How to Find Your Personal Goals for Career Planning 

Find your vision

Do you have a vision? If you have a vision, you should see a doctor," is the famous phrase of former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. I don't see it that way. But of course, visions don't have to be anything twisted. to do with you. That seems obvious. But it isn't. Sometimes I have clients who want to be famous entrepreneurs but think otherwise, as if they are risk averse. Their vision is not compatible with their personality. He is the founder of Microsoft Bill. Gates with a vision of a PC in every living room. He did it because the time was right and he was willing to work hard and take risks. He also had the personality to make it happen. There were so many things that contributed to it. The question is important. A vision must fit you, your personality, and the times in which you live. It should not be an illusion that has nothing to do with you. What motivates you? Do you have a deep desire inside you or? Is there something you really want in your heart? Emvotions inspire visions and are therefore an ideal model for goals that make visions achievable. What is your vision? What images emerge within it? Do you feel something inside? Also, make notes on a piece of paper. If you can't find words, you can draw a picture or take a pair of scissors and make a collage. I know many people who can't find a vision this way either. So there is no need to feel bad, this is completely normal. Either the vision is there or it comes later: no pressure. I myself decided to stop stressing about finding visions after years of looking for them and not finding them. I never thought I would become a career coach. I became one because I went through life with my eyes open; there were opportunities for me. I met Svenja Hofert and asked her if I could work for her. Sometimes it's that simple. If I had been looking for something specific, I might not have seen that opportunity. So it can be very helpful not to have visions, but to just go through life with an open mind. Instead, I've always thought about what the next step might be, and so should you. Because unlike visions, you can't get by without goals. We need them to move forward and change. Be curious about the next path.

Working with the power circuit

Perhaps you already have an idea of your future, but it is not yet clear to you. In this article, I would like to show you how you can approach the topic more concretely and understand your motivations even better in the process. What drives you to take the next step? We often think little about that. But it also shows where the true potential lies. That is why it is so important. Svenja Hofert's 360-degree energy circle is ideal for this work. Now I would like to apply this energy circle with you. We check your motivation, your strengths and your potential. This creates a cycle because everything is connected to everything else. Motivations, which are like motors, translate into strengths, but also into goals. If you know your strengths and goals, it is easier to recognise your potential. Potentials are opportunities to improve or complete something. Therefore, potentials are always also opportunities. Over time, you will realise which career goals make concrete sense for your professional development. Eventually, you will know what to expect in your next career move. Don't worry about the word "career", because of course career does not necessarily mean professional advancement. Career encompasses the entire professional career. So your goal can also be an educational goal. So you can aim for higher education or gain qualifications. The career goal can also be a personal development goal. You want to develop different skills to be able to work better in a certain area. Or maybe you really want to develop hierarchically. The power circle is meant to illustrate your energy, your strength. It shows you that everything in you is interrelated and connected. With this tool you will finally see what makes you as a person. You will gain a whole new understanding of yourself. Take a sheet of A3 paper and a thick marker. Make a dot in the middle of the sheet. From there draw a cross that goes in four directions and has arrows at the end. You can use the whole sheet. Draw a circle around it. You will see that there are four areas. In the top right corner, write the patterns or pilots. Write them very close to the edge so they are easy to see but don't waste too much space. Then write your strengths in the top left corner, your potentials in the bottom left corner and your career goals in the right corner. Prepare your post-its. As explained at the beginning, the four areas are interrelated and interdependent. Motives control you as a person. Motivations are, so to speak, your fuel, your engine. Without this engine, you cannot take off, you cannot act, you cannot take action. Your strengths come from this fuel. It can be direct or indirect. Your strengths are the basis for the development of potentials, the possibilities that underlie your strengths. Potentials are possibilities through which strengths are enhanced. As we have already mentioned, they are always possibilities. And from these potentials you can easily derive your career goal(s) at the end of this article.

What goals would you like to achieve in the next phase?

The other day I received a thank-you email from a client after two years. Our bridge-building concept had worked, he said cheerfully. With a little patience, he had reached his destination via a small diversions, where he wanted to go. That's what it's all about now: Deriving goals from their potentials. First of all, it is about the goal you are aiming for and not yet about how you will achieve this goal. We will deal with that in the next step, which is about the concrete achievement of goals. First, you want to find out which goals make sense in terms of your motives, strengths and potential. You want to know where your field of development lies. You are probably asking yourself this question because you want to change professionally. Do you want to leave self-employment? Do you want to take the plunge into another industry or change functions and areas? The greater your desire for change, the more difficult the path to your goal is likely to be. Of course, people buy you for your expertise, often also for contacts and networks within an industry. If you can no longer bring them to the next position, you are simply worth less. But that's the way it should be. Now pick up your notepads again and think about your goal. Don't think too big, maybe think of small intermediate goals. Think about what your A is, your current situation, and B, that's your goal. B, that's your goal. So, what is your goal? Now write down your goal. As I said, it can be several small goals that lead to the big main goal. Have you written down your goal? Then you have done it: your energy circuit is full and you have gained a lot of new knowledge about yourself. This video training is now over. I hope you have taken away many "aha" effects. In this video training you have dealt with your visions and goals. You have learned about the energy cycle and how you can use it. You have learned a lot about your motives, strengths and potentials and have come a lot closer to your goal. At least you have been able to clearly define your goal. We will take this knowledge with us to the next course. There we will see exactly how you can achieve your goals.