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Career
Goals and Stress |
by:
Debbie
Brown, MSM, MSW |
Career
Goals and Stress:
How to Achieve Goals and Maintain Your Sanity
Deborah R. Brown, MBA, MSW
____________________________________________________________________________
"Keep interested in your own career, however
humble;
it is a real possession in the changing
fortunes of time."
Max Ehrmann
"Desiderata"
When it comes to career success, direction
and focus are crucial. But beyond direction,
how effective is it to have goals?
Requirements for Effective Goal-Setting
Much has been researched and written about
the effectiveness of goal setting.
The findings say that :
Difficult goals lead to higher
performance than easy goals.
Difficult goals lead to higher
performance than "do your best" goals.
Setting specific goals results
in more precise performance than setting
"do your best" goals.
Just having the goal is not enough. You
must develop a strategy to make it happen.
What are the activities you need to perform
everyday? Plan those activities, but also
stay alert and open to new ways to achieve
your goals as they present themselves.
There are three critical requirements that
dictate how well goal setting will work:
Commitment to your goals.
Periodically reviewing where you
stand regarding goal achievement (getting
feedback).
Belief that you can achieve your
goals (self-confidence and self-efficacy).
You need to genuinely desire the goals you
set. If you don't like your job and don't
want to be there, then it is difficult to
be committed. It's also crucial that you
believe that you can achieve the goals you
set for yourself.
Stress and Goal Setting
Goals create striving which results in more
stress. So how do you deal with this stress?
Since I am notoriously poor at pacing myself,
I created a structure to help me with this
process. My plan includes eating a healthy
diet and exercising regularly, but also
not scheduling clients on Fridays. I never
work past 8 p.m. I plan vacations and weekends
away, and schedule social events with friends
at least once per week. Part of my stress
management program also involves not over-booking
myself with social activities so that I
have time to retreat for rest and recuperation.
As I approached graduation from college
many years ago, I wrote a poem about goal
setting which I titled, "My Brook and I."
I remember the brook
streaming though the woods;
spending hours around it,
building forts, wiping the mud off me with
skunk cabbage.
I remember the brook on sunny days;
Water babbling over stones and rocks, pieces
of wood;
making the water ripple the way it did.
I wondered what happened to the brook
traveling away from my yard.
I had a goal for my brook
to flow to the ocean...but then what?
I see goals for myself
thwarted, rearranged, fulfilled.
But the goal for my brook;
What happened to it?
Deepak Chopra, in The Seven Spiritual Laws
of Success, says that if we want to have
a successful career, we should first center
ourselves and then release our intentions
(our career goals) to the universe. We should
not be attached to the way these goals develop,
or to the exact outcome, but leave the details
to the universe. We can get the same results
through effort and trying, he says, but
the result is stress, which can lead to
heart attacks and other physical illnesses.
Sometimes we focus more on our unhappiness
with our present situation, than on what
we want to achieve. Chopra says that we
should accept where we are now, be fully
present in the moment and concentrate on
our deepest intentions (goals).
Goals should be difficult, but achievable
with persistent effort. Goals that are too
extreme, such as doubling your income in
one year, can only discourage you.
Goals work because you persist and focus
your efforts in a specific direction.
Without that direction, we can find ourselves
floating through our lives, more at the
mercy of outside forces that are not devoted
to our welfare or success. But we can manage
our goals in a way that does not create
undo stress by not being attached to the
exact way they are achieved.
Having set goals the brook and I
build toward them.
The brook unable to know...
about a pipe in the ground, a seeping marsh,
a dam.
Myself not knowing the course I will follow.
Knowing what I want,
yet finding it hard to grasp.
I remember years of competition, of struggle,
of acceptance.
Then discovering what is real, important;
myself, my friends, expression;
a soft kitten purring on my lap;
peace.
Being more than a doctor, a lawyer.
Knowing comfort, relaxation.
Being myself.
Approaching the completion of one goal,
I set new ones.
But fulfilling them means going away, sorrow.
Like the brook moves on, streams to the
river...
the ocean.
Saying goodbye to familiar things,
friends.
Facing a reoccurrence of similar past memories,
painful.
Conclusion
In my business I set performance goals for
myself every year. I also set goals for
relationships, finances, home, physical
and mental health, as well as spiritual
development. I can attest to the fact that
the more specific the goal, and the more
frequently I review that goal and focus
on it, the more likely I am to meet that
goal. It helps to write down your goals,
read through them periodically, visualize
them and keep a picture journal that represents
the achievement of those goals. But it also
helps to listen to the feedback from the
universe, and make adjustments to those
goals when necessary. We should have a career
plan, but be flexible with how it unfolds.
I know a word...self-fulfillment.
Being vulnerable, can I take chances?
Being strong, grinding ahead through disappointments.
Being weak, letting go of crippled goals.
Like a brook who misses the river,
finding another happiness.
Being motivated, seeking what I am after,
But not too aggressive.
Being easy, tension-free.
Making it through the insecurity
Like cool water in a brook;
not knowing what will come.
Traveling through the seasons of time.
Molding myself to the environment like the
brook
makes its path through nature.
Sliding over any obstacles
the brook continues over rocks, pieces of
wood.
Freezing in the rough, cold spots;
melting in the warm.
Praying for a map free of dams to follow
in a steady, unchartered progression.
My brook and I.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Debbie Brown is a career consultant and
executive coach who works primarily with
professionla, attorneys and entrepreneurs.
D & B Consulting
3475 Lenox Road, NE
Suite 400
Atlanta, GA 30326
404-240-8063 FAX: 678- 530-0661
www.DandBconsulting.com
Debbie@DandBconsulting.com
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