What are professional goals?

What are professional goals?

Professional goals are concrete objectives you want to achieve in your career. They are typically a combination of short-term goals (like taking a course this month) and long-term goals (like becoming a manager in the next two years). Professional development goals are objectives you can set for yourself to help further your career. These might include taking steps to learn relevant skills, expand your professional network, or find more satisfaction at work. Effective goals give you clarity, focus and motivation. You might already be familiar with the concept of SMART goals; the idea that goals should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely. The SMART goal method, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound, is a great tool to use when establishing goals. This method ensures your goals are both actionable, realistic, and able to be measured, all of which will keep you on track and motivated to reach your goal. The four goals of psychology are to describe, explain, predict, and control behavior and mental processes. Each of these goals represents a different focus that psychologists can take when studying a phenomenon.

How do I write my professional goals?

Laying out a list of goals doesn’t make for a very convincing answer. Instead, focus on one or two main goals and briefly explain how you plan on achieving them or how they will benefit your career in the long-term. This shows that you have thought these goals through and are clear about what you want in the future. Set SMART (specific, measureable, attainable, relevant and time-bound) goals that motivate you and write them down to make them feel tangible. Then plan the steps you must take to realize your goal, and cross off each one as you work through them. What Are Short-Term Goals? (A Definition) Short-term goals are tasks, objectives, and outcomes that can be completed within a relatively short time frame, usually less than a year. A good short-term goal may be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (Macleod, 2012): 3,4,6. Four types of achievement goals are acknowledged: mastery-approach, master-avoidance, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance.