Setting New Goals This Year Takes a New Kind of Mindfulness
In many ways, setting professional goals feels incredibly easy. Many professionals just choose targets that align with societal expectations and standard career progressions, simplifying the goal-setting process.
The issue is that those goals might not actually lead toward success. If they don’t align with your priorities and preferences, you won’t find those targets inspiring or motivating. As a result, you may either choose to ignore them or pursue them with a “have to” instead of a “want to” mindset, leaving you disengaged, frustrated, or resentful.
Fortunately, there is a better approach. With mindful goal-setting, you can identify targets that align with your needs and priorities. Along with increasing motivation, the strategy lets you shape a professional future that matches your vision, allowing you to integrate your passions and ensure your ideal outcome.
If you want to set more mindful goals, here’s how to go about it.
Embrace Reflection
Mindfulness involves having a deeper understanding of your present values, thoughts, and passions. By spending time reflecting, you can focus on self-discovery, allowing you to separate your goals from those inspired by societal expectations or outside influence.
Ideally, you want to spend time reflecting on several points. Consider how you envision your perfect career journey unfolding, as well as your preferred overall lifestyle. Determine what work-life balance means to you and the kinds of work-related tasks that leave you inspired.
Along the way, track how each idea makes you feel. Excitement is a positive sign that you’re genuinely honing in on a point that aligns with your passions, so use it as a guide.
Spend Time Brainstorming
As you reflect, transition to a brainstorming mindset. Start writing down thoughts or ideas that spark your passion or motivate you, even if they aren’t overly refined initially. The idea is to capture those moments of inspiration, ensuring you don’t lose track of them later.
After curating a list, look at each thought and see if it can serve as the basis for a well-defined goal. In some cases, one idea can transition into a single target. In others, you may be able to integrate a thought into another, bringing them together in a single objective.
Don’t rush this part of the process. The idea is to find the goals that will push you to thrive in a way that aligns with your values, and that isn’t always a fast journey. By taking your time, you’ll find increasingly meaningful targets, making the work worthwhile.
Refine Your Goals Until They’re Well-Defined
After brainstorming, you’ll want to refine the goals that genuinely ignite your passion. In many cases, turning them into SMART goals is the easiest approach. SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. With that strategy, you end up with well-defined, actionable targets, increasing your odds of success.
Ultimately, the process above allows you to incorporate mindfulness into your goal-setting activities. As a result, you’ll have an easier time staying true to yourself, allowing you to curate a career that matches your priorities, preferences, and values.
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