Setting Personal Career Goals for 2013

Many of us think about the things we want to accomplish in our lives. But so few of us actually write them down and put together a plan for reaching them.

This usually means we never meet those goals.

Keeping your goals “in your head” (that is, not writing them down), keeps the goals nebulous and unsubstantial. Writing them down, however, allows your brain to focus. Especially if you write down the steps you’ll take to meet your goals.

This can sound like a chore, but it needn’t be. Take just 15 minutes one day and jot down your goals for the coming year. Look at them the next day and revise, as needed. Do this for another three or four days, until you feel you have the top three to five goals you’ll go for in 2013.

Then take 15 minutes and write down the steps you’ll take to reach these goals.

Goals should be very specific: “I’ll close 12 new clients by March 31, 2013.” “I’ll increase my sales revenues by 10 percent by December 31, 2013.” Your brain can focus more clearly when you provide it with simple and clearly understandable goals.

Your goals should be reasonable, but still a challenge for you. Taking the “close 12 new clients” goal mentioned above as an example, if you’re new to the job, or if you tend to close only six clients each quarter, 12 might be too many. That’s a 100 percent increase, after all. Perhaps a better goal would be eight or nine clients. This creates a challenge for you, but one that could be reached.

The most effective goals are measurable: 12 new clients, 10 percent increase, etc. Goals of “I’ll increase my sales” or “I’ll cold call several prospects a day” are far too vague. Having measurable goals means that you’ll know when you’ve made your goal – or failed to reach it.

Long-term goals (“I’ll increase revenue by 10 percent by December 31, 2013”) should be broken down into sub-goals. What sub-goals will you need to meet each week, each month, each quarter? If you can come up with measurable goals to meet each day, all the better.

Setting up mini-goals also helps you to stay focused and on track. It also allows you to engage in the fun part of meeting goals – rewarding yourself for meeting them. If you, for example, decide you want to close three new clients a month (in order to close nine new clients by the end of March), then you can reward yourself every month!

Make sure your reward is something that’s a big deal to you so that you’ll be excited when you give it to yourself.

Have you set goals for 2013? Did you set any for 2012? How did you do when it came to meeting them?

If you’re an insurance professional looking for a new opportunity, or if you need more workers, temporary and direct hire, for your insurance firm, contact a recruiter at Insurance Relief™. We look forward to hearing from you!