Goal Setting - Your Stepping Stone to Success

You’ve been employed in an organisation for more than five years, and you start to think – What’s next? As a fresher, you would have found a lot of things interesting. With every passing year, you’ve learnt to deal with challenges and overcome them successfully. Your responsibilities have increased, you’ve got promoted – is there still anything left to come your way?

In your employment phase at any organisation, it is essential to set goals. Goal Setting defines certain objectives and keeps you motivated through your tenure at any organisation. Every organisation has set goals for their employees, but it is essential to set goals as an employee too – It’s a win-win situation for sure!

Why is Goal Setting important as an Employee?

Most of the research on goal setting has focused on the relationship between goal difficulty and performance, predicting that given an adequate level of ability and commitment, harder goals will lead to greater effort and performance.

Provides Focus

As an employee in an organisation for more than five years, you are bound to lose focus. Most of the time, you’d find yourself in a situation where you feel stagnant and have no scope to grow. It doesn’t work that way, if you’ve set a goal! You are aware of the different hierarchies your organisation has – Now if you’ve been at an Assistant Manager for three years, focus on working hard and set your next goal to achieve that Manager’s position!

When you set a goal, you feel charged up to take on more tasks and work in a focused manner – these qualities get noticed by your seniors, and before you realize – You’re in for a promotion!

Increases Motivation

You’ve been at this job for more than five years now – it’s bound to get monotonous and boring! However, if you’ve set a target to achieve it – you’d always find an innovative way to work around with the same monotonous work. Check for yourself – you’re keener on taking the lead at group projects, you’re finding solutions for a financial crisis your organisation is facing now, you don’t find travelling to another city for a presentation annoying anymore. The adrenaline rushes you’re feeling now keeps you motivated in the long run – and this is all because you have a set goal in mind.

“Set a goal that makes you want to jump out of the bed every morning.”

Increases Employee Worth

Doesn’t it feel good when you hear about your accomplishments from someone else? Or you’ve been awarded and recognized for the work you’ve done so far?

Well, knowing that you have a plan set, and working towards it gets noticed by your colleagues and seniors around you. This helps in increasing your worth as an Employee. If you’ve heard someone say – An employee is an asset to any company – It’s true. The true meaning of transforming yourself into an important asset for your organisation is when – You, as an individual can add worth to the company. You don’t need to make a big noise about the goal you’ve set, all you need to do is work hard and accomplish that goal.

“Work hard in silence, let success make the noise.”

Limits Stress

There’s always going to be period of stagnation you go through eventually. Often when you’re not making any professional progress, you get stressed, and you have thoughts about quitting your job.

Take some time and think – If you have a goal set, and made a career growth path in an organization – you won’t be facing any stagnation. You’d constantly be looking for opportunities to grow. There will always be some stress accompanying the workload – but if you’re enjoying it, it isn’t stress after all. You can also maintain the stress at work, by an ideal work-life balance strategy.

Sets a definite Career Path

“Where do you see yourself in the next five years?” – Do you still have an appropriate answer to this question?

Guess what – If you set your goals clearly, you certainly will!

Networking with people at a Senior level can help you in mapping a career path. If you've gathered enough experience in an organisation – you have equipped yourself to know which designation to target next.

Most of your worries are taken care of by just doing one simple thing – Setting a Goal.

“Don’t wait for an opportunity, Create it.”

Image Credit: Pixabay