Are Your Goals a Treasure or a Compass?

I have a confession to make! I have coached many, many people on setting career goals, but I have always felt conflicted about the value of doing so because we live in an era when some of the top jobs didn't exist 5 years ago (from big data architect to Zumba instructor). How on earth do you create a five-year plan for your career when new jobs are emerging that no one knows about yet and when other jobs are disappearing?

I recently had a light bulb moment. Instead of thinking of our career goals as treasure chests to get, we need to start thinking of them as a compass. Instead of something we are always working towards that we will achieve someday, we need to think of our careers goals as a guide for our decision-making.

This new way of thinking has a major benefit. Instead of being constantly dissatisfied with our current state, you can suddenly enjoy exactly where you are in your career no matter where you are. Thomas Sterner, in The Practicing Mind, recounts the scene in The Natural when the main character expresses regret about what might have been if he had not been injured saying, "I coulda been better. I coulda broke every record in the book." His former girlfriend responds by saying simply, "And then?" His striving to break every record would quickly have been replaced with more striving to break the next record, and the next and the next. As Sterner says a little further on, "[high performers] idea of perfection is always moving away from them."

One way of thinking creates a state of constant dissatisfaction, frustration and striving for something that does not yet exist. The other creates a a state of present-moment awareness that creates peace and happiness. I challenge you to let go of the idea that your career goals are treasure chests for you to get and to use them as a compass to steer by instead.