How to design career goals that are actually meaningful

The types of career goals you need; distinguishing between Outcome and Process goals and making your goals SMART.

Hello — happy Wednesday!

Another week another in-depth answer to a commonly asked career question. This week: ‘How to design career goals that are actually meaningful’.

I see this answer as having three parts to it:

i) Understanding the Different Types of Career Goals You Need

ii) Distinguishing Between Outcome and Process goals

iii) Making your goals SMART

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What makes for a meaningful career goal?

Get a promotion? Start a business? Earn six figures?

These kinds of goals we would be likely to share with others in casual conversation down the pub.

But meaningful goals don’t have to be such conversation-topic worthy milestones.

Career success can be attained through defining smaller, thematic goals that relate to specific aspects of your life and career.

If your only goal is to earn $100k and it takes you ten years to get there, you might struggle to feel motivated or a sense of achievement on the path towards it. It also doesn’t tell you very much about how you might feel along the way, or after achieving it.

Happiness and fulfillment are found in the everyday moments of life and less so through pursuing milestones that simply sound great on paper.

“I wish everyone could get rich and famous and everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that's not the answer.” — Jim Carey

So what is the answer?

Goals that help you live the life you actually want to live.

Most people focus on the outcome itself, e.g being rich. But what does money provide you with? Is it more time to spend with the family? Better holidays? A chance to give back to people you care about in your community?

Tapping into your true why behind the goal is key for creating more momentum and motivation along the way to achieving it.

When I was 13 I kept getting in trouble in class for playing up and talking back to my teachers. Oops. My parents figured out how to motivate me to do better.

I loved clothes.

By explaining that nice clothes cost money, and money doesn’t grow on trees, they explained that being good at school, meant getting good grades, which meant getting a better job, which would earn me more money for clothes.

I got straight As at school — clearly I’m extremely shallow.

Thankfully, my desire to do well at school and work soon extended beyond my appearance, but the point is that a goal in and of itself is meaningless without the why behind it spurring you along. What will having this goal enable you to do?

So figure out what kind of life you want to live, by which values, where, with whom, and work backward from it.

If you want to be a stay at home mum in five years maybe the next part of your career is about increasing your earning potential as much as possible so you can save up, or to join a company with a great maternity scheme.

So let’s dig into this further.

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i) The Different Types of Career Goals You Need

For different domains of your life and career, you need to decide what it is you’d like to happen. The themes can be whatever you please. Here’s a starter for ten. Feel free to add or subtract your own.

1. Monetary: Financial earnings you want

2. Network/social: The kind of people you want to work with or be around

3. Impact: The difference you want to make in the world

4. Learning: The areas of learning and development that are important

5. Creative: What you might like to build or create

6. Lifestyle: What you do outside or around your work

You might find your list has domains around freedom, spiritual, travel, innovation, community etc. Only choose those which feel pertinent for you.

For me, owning a coaching business allows me to do the things I want with my time at times of the day that suit me. You might assume having my own business makes me extremely ambitious. The reality is I can be lazy and have accounted for the fact. I love lie ins, holidays and chilling. Owning a business allows me to create a life that I can do this in; I can work hard when I feel like it and other days do very little. Choosing my own hours is a Lifestyle themed goal.

Others on my list include being exposed to creative, entrepreneurial people doing great things in the world. That is a network-based goal. Creative goals include owning the design and execution of something without seeking permission from others, such as this newsletter.

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ii) Distinguishing between Outcome and Process Goals

Now you’ve outlined what is important to you across the domains you’ll be able to figure out both the outcome itself and the process behind it.

So if your outcome is to ‘learn how to code’, your goal could be to hit a level of coding proficiency by a certain date.

But in order to make this goal a reality, you’ll need a process to get you there.

Process goals make outcome goals possible.

Process goals are what you do each day, week, or month towards your outcome. You won’t learn how to code without practicing regularly. A process goal might be ‘Code for 6 hours per week’.

Consistency is key and so by creating a process that prioritizes consistency you’ll be more likely to achieve your goal.

Sometimes process goals are hard to think of, requiring you to know the specific steps you’ll take to hit your goal, and often those steps are unknown until you start taking them. E.g you might not know what you need to do to get a pay-rise or find a new career path.

So in this scenario, figure out how you will come to know these steps. Is it a case of researching, networking, experimentation? Your process goals could be ‘Conduct 3 hours of outreach per week to understand who I can speak to’.

Many of my coaching clients know their goals but not the steps they’ll take to get there. We do exercises like visualization, or simply talking through all of their options until the steps become clearer. It’s rewarding watching their excitement when the penny drops; ‘I’ve just realised what I need to do!’.

Ideally, you want both an outcome goal and a process goal per domain.

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iii) Making your goals SMART

Now that you’ve made your goals personal and practical, you need to make them specific.

Goals are only as helpful as they tell us what to do, and by when. Even process goals can lack specificity if they are too high level; and if you don’t know where you’re going it’s unlikely you will get there.

If you spell out your goals in detail not only is it easier to tell if you’re on the right track but this primes your subconscious to seek out information and opportunities that help you along the way— filtering in and out relevant information.

The SMART goal framework is well-known for a reason; it works. Here’s how:

SMART stands for:

Specific
This goal has been clarified enough that there is no ambiguity, two people would both understand it in the same way

Measurable
It is clear when the goal has been achieved because it has a tangible measure/milestone

Attainable
It is feasible that you could attain it

Relevant
The goal sits within a context that makes it worth pursuing as it aligns with your other goals

Time-based
There is a timeframe you have set to achieve it within

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Tying it together

When you’re ready to put these goals onto a page and figure out if you’ve covered all bases you may want to use a table such as the below (I inputted some made-up goals).

If you’d like me to send you this table outline for you to copy and create your own version, just reply with ‘I’d like a copy of the Goals table’ and it’s yours to keep.

That’s it for this week.

Until next time,

Ellen, Founder & Chief Coach, The Ask.

I hope you found the frameworks useful. As always I’m open to your questions and simply clicking <3 to show your appreciation fills my own heart with joy.

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What is The Ask Newsletter?

As Chief Coach & Founder of The Ask I use this newsletter to answer commonly asked questions across careers, personal development, mindset, and entrepreneurship. I write weekly on Wednesdays and bring my seven years of recruitment experience alongside my coaching credentials and case studies using people in my network.

If you know someone assessing their career or simply reaching towards more in life send them a link to sign up today.

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