Career Advice
Setting personal, professional and other types of goals probably goes all the way back to the days of the caveman. However, most everyone I speak with about their goals either doesn’t have any or have set ones that are so hard to reach, they’re almost destined to fail.
What’s really great about setting goals is that if the right amount of effort goes into accomplishing whatever you set out for, it usually gets completed. The problem for most is actually setting goals, deciding what types of goals to set and then following through with the actual work that it takes to accomplish those goals.
Goals should always be 100% obtainable, but should also require an increased work effort to complete along with your normal day to day responsibilities.When thinking about goals, the rule of thumb is to make small, easy to manage goals. Usually goals should take no longer then 1 week to complete, but in most cases they can be completed that same day.
Setting small goals is one of the best ways to jump into goal setting. It allows you to set and accomplish goals on a regular basis and therefor builds your confidence for future goals that might require a lot more effort and time to complete.
Lets say that getting a record deal is at the top of your list of goals. First you should realize that getting signed to a label is a huge goal that can take years to complete in some cases. So with the small goal thought of mind in place, you should try and think of areas of your career that you can improve on that will make it more likely to gain the attention of record labels.
Once you have those areas laid out to the best of your ability, it’s then time to set small incremental goals within each of those areas. Lets say one of the areas is your live show attendance. If you’re playing out once a week, you would want to set a goal to increase the number of people that show up to support you, week after week. But be careful, if you had 20 people show up to your first show, setting a goal of 40 people for next weeks show might be setting the bar to high to soon. Your goals should reflect the amount of effort and work you’re willing to put in to accomplish what you set out for.
The greatest thing about setting up small, easy to manage goals is you’ll be completely surprised on how fast they’ll benefit your career in a really positive way.