We dedicate roughly 90,000 hours to work over the course of our lives. Pretty wild to think about, right? This number can either bog you down and fill you with dread, or it can excite and motivate you to lead a fulfilling career.
“When you intentionally cultivate your experience at work, choosing a career that aligns with your values, sense of mission, and unique zone of genius, work becomes a source of energy, creativity, fun, and flow,” says Victoria Song, a leadership advisor and alumna of both Yale College and Harvard Business School. Bottom line: “You’ll grow in the exact ways that inspire you.”
Ahead, we’re sharing the key benefits of putting intentional energy into your work and career and sharing effective goal-setting strategies that’ll help you boss up and crush your professional development goals.
Benefits of Focusing Energy & Intention Into Your Career
Though work isn’t the end-all, be-all of your life—relationships and personal endeavors are arguably much higher on the list—being proud and satisfied within your career ultimately improves your quality of life.
“You’ll find new levels of freedom in relationships, time, and money,” Song says. “You’ll feel proud of how far you’ve come, and excited for where you’re headed next. You’ll surprise yourself with what you’re capable of, developing the skill-mastery, confidence and courage to keep stretching your goals and visions.”
Embrace your journey and work hard—no matter what level you’re at—with a positive mindset, and you’ll be able to grow to where you’re meant to be.
Maggie Berghoff, a business growth consultant and entrepreneur, says that even if you’re not exactly where you want to be right now (or feel like you’ve got miles to go), you can find fulfillment in the journey itself.
“Embrace your journey and work hard—no matter what level you’re at—with a positive mindset, and you’ll be able to grow to where you’re meant to be,” she says. “If you put your all into it, there’s no telling how far you’ll go. You’ll attract the opportunities you want and have the courage and skills built to take advantage of those opportunities when they arise.”
7 Expert Tips For Setting & Achieving Career Goals
In order to crush it in your career, it’s crucial to set clearly defined objectives. This gives you benchmarks to work toward, allowing you to focus your eye on the prize and level up over time.
1. Set Clearly Defined Goals
One of the biggest differentiators between those who set goals and achieve them and those who do not is how clearly they defined their goals.
“You want your goals to be clear and specific, as this makes it easier for you to make measurable progress toward them,” explains career coach Kyle Elliott, EdD. He says you’ll need to be able to answer questions like, ‘How will I know that I have reached my goal?’ or ‘In what ways can I measure my progress along the way?’”
Setting “S.M.A.R.T.” goals can help you do this:
- S: Specific
- M: Measurable
- A: Achievable
- R: Relevant
- T: Time-Bound
Ultimately, clearly defined goals allow you to determine what’s working and what’s not, and can provide direction for when it’s time to shake things up. Studies also show that this level of exact action planning helps you achieve your goals.1
2. Work Toward Different Types of Goals
Bucket your goals into three different types: predictable goals, stretch goals, and inspiring, shoot-for-the-moon type goals.
- Predictable: “The predictable goal is something you already know how to do, perhaps have done it before, and have a strategy for achieving it,” Song says.
- Stretch: Stretch, or “possible” goals, are something you think is within reach, but you may not yet know exactly how to achieve it, you haven’t done it before and possibly never seen anyone else do it either.
- Moonshot: “The inspiring, moonshot goal is the crazy potential goal that is like hitting the bullseye on a dart board. You know it’s difficult, you can’t guarantee it, you’re not attached to it, but it’s fun to imagine what if. You’d be so excited!”
This multi-layered approach creates a balanced approach to personal and professional growth. Predictable goals provide stability and direction, stretch goals encourage continuous improvement and innovation, while inspiring goals fuel ambition and drive transformative change.
3. Track Progress for Both Hard Goals and Soft Skills
Shift your mindset from “set it and forget” to “set it and track it.” For example, if your goal is to hit $XYZ revenue within a certain timeframe, keep checking in with your progress. This allows you to make adjustments as needed to hit your target.
