Introduction to Professional Goals
You want to get ahead in your career, right? Then let’s talk about setting and achieving professional goals!
A quick recap before we move on
It’s been a long slog and we are, essentially, halfway through the course. You now have an understanding of the goal-setting process, which is the same for financial, professional, and personal goals. We then use the same process to combine each of these three goal categories into our final product…Your very own, customized to your specific situation, lifetime goal and achievement plan! Remember why we do this: So you can achieve your dreams and live your best life!
Overview of professional goal setting
By now, you are very familiar with the financial goals template, and that’s a good thing. Because…We will be using a similar version for our professional goals. We’ll get into the professional goals template in detail later, but for now, just know that it is the basic document we’ll use to record everything you want to do in your professional life over your career and even beyond. Yes, I said beyond because just because you retire from your primary career, you may choose to continue in a second career or even use the template to record and plan additional activities such as volunteering, part-time, or gig work.
Before we get too deep into discussing professional goals, I want to state that I use the term “professional” universally to mean your working life. No matter your chosen career, you will want to be successful and take full advantage of the opportunities available to you throughout your working life. So, no matter what you choose as your career, you will record those current and anticipated future actions on this template. Again, we’ll get into the details later, but for now, I want to point out that no matter your job(s), this document applies to you, and I hope you plan to use it regularly.
Let me give you an example of how this may work for you. You may choose, or you may be forced to, retire or otherwise leave your primary career position earlier than you planned. You will need to adjust to this new reality and you will use your professional template to document those changes and spell out what new actions you will need to accomplish to keep you on track to meet your financial goals. Remember that we use our careers to support our financial and personal goals. We don’t limit our financial and personal desires by what we are earning in our professional life.
What I just said in the last paragraph could be confusing, so take a minute to reread it and ponder it if necessary. As we discussed when we developed our financial goals, we did them first so as not to limit our ability to do everything we want to do. If we completed our professional goals first, we could have a tendency to self-limit ourselves to the position and salary we are currently making. This is a very important concept so be sure you understand it before you move on and don’t gloss over it.
Here are a couple of real-life instances to give you a better understanding of the importance of using our professional template to support our financial goals:
If a person loses their primary position before their anticipated retirement date and has not met their financial goals, they will have to adjust their work life. Remember how I mentioned a while back that fully 40% of men do not retire on their own timeline? This is typically due to layoffs or health issues that occur in one’s 50s. As such, it’s best to prepare in advance for this possibility by either ensuring our financial plan can accommodate this situation or ensuring our skills are updated to be prepared should this happen. Ideally, you want to do both. Also remember I mentioned this is exactly what happened to me. Fortunately, I anticipated something like this happening to me decades before, and not only was I prepared financially, but a few years before, I had updated my skills. Be sure to account for this in your own life. It’s more common than many people like to think.
I’ve mentioned that I substitute teach at Tulsa Technology Center where I teach aircraft maintenance. Sometimes I teach high school students, but mostly I teach adults. A few of these adults have completed their primary career and are obtaining training to start a second career. One such student was a retired fire department captain who was only about 50 years old. I periodically see retired military service members who could be retired before age 40. There are other career positions that allow one to retire before normal retirement age and before a person wants to quit working full-time.
Either of these cases would require updating the professional template to account for this new reality. And then, the financial template, which has by now been incorporated into the life goals template, should be reviewed to understand the impact of this career change. Ideally, one is prepared and the new career position allows one to EXCEED their original financial goals. This is a great situation to be in and goes to illustrate the benefit of starting early in life to develop life goal plans and being aggressive early in life to anticipate that something like this could happen.
Resources to optimize professional accomplishment
Of course, we want to excel during our careers. Depending on your age and current professional position, you may need to learn new skills or take actions that differ from what you are doing now. What are some of these actions and resources:
Furthering your formal education.
Obtaining professional certifications.
Potentially moving to a different location.
If you are in business for yourself, you may need to expand or need additional financing.
These sorts of things require big investments of time and money and also take away from your family and leisure time. You will need to consider the return on investment of taking on these projects. You also should consider something we discussed earlier. That is balance.
I have a master’s degree, and I spent over 7 years in the evenings, a few nights a week, and almost 4 years every Saturday when I was in my 20s, progressing from essentially zero higher education.
When I was in my 40s, I realized I was developing a passion for teaching and thought I might like to teach in my retirement at the university level. Typically, this requires a PhD. So, I investigated it.
It would have cost me over $100,000 and taken about 5 years working part-time and weekends. I quickly concluded that a PhD would not help me in my current career. A master’s degree was adequate, and as I considered the time and money investment, I decided not to do it. I was able to be very involved with my kids and their activities, so I’m glad I did not do it. These are the trade-offs we sometimes must make.
Homework. Yes, homework!
Before we complete this session, I’d like to go over some homework for you before we move on. Yes, sorry about that, but if you are serious about planning and executing your career, there is just too much to do to get it all done in a blog post without a little homework. Note that if you are married or working on this course with a partner, there is an opportunity to plan your career both independently and also together as a couple. Here is the homework:
Thoughtfully consider where YOU want to go in life. Be sure to use YOUR quiet time, sleep on it, AND reflect and ponder. THIS IS IMPORTANT!
Complete YOUR (OUR) lifetime financial goals template, if necessary
Think about (but don’t finalize) what YOUR (OUR) lifetime professional goals might be. We’ll “finalize” them soon.
Spouses: Be sure to independently develop YOUR own financial goals. Later, they will become combined goals.
Looking ahead, consider (ponder) what YOUR lifetime personal goals will be.
That’s all for this week!
Introduction to Professional Goals
Afterburner Success Partners
http://absuccesspartners.com/
What’s in it for me?
We all want financial security, don’t we? Because our career is the primary method to reach our financial goals, it’s important to have a detailed professional plan. Rather than leave it to chance, let’s get on a path so we can know for certain! And that’s what’s in it for you this week!
Call to Action
Have you completed your Financial Goals Template? If not, do you need more time, or do you need help? If you need more time, then be sure to take that. If you need professional help from a financial advisor or tax professional, then seek that as well. If you would like to work with me one-on-one, that is also a viable option. In any case, take action today! After ensuring your financial plan is in order, complete the homework from today and be prepared to move on next time.
Recommended Resources
I want to reiterate that it is not my desire at Afterburner Success Partners to make you rich, but to make you wealthy. That said, we must use every available resource to help us achieve our financial objectives. Please keep that in mind as you read the recommended resources listed in the notes section.
Up Next
What is the right career for you?
Notes
Please note that as an Amazon Affiliate, I may earn a small commission on the sale of any of these recommended resources.
How Rich People Think by Steve Siebold: https://amzn.to/3RKTSfm
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill: https://amzn.to/4iOXl7Q