Those who don’t have personal goals will always be working for those who do.
Max A Eggert

At a famous Business School on the first day of their studies students were asked which of them had written down quantifiable personal career goals. Surprisingly, for it was an ivy-league post-graduate school with a global reputation of producing the best, only three per cent of hands went up. Ten years later those three per cent were worth more in financial terms than all the other 97 per cent put together. Now whilst money is not everything, by and large it is not a bad indicator. The career message is clear.
Goals and targets turn dreams and visions of the future into reality, it is trite but right that if you don’t know where you are going, anywhere will do. Goals and targets not only give you direction but help you to see the opportunities that others miss. Feeling hungry and driving through a new town you will be far more aware of food shops and restaurants. We look for what we want. If we only have vague idea of what we want, we will not look for it and then opportunities will not be grasped as they occur.
Capitalism is a great system but it is also dangerous because if you do not have your own personal career objectives you will find yourself working to organizational objectives set down by others. Those who do not find this out early in life will never have a Perfect Career and unfortunately there are many who find out too late.
In most cases people think about their career objectives when they are about to finish their full time education and usually they are highly influenced by family or by school teachers who unfortunately do not always know as much as they should about the world of work or, most of all, about what is available in the local community. Often individuals just drift into any first job without seriously thinking through or being concerned about what sort of career may develop from their choice. Children often follow their parents and this is especially true of the professions.

Alice: Please sir, can you tell me the way? Cheshire Cat: Where are you going? Alice: I don’t know. Cheshire Cat: Then any road will take you there. Alice in Wonderland Lewis Carrol.

In my days as a university recruiter I was always mildly surprised to discover that graduates frequently made their first job decisions based upon how much they liked the interviews on the milk round rather than on where a job in that firm would lead them. This is one of the main reasons why graduates do not stay with their first employer for very long. Many waste the first two years of their career sorting themselves out and in a career spanning 40 years that is a five per cent loss.
The other time when serious thought is allotted to personal career management is, unfortunately, when individuals lose their jobs through redundancy. This is a massive blow to the ego and it certainly makes people think about where their careers are going and who they are working for. Sometimes it takes redundancy for people to realize the hared lesson that the only person who is responsible for their security and their career is themselves.
Goals and targets need to be written down otherwise they stay as dreams and visions. Once goals are written down they take on a reality of their own and you begin to take them seriously. It is strange how at work we have all these skills and expertise (what project is ever submitted for approval without spelling out the objective?), but then do not apply such skills to our personal career situation. At work projects are always being defined and quantified so that they can be appraised. Even on an average manual salary in a lifetime you are likely to earn something approaching £750,000 at today’s prices. The fact that you have invested indicates that you will probably hope to earn far more. Now with a £750,000 project or investment don’t you think it deserves some serious work on objectives, options and success criteria?
Objectives should be specific. It is not helpful to say, I want to be famous or I want to be rich or I want to be great. Everyone dreams this or something like it. Famous at what? Recognized by whom? Honored in what way? The more specific forces your goals and targets to be less fanciful and more factual; they become more tied to reality; they become more obtainable and achievable.
Once the targets have been written down then it is possible to move on the next stage which is giving them time frames. This then facilitates a timetable about what has to be done in terms of qualifications, experience and profile. Just like a management project, once the time objectives have been worked out then specific work schedules and resources can be allocated. You will have a programme for the year, the month, the week and even the day if necessary.
Some people have suggested that this takes all the fun and spontaneity out of life, that one becomes dominated by an impersonal system. This is simply not true. Targets just give you a focus but they can always be changed as your values or visions mature. What it does mean, however, is that with goals and targets which are specific and time bound, you will have far more control, far more options and thus far more freedom to do what you want to do with your life.