Where will you be in 2024?

Last week 12 of us from PAYETTE attended the EPNet event “Setting Your Career Goals; Satisfaction and Success in 2014” at the Boston Society of Architects (BSA). William Ronco (founder of the Young Designers Professional Development Institute) facilitated the workshop. Though the event was directed at emerging professionals, the exercises are useful to people at any level in their careers.

The two-hour intensive event focused on the importance of setting goals and how to make consistent progress towards them. We learned tools to help us accomplish our goals and the power of positive thinking.

We set goals that focused on everything from our careers, to families to health and fitness. For example, one attendee spoke in great detail about the extensive family cookbook he plans to create, while another person broke down the steps of how they planned to become a registered architect.

The group tried out the following process, which includes writing down each of these items:

• 5 things you want to have accomplished in 10 years
• What will you do in the next 3 months to work toward each goal (benchmarks)
• Write a list of what you must do and the habits you need to form that will help achieve your goals
• Share your goals!

In the session we shared our goals with each other between each step. Many of us modified goals from each other as the session continued.

Some of the goals included: buying a house, becoming licensed, traveling to a different continent, becoming a mentor, starting a family, becoming comfortable with public speaking, starting their own firm and creating a weekly workout routine.

The most important thing we did was WRITE our goals down.

We concluded with one final activity, which summarized one goal:

Fill in the blank:
Today is … (pick a specific date in the future, within 3 months from today)
I have … (write down your goal that you wish to have accomplished by then)
I feel … (now that you have accomplished your goal)
I hear … (what are people saying about what you have done)
I have … (what have you done to make it happen)
I have … (repeat goal again)

Now read it back to yourself … often! The process of identifying how you will feel, what you will see and the things you will hear when you achieve this goal is a form of visualization that will begin to re-wire your brain and provide the motivation to make these things happen.

Resources (suggested by William Ronco):
workflowy.com
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey
With Winning in Mind, Lanny Bassham
The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg
The Greatest Secret in the World, Og Mandino
The Body for Life, Bill Phillips
Golf is Not a Game of Perfect, Bob Rotella