Goals... Do you have any?

Recently I received some really good advice from a mentor.  We were talking about career aspirations and career goals.  The advice was simple, but maid a lot of sense... write your goals down.  It was a practice he had used for many years and he had completed all or nearly all of the goals he had ever written down.  There is something about the act of physically writing them down and having there in concrete terms that made them very real.  Like I said, its a simple notion but if you are really serious about your goals and achieving them, its an easy practice and I think you should consider it.

So lets talk a little more about goals.  Goals are a wonderful tool that you can use to keep yourself on track and keep yourself motivated.  Its a road map to get you want to go in your career.  The first thing you need to do is take some time and do a little soul searching.  Where do you want to go in your career or just in your life in general.  Once you figure out the end point you now know what your long term goal is.  Long term goals are typically goals that are the bigger plateaus in your career.  These are the bigger goals that take more time and work to achieve them.  When you decide what your long term goals are then you need to figure out what the steps are that will get you there.  These are your short term goals.  Short term goals are typically quicker and easier to achieve.  The completion of short term goals should lead you to completion of your long term goals.  An example of a long term goal would be obtaining a fire chief position.  Your short term goals would be goals that will enable to achieve this goal.  Examples of your short term goals could be a college degree or a company officer position.  The short term goals should be steps that will allow you to progress and work towards your long term goals.

I tend to be a dreamer and I really feel that you can do nearly anything you want if you work hard enough but there are some exceptions to that.  I know it is not reasonable to set a goal to be professional baseball player.  That's just not something that is in the cards for me.  The goals you set should be realistic and obtainable.  I'm not telling you to stymie yourself.  If you have a career path in mind... go for it just remember that it will take a lot of hard work and dedication but its not impossible.  Use your goals to set yourself up for success, not failure.  Make sure each goal you hit puts you a step closer to your long term goal.  Remember to set time frames on your goals and reassess them periodically.  If you are not meeting your goals then you need to sit down and analyze the situation and figure out why you are not meeting those goals.  Perhaps you set your goals too high or your passion has changed or you have had setbacks.  Whatever the case may be, don't give up.  Reassess and redirect yourself.

I decided to take the written goals a step further.  Not only am I going to write them down, but I am going to post them on this blog.  I figured it would add another level of accountability and motivation for myself.  Hopefully seeing my goals will help you with setting some of your own.  So here goes:

Long Term Goal
-To teach and lecture on a national level in the fire service.
-Bring Awareness and education nationally for LS Initiative 13 (mental health for firefighters).
-EFO designation- under consideration
-Master's Degree- under consideration


Medium to Long Term Goal
- Promotion to Lieutenant at my career department


Short Term Goals
-Have an article published in a national fire service periodical
-To teach and lecture on a state level in the fire service
-Obtain additional training in peer counseling, psychological first aid and CISD
-Attend NFA
-Develop a curriculum and on Firefighter Mental Health and present it at Fire School.
-The first step of this goal is to start with a 4 hr class
-The second step is to expand this into an 8 hr class
So here are my goals.  I feel like they are pretty reasonable.  My short term goals should set me up to achieve my long term goals.  I did add a couple of goals under the long term category that I am still considering.  I am not 100% sure on the EFO designation or the Master's Degree.  They are both something I have been considering but haven't committed to either yet.  They will take some further consideration and research.  I think that's okay though, they are things I certainly want to consider and I think by adding them to the list it keeps them on my radar.

Hopefully this post will help you set some goals of your own and I hope you achieve those goals as well.  Good luck and feel free to post some of your goals or thoughts in the comments.