Goals: The A to Z of Career Growth

In this Testicular Cancer Awareness Month edition, we unravel the topic of Goals. 

What

• the object of a person's ambition or effort; an aim or desired result: he achieved his goal of becoming King of England.
• The desired outcome of your endeavours. 
• The focus of your activity. We covered last week. 
• Required for any area of life regardless of work
• Example: goal is to work in a particular role therefore I tailored all of my efforts toward this outcome. Learned new things, developed certain networking relationships in order to profit 

How

• Vision of what your life or career will look like when achieved / not achieved
• A clear plan as to how it will be achieved
• Measurable steps S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound). 
• Review/adjust

!!Testicular cancer awareness month!!

#goals #coaching #career #motivation #mentalhealth #testicularcancerawareness

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Yeah, it's going very well uh so far. Nice and cured. Uh so with that of course uh this month April is testicular again that April is testicular awareness testicular awareness. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening wherever you are, and welcome to the latest episode of the My Coach Ben podcast. Firstly, thank you very much for stopping by and welcome to the new subscribers and followers, etc. on the various social media channels. So thank you very much for your investment in your time, let's say, um, in following the channel and supporting what we're doing. As usual, if the content floats your boat, remember to like, subscribe, press the notification bell, um, tell your friends, your fam, your colleagues, and let's continue to develop what we are doing here. It's going very well. Before we get into it, I would just like to uh mention that April is testicular cancer awareness month. So for all the guys out there, remember to check your crown jewels or your Albert Halls, as they're called, in uh in some areas, and just make sure that everything is in order. And if not, and if there's any concern, remember to uh go and see a doctor and get yourself checked before the worst may happen. So you've been warned prevention is better than cure. And with that cleared up and without further ado, let's move on with the next letter. And following from last week, F for focus, we will be examining the letter G, and that will be for goal or goals. A very important topic, I have to say, and it's one that was previously looked at on the channel a couple of years back, and as I've said before, you can't have too much of a good thing, so let's um dig into that and have a look at what is probably one of the most important topics, um, not just in career or coaching, but just in life in general, it's something which we all need to do, and that is of course having a particular goal in life. And let's start with a definition. If we go to the English Oxford Dictionary, we will see goals or goal defined as the object of a person's ambition or effort, an aim or desired result, and the example he achieved his goal of becoming King of England, and I think for King Charles we can say he's achieved that. Uh so what do we get from that definition? We can say that a goal is the desired outcome of your endeavours. Um, we can also say that it's a focus of your activity, um, the focus, as we covered last week. So it's something that you want to pay specific attention to or to focus on in order to reach your desired outcome or your goal. And as I've just mentioned before, a goal is something which is required in any area of life, whether it's your career, whether it's your personal life, your um your relationship, your finances, of course, we need some goals there sometimes, don't we? To make sure that we're managing things, whether it's anything really, it could be giving back to uh society, it could be your friendships as well. So, whatever you want to do in life or career, it's always important to have a goal that you've got something to aim for in the short, medium, or longer term. So, if I can give a personal example, let's say in my work life, um before uh I started in the particular area that I'm in, let's say I had a certain goal to do that, um, and looking back, it's clear to say that I had set my stall out, so to speak, in order to achieve this particular outcome and get into not just the area that I'm in, but actually the um the kind of job that I'm doing, something which is commercial and working with people, etc., um, and trying to achieve a certain outcome. And another example of a goal, a medium to long-term goal, which has kind of been uh reached, let's say, or attained recently, would be to provide uh coaching um in the West Indies, where my uh background is, um, and uh it's come to fruition recently where I gave an interview with uh with Radio Jamaica about um career decisions, and that was rather unexpected. Um, but yes, goal achieved, but there is still a long way to go because there are many other sort of small goals that I have attached to that which haven't in any way been met yet, but I do have a plan, and that is the what, and that plan brings me nicely on to the how. So, how do we set goals? How do we achieve goals? Well, there's a number of ways. I would say that when it comes to having um having a goal in mind, it begins with having a vision, it begins with having an idea, it begins with having a dream, if you want to look at it in that sense as well. It starts with having some idea of what it is you want, again, whether it's in any area of life, but a goal is something that you wish to aim for, uh, a certain achievement that you wish to make in the near medium or or long term. So that's something which is particularly important in your career. You know, you have to have a goal, you have to have a target, you have to have an idea as to where you want to be in X amount of time. We all know this interview question where they say, Where do you see yourself in five years' time? Yeah, very nice. I think it would be better for him to say, what would your goal be for your career in let's say two, three, five years' time, or even your first hundred days in the job, what would be your goal? I think that would make much more sense, and it would be a much um more practical and realistic question, really, to be honest, rather than where do you see yourself, you know. Um, so recruiters, take note. Um so there's one thing to have um a vision, and once you have a vision, then of course, what is a vision uh without a plan? So you need to have a plan, you need to have an idea as to how you will set about achieving this particular goal, and in order to do this, there are many ways, there are a number of different um ways that you can go about setting goals. Uh, so you can um use, let's say, for example, um, at the coaching academy, they um promote the grow method, and the grow method is where you have a goal, the R stands for the reality. So, where are you at the moment? Your goal being what you want to attain, your reality, and then the O would be for um opportunities or options. What can you do? Which which kind of methods can you employ to reach that, and then the W would be the way forward, and in developing on from the