Goal Setting for Career Progression

November 26, 2024

Career progression is activated by a blend of personal factors. They include skills acquisition and enhancement, motivation and ambition, resourceful and positive behaviours and the internal drive to reach your full potential. Sometimes it is a case of having amazing sensory acuity so that you can notice opportunities as they arise. Will you notice them or lose yourself in a virtual world of other people’s lives and beliefs and let them pass you by? To recognise an opportunity, you must look away from the virtual social world and give your own thoughts and ideas space to express themselves. Take time to reflect on your most desired future and what that will look, sound and feel like to you. As you anticipate the dawning of a new career opportunity, what action are you willing to take? Your energy will flow where your attention goes, so make sure you begin to focus on what you want in terms of your career progression.

The search for a new role often begins with you being full of motivation and good intentions and then the enthusiasm fades and you slip back into the comfort of where you are now. Why is this? The simple answer is that the motivation to build on your career was never really there. There was nothing compelling for your unconscious mind to act upon and so it quickly put you back into your habitual mode of operation, your comfort zone, staying with what you know. So, as you think about elite performance and career progression, learn how to plan for your next steps and then take action to execute that plan whilst realising your full potential. The journey towards your desired destination begins with goal setting. Anyone who has taken an Enhanced NLP Coach Practitioner Certification Training knows the specifics of great goal setting that gets real world results, rapidly and effectively. How to hit your targets with precision strikes.

So, how does goal setting really work? Let’s begin by imagining that you have 2 minds which are always active within your neurology. Your conscious mind, which is the mind that you are constantly aware of, the one that is assisting you to read this article and is planning and analysing your day and accommodating your self talk. Then there is the part of your mind that you are not consciously aware of right now, your unconscious mind.

Your unconscious mind is that part of your mind that is working tirelessly in the background for you. It runs your body, produces your behaviour, activates your habits, runs your strategies for how to do everything you do and presents your emotions. When your unconscious mind becomes focussed upon a compelling future, it naturally produces the behaviour necessary to support the realisation of that future, causing it to happen. So, you need well-formed goals which will guide you towards your desired outcomes.

Now here’s the thing, it’s crucial for your unconscious mind that you provide clear direction in terms of your focus so that it can produce the best behaviour, motivation and emotional content for you to manifest your goals. The key is to focus on what you want, rather than what you don’t want. Remember, energy flows where attention goes, so be careful to put your attention firmly onto what you want. Your conscious mind is the goal setter and your unconscious mind is the goal getter.

The process of goal writing is deeply satisfying and extremely powerful, when you are clear about what it is specifically you want to achieve. In NLP we ask ourselves a set of simple questions to ignite our thinking and add clarity and energy to our thoughts and desires for the future. What happens if you don’t know what you want? You know that you want a career change and yet you are unsure of the correct path to travel.

NLP offers you a simple question set which will lead you towards creating a well-formed goal. These simple questions will initiate deep reflection and move your thinking from where you are now to where you want to be. The process offers you a rich and detailed representation of what it is you want to progress towards.

Firstly, take a sheet of paper and write down your thoughts on these questions (at this stage you can simply write a stream of consciousness without analysis or logical thinking, simply write what comes to you naturally):

1. What do you have now that you no longer want in your career?

2. What do you want to stop or change being/having/doing in your career?

3. Look at the two lists that you have written. Now ask yourself what is the exact opposite of all those things? Write down your thoughts.

4. Now you have a list of what you want in your career!

5. Consider what you have now and what you will need to create what you want.

6. Is there anyone you can model that has done these things already? Write down their characteristics as you perceive them.

7. What do you already have and what can you do more of to hit your targets?

8. Set yourself a time frame for achieving your goals.

Remember, you are in charge of you and there is always a way.

The process of goal setting will allow you to bring your future desires for your career into sharp focus. You can then write them down. Physically writing your goals is a great idea as it provides ‘muscle memory’ for your goals and really brings them to life. Remember, a goal that is in your head is still just a dream. There is a very specific part of your brain known as Broca’s Area. When you write anything, using a pen and paper, you activate this area and your creativity and intelligence begin to spark and activate new neurological connections. Yes, handwriting actually increases your intelligence levels.

When writing your goal with pen and paper, be really specific and include the finest of details. Include information from all your senses; what will it look, sound, feel, smell, taste like when you have achieved your most desired goals? A well written goal should make your heart race, the hairs stand up on your arm and energy rush through your body. This is motivation that will last! Your unconscious mind, your goal getter, requires specifics, described in glorious detail, if it is to assist you to release more of your potential and achieve your career aspirations.

Once you have written your specific and detailed goal, create a compelling visualisation of it in your mind. Include all your senses. What does the new career look, sound and feel like? What will you say to yourself when you have reached your goal? Run that visualisation every day for at least five minutes and enjoy the process, noticing how it makes you feel when you imagine having achieved what you want to achieve. Then and very importantly, plan to take action. The more energy you put into the process of achieving what you want, the more will be returned back to you in the form of results.

Remember the most important element in achieving your goals. ALWAYS FOCUS ON WHAT YOU WANT, be specific and then do something about it! Action takers are future makers.

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