Not accomplishing a goal should never be thought of as failure because there can be many reasons that the goal was not accomplished. Chief among these is that the goal may have been set so high that it was unattainable in any reasonable length of time. Maybe the goal was set too high based on the experience level of the individual. Designing high‐end residences right after graduation is a great goal, but not attainable for someone straight out of college.
Another reason people do not set goals is because of the risk of feeling the pain of failure. It is emotionally difficult to admit that you have not achieved some goal that you would like to have accomplished. Of course, it is painful to “fail,” but not trying is also emotionally painful. Everyone fails occasionally, and learning from the failure and resolving to fix the issue, or try harder, or do whatever is needed to succeed the next time is very important for successful people.
Here are a few worthwhile thoughts to keep in mind when setting goals:
Set goals that satisfy you—not parents, a boyfriend or girlfriend, a spouse, or peers. Goals that are set to please others or because they expect it of you will rarely satisfy you.
Clarify your purpose in setting a particular goal. You have to know what you want and why it is important in order to work at achieving the goal.
Some goals are unattainable without the proper experience, so certain goals take time to achieve. Be prepared to “pay your dues” in the process of achieving some of your goals.
Be sure you are honest with yourself in setting goals. Sometimes our temperament, habits, or behavior interfere with achievement of goals.
Do not be afraid to change goals or change direction. Life is not perfect, and reality usually does not match fantasy. Be flexible in goal setting.
Unexpected circumstances and a lack of understanding of career requirements are just a few things that can affect your ability to reach your goals.
There is one indisputable fact about life: Life will change. For most, change means growth. So don't be afraid to grow. Being open to a change of plans may offer you an opportunity for personal and professional growth that you had not even considered.
Setting Personal Goals
Whether or not you write a personal mission statement, the best way to set goals is to try to look at yourself in terms of the future. Steven Covey calls it “beginning with the end in mind.”4 In many ways, a similar approach is to write your own obituary today—a rather jarring thought at the age of 21 or at any age. This exercise in goal setting was required by an instructor whom I had in college. The idea was to focus on long‐range goal setting. Occasionally, we all need to look at what we want to be remembered for—what we hope we will be able to accomplish by the time we pass away. Writing that obituary, or at least beginning with the end in mind, has helped many to more clearly see a focus for future actions.
Understandably, writing your own obituary is an unsettling thing to do. It may be easier to start thinking about what you want to accomplish by the time you are 30, 40, 50, and at retirement age. And, if you find that too difficult to do, just try to figure out where you want to be in your professional and personal life during the next five years. Be sure that you include considerations for your personal life as well as professional life. Let me be one of the first to tell you that your professional life should not be your life.
If you are unsure of what you want to accomplish, it might help if you use Tables 5‐1 and 5‐2 to get started. Find a quiet place where you can think undisturbed. Be brutally honest with yourself as you answer the questions in these two tables.
Once you have some idea of where you want to be, you can start looking at goals in terms of the concrete things that you need to accomplish in order to achieve them. Those specific actions are thought of as strategies.
Strategies are specific actions that are needed to achieve goals. For example, Beth has a goal of owning her own studio by the time she is 35. Assuming that Beth is a 23‐year‐old student who is about to graduate, what strategies might she need to plan out to achieve that goal?
TABLE 5‐1. Personal goals exercise
| The purpose of this exercise is to analyze your skills, interests, and abilities in relation to the kind of job opportunities you will be seeking in interior design. Completing this exercise will make you more aware of what you have to offer your present or future employers. It will also help you discover goals that you need to work on in the next year or so. | |
| 1. | What is your primary interest in interior design? |
| 2. | What or who influenced your interest in this profession (family, teacher, mentor, the media, work experience, etc.)? |
| 3. | What kind of skills in interior design do you have right now? |
| 4. | What special skill(s) do you have to offer your present employer or another employer? An example is foreign language fluency. |
| 5. | If you were going to a job interview tomorrow, what specific career goal would you share with the interviewer? |
| 6. | What could you do right now to improve your chances of getting the job you most want? |
| 7. | List three of your biggest successes. |
| 8. | List five goals you wish to accomplish during the next calendar year. |
| 9. | List three goals you hope to accomplish by the time you are 30 years old. |
| 10. | List three goals you hope to accomplish by the time you are 50 years old. |
| 11. | Assuming it were possible for you to achieve any goal in interior design, what would it be? |
| 12. | List 10 mini‐goals needed to support the goal stated in number 11. |
TABLE 5‐2. Professional goals questionnaire
| In these questions, you are asked to look at a variety of issues concerning your professional and personal life. Combined with the questions in Table 5‐1, these questions give you an opportunity to look at some additional issues that can help clarify your professional and personal goals. | |
| 1. | List at least three things that drew you into a career in interior design. Write several comments about each of these items. |
| 2. | List any three people you most admire. Write down a few words or sentences that explain why you admire them. |
| 3. |
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