You can do this with soft skills such as improving communication or leveling up leadership skills. Even with soft skills, though, Dr. Elliott says you’ll find more success when defining what these things mean to you and tracking key performance indicators (KPIs).
“KPIs don’t always need to include numbers,” he says. “If your goal is to be a more confident communicator, for instance, you might start to track the feelings you have after important meetings at work.”
We’re so fortunate that in today’s world there are so many opportunities to learn and master any skill set you desire all online.
4. Invest in Continuing Education
Continuing education is an excellent way to work toward your professional development goals. This might look like professional workshops and conferences, working toward new certifications within your industry, mentorship and coaching, and/or industry-specific training programs.
“We’re so fortunate that in today’s world there are so many opportunities to learn and master any skill set you desire all online,” Berghoff says. “There is likely an online course or mentorship program for anything you want to achieve. They’re all different structures and prices, so you can find one best suited for you.”
She strongly recommends investing in your growth and learning from those who have done what you want to do, too. Not only will you learn new skills to move you forward, you’ll also be surrounded by other growth-oriented individuals who think differently in life and are ambitious for big things.
People want to help, but they need to know where and how to best support you.
5. Communicate Your Goals to Others
Setting clearly defined goals gives you momentum and clarity, but it also comes in handy for this next tip for crushing your professional development goals: Getting others involved. “People want to help, but they need to know where and how to best support you,” Dr. Elliott notes.
Sharing goals with others—including family, friends, and colleagues—fosters accountability, support, and collaboration. It also provides room for helpful feedback, diverse perspectives, and collective problem-solving.
6. Network With Intention
Similarly, make big strides when it comes to networking. The more people you know, the more connections you have, the more advice you’ll get, and the more opportunities you’ll see. By connecting with professionals in your field, you gain insights, mentorship, and access to resources that can propel your career forward.
What’s more, networking helps you stay on top of industry trends, discover job openings (sometimes before others even know about them), and provides opportunity for meaningful referrals and encouragement throughout your professional journey. You can network at conferences, in the office, via platforms like LinkedIn, and local events.
7. Focus Your Attention on the Process
Hitting marks is great, but you ultimately want to focus more attention on the process versus obsessing over outcomes.
“As you set career goals, you want to be sure that you’re focusing your time and effort on what’s in your control,” Dr. Elliott notes. “You might be tempted to set a result-focused goal, but this can be a recipe for disappointment, since outcomes are so often out of our hands, especially when it comes to professional development and growth.”
As you set career goals, you want to be sure that you’re focusing your time and effort on what’s in your control.
In other words, you want to focus your attention on the process, or inputs, that you can personally control. For example, if you want to become a manager, you might set a goal of taking additional leadership classes rather than securing a new position. While your desire may be to move up to a management position, that outcome ultimately sits with your employer.
8. Celebrate Your Wins Along the Way
Here’s another good reason to track your goals: It lets you know when it’s time to celebrate! Taking time to reward yourself for wins for progress made is a key part of cultivating a winner’s mindset, Song says. Research has also found that it helps spark creativity and engagement among colleagues.2
Dr. Elliott agrees. He says, “Rewards can be a powerful motivator for achieving goals. Everyone is different, so you’ll want to tap into those rewards that will inspire you to work toward your professional goals.”
Rewards can be a powerful motivator for achieving goals. Everyone is different, so you’ll want to tap into those rewards that will inspire you to work toward your professional goals.
9. Stay the Course
You’ll experience natural ebbs and flows along your career development journey. Dips are completely normal and aren’t a reason to abandon ship. Rather, they’re a time to practice self-compassion, gently assess, and find new strength. Sometimes, feeling stuck or unmotivated is caused by pursuing the wrong goal, or going about it the wrong way.
“There will always be ups and downs, but being grateful for it all and seeing ‘failures’ as great lessons is a major key to success,” Berghoff says. “Embracing the journey and process is the best way to stay the course in your goals long-term and continue winning.”