grow model, I would probably have something like grin, because I think it's important to have a smile on your face, and as well as having a goal and um looking at the reality, I think it's good to have ideas because ideas bring about opportunities, and of course, next steps rather than ways forward, it's the same thing. But what's the next step? What's the very next thing that you can do from now in order to move closer to that goal? So, grin, grow whichever way. There is another method as well that the coaching academy have, and this one is the cigar model, and this one is where you look at the current situation, you have a look at your ideal, and you look at the gap. So the G is not for for goal, but it's a it's for gap in this instance. So, what is in between you and where you want to get to, and then the A is for the activities that you the actions that you need to take in order to get there, and the R is for review, which we will come to shortly. So, those are three pretty good um methods in which you can do that, and of course, when it comes to goals, they have to be measurable, and most of us will know the acronym SMART, which I always have to look up because I don't always remember with my dusty um memory, unfortunately. But uh, that stands for specific, i.e., you have to have a specific goal in mind, so it can't be um yeah, I'd like to I don't know, I'd like to be a footballer. Okay, but then I guess there are different positions of football, or you could say I would like to be involved in football, or I would be I would like to be involved in commerce, but then these are very broad terms, you know. You need to be able to be more specific. Um, what kind of commerce would you like to be in? Um, which part of the commercial uh value chain would you like to be in? So, all these very specific points, and then of course it has to be measurable, so you have to be able to say at which point is this goal going to be uh achieved, or at which points can I say, right? Well, this step has been taken, another step has been taken. If you um look at a career, for example, um, you know, you need to firstly have an idea, you need to put that in practice, maybe to learn things, and these are steps that you can measure. You know, you need to maybe um apply for a job, you need to get a job, you need to do all these things, and these are different measures that you can use to say, yes, this is the goal that I want to achieve, or the measure has to be a certain point which is specific, and then of course, it has to be achievable. Yeah, so um, I could well say I want to be an astronaut, um, but is it achievable? Frankly, not. I mean, never say never, but I couldn't really see myself floating around in space to be perfectly honest. But it needs to be something which is achievable and something which is realistic, and uh that uh you're not going to even laugh at yourself at, never mind anyone else. So, achievable is always um useful, and of course, it has to be something relevant. So, my um astronaut goal is not going to fly really because it's not really relevant, let's be honest. Uh so whether it's going to be for your career, it has to be something that's relevant for your career, and of course, time-based. And I've mentioned throughout the uh the episode so far about short, medium, or long term, um, and finally, as we know, with all plans in life, we've all seen this this chart, haven't we? Where um you have um well, it'll be this way, is you're looking at the camera, so you have the um the plan and you have the timeline, and you you have this, you know, from start to the achieving of the plan, and then the reality is kind of somewhat like this, you know, and then you have a crash and a super high, and then you get bought almost back down to, and then you reach the goal eventually. Um, and I think review and adjusting is where you can look at each of these points, you know. There are the the highs where you need to kind of say, Oh well, this is one thing ticked off or one thing achieved, and then you need to continue. Um, and maybe whether that's to uh bring the next step forward or adjust it slightly, but of course, definitely where we hit these little bottom bits of the uh of the journey, then we certainly need to review and adjust and then get back on uh get back on our feet and move forward because as we know um successes are made from various failures along the way in in the big reality of things. In summary, how can we summarize the topic of goals? Well, first we looked at the definition, and that was the object of a person's ambition or effort, an aim or desired result, and of course, there was the example of King Charles achieving his ultimate ambition or goal in life, it would seem. Um, and then we we of course we discussed the desired outcomes and focusing on the activity, and we've had a brief reference to the last episode in order to make sure that there's a there's a certain um a certain intention and uh a certain uh concentration in the direction of achieving this goal. And we've looked at examples. There is a couple I've given certainly for my career over the years. There'd be many goals, but certainly the goal of actually being in this area that I am is one that I've had for a while, and of course, the situation with Radio Jamaica. This is a an example of a plan coming to fruition rather quickly, but actually, it could be a full storm because there is a lot more that needs to be done there. So it's the basis to maybe extend the plan, tweak, review, and adjust, and that reminds me it's something that we've mentioned on the how, which was uh ultimately to review and adjust, but before that, we have to have a vision, we have to have an idea, and we looked at uh the grow model, potentially the grin model, if you want to have a smile on your face, and of course the cigar model, we've looked at that as well, and also smart as well to make sure that the goal is specific, it's achievable, it's relevant and time-bound. Looking at the notes there to save myself. So, there we are. Hopefully, um, that's given you uh some insight and again some food for thought for the topic of goals and maybe a slight uh a slight nudge in uh setting some firm goals for things that you've maybe had in mind for a little while, um, and maybe this will help you uh take a step closer to putting these into fruition. And before we wrap up, I'd just like to remind you again that this month, April, is testicular cancer awareness month. It's taken me a few tries to get that sentence together, but yes, I've done it. Remember that it is testicular cancer awareness month, so make sure you check yourselves your your alber holes, your crown jewels, whatever you want to call them, or it, and make sure that you remind your male friends and colleagues and fam and make sure that uh we prevent rather than cure or hope. So, yes, let's please do that. As usual, if the content has been to your liking, remember to like, subscribe, press the notification bell, and spread the word that will be very, very much appreciated. And on that note, I bid you all a very good week or fortnight ahead, and looking forward to seeing you in the next one. So, until then, look after yourselves and one another, and I'll see you then. Peace. You go to Ben.