GOOOOOAL! Keeping Yourself on the Path in Your Life's Journey

Many people believe that future success depends on creating a precise vision of exactly what you’ll be doing with your life by a defined time in the future – for example, “In 10 years I’ll be the Talent Management Director for a Fortune 500 retail company.”

I’ve always questioned whether this near-mandate of “you must have a specific goal” is a universal truth, for two primary reasons:

1) Setting such a specific goal usually involves making a future projection based on current realities. Who knows whether the existing job description for a Talent Management Director will still apply in 10 years? And if the nature of the role changes significantly, how do you know that the skills you’re building for the role will still be important 10 years from now?

2) Not only do “things change,” but we change. Our goals and motivators are largely determined by underlying values that are important to us – such as “making a high income” or “having a lot of power.” It’s funny, though, how life events (such as having children) and the natural process of maturation can cause us to recalibrate our values and priorities. As we get close to that definite goal that requires high responsibility and long work hours, we may find that “work-life balance” has unexpectedly become an imperative in the interim. And if we’ve focused our career development efforts too narrowly up to that time, we may find ourselves in career crisis.

Undoubtedly there are people who know exactly what they want in X years and go get it. But there are also others who would feel too hemmed in by such a predetermined goal and who find it more effective to shift and adjust (i.e., improvise) to meet the changes in the environment – and in themselves. As with many other things, career planning (or what I prefer to call “life planning”) is a matter of personal preference and not a cookie-cutter proposition.

Perhaps the best rule of thumb is this: In life planning, either your goals must be flexible or you must be flexible – or both, in whatever combination reflects your own approach to dealing with your environment.

One highly effective approach to life planning involves the creation of an Aspirational Goal for yourself. An Aspirational Goal is, very simply, the way you would complete the sentence, “In X years, I want a situation in which I ….” If you have a precise idea of the role or position you want, you can complete the sentence with precision – e.g, “In 10 years, I want a situation in which I am the Talent Management Director of a Fortune 500 retail company.” 

However, if you are the type who prefers to maintain flexibility in your planning, you can instead describe the factors you want to have in place in your future situation – whatever it might ultimately be. For example, “In 10 years, I want a situation in which I am able to run my own business using my creative abilities, leaving enough time to take two months off each year for travel.” A benefit of the latter approach is that it brings your values (creativity, autonomy, mobility) front and center into your life planning and allows you to reevalute them at regular intervals to see if they still apply.

You can think of your Aspirational Goal as a beacon on a distant hill that helps you navigate your life’s journey. You might find yourself taking detours from time to time and proceeding in a less-than-direct path – but the light from your Aspirational Goal will still be visible to help you reorient yourself and check your progress on the path. As you reach decision points – Should I accept this job? Do I want to pursue this degree? Do I want to relocate to Wyoming? – you can ask yourself: “Will this help me move in the direction of my Aspirational Goal?”