in place a working plan as outlined in the aforementioned six steps, using the headings and being committed to: your regular weekly and monthly reviews (put the time and date in your diary); and your work diary and your daily prioritising of key activities for the next day.

It is essential to keep a record of how effectively your time is used.

Key Questions

What format are you using to write out your goals?

Is this a file or loose-leaf paper you can easily add to?

Are you keeping this private at home or are you doing it at your work place?

Would it be advantageous to keep this as a personal and private matter?

Who are you going to carry out the reviews with? Is it someone at work, a professional adviser outside work, or someone in your personal life?

Can you link your quarterly, half-yearly or annual reviews with your organisation’s evaluation of your performance at work?

Are you going to tell your boss this is something you are beginning to carry out?

Which goal are you going to start working towards now?

Why is that goal more important to you than another?

Is there someone you can speak to who could shortcut the experience you need to obtain in order to achieve that goal?

How are you going to spot work/behaviour patterns that are relevant to achieving your major goals?

Can you see risks or negative aspects of the main goals that you have set yourself?

Are you aware of people without goals? Can you ascertain to what degree their lack of goals has contributed to their failures?

Can you attribute any of your past failures to not having goals? What have you been able to extract from those experiences that you can now apply positively to your advantage?

What sort of timeframe are you thinking about in terms of your major goals?

Are you making the right mental commitment for life-time goals as well as for short-term goals in terms of the recording and the evaluation of your development?

Is there anything stopping you carrying out the six steps? If there is, can it be overcome by you personally or with the help of others or do you just need to get started for it to happen?

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