Today I am going to tell you a better way to plan and achieve your career goals.

Your career is a 30-40 year-long expedition of working, training, learning & gaining experience. Planning for that long horizon is impossible. Things can completely change in the next few years in today’s fast pace world. Your career aspirations will also change multiple times during this long journey.

You need an alternative approach.

Rather than a long-term plan, go for a short-term project. Set a goal for the next quarter, work on it, achieve it and then repeat next quarter.

Let’s dive in.

Part 1 - How do you drive to a faraway destination in a fog condition?

You can only see 100-200 meters when you drive in fog. But as you move closer, you get visibility for another 200 meters. Quarterly planning works precisely the same. You pick your quarterly goals based on the information you have, and then after 3 months, you make new quarterly goals. Those small goals accumulate into massive outcomes over time.

This is a powerful concept and can make your career journey highly effective.

Let me give another example of a mason jar filled with stones.

Tennis player Shelby Rogers illustrated a mason jar filled with stones in one of her Tweets.

That’s everything you want to do. As you can see, you are chock full of them. The only way to access the stones further down the jar is to pick stones from the top, one at a time. Once you do, you will gain access to the steps underneath.

These two concepts are a powerful illustration of the effectiveness of short-term planning.

Part 2 - How to shortlist your quarterly goals for Q1 of 2023

There are multiple ways to identify and pick your quarterly goals.

1/ The simplest and easiest method would be to review the job description of your next promotion.

For example, if you are a junior programmer, check the job description of a senior programmer. Look for the gap between what you currently have and those expected in your next role.

Make a list of skills, experience, certification and education required in your next role that you do not have today.

2/ Another method would be to listen to a nagging voice inside you.

There are ideas and desires we have been holding on to for too long, and those become a nagging noise. For example, getting AWS or Azure certification, improving communication skills, and preparing for the MBA entrance exam. MBA was my nagging voice, and I sat on it for a long time.

3/ Ask your peers and manager for advice.

The people ahead of you in their career journey can give you precise advice on what different things you could do to improve your knowledge and skills.

4/Do not limit yourself to just technical skills. Soft skills are equally important in your career growth.

Most programmers focus only on technical skills and ignore improving their soft skills. Soft skills include communication, interpersonal, problem-solving, project management, time management, people management etc.

5/ Also, look for your personal non-work related goals.

Improving in one area of your life will make you better in another. This is a shocking phenomenon, but it works all the time. So look at other areas of your life, such as health, family, finances, hobby and add a few items to your list.

Part 3 - How to pick your quarterly goals for Q1 of 2023

In part 2, you made a list of goals you want to achieve or benefit you in your career journey. But you cannot do them all, right? Your full-time job and family are not going anywhere, and all your responsibilities remain.

So you can only pick one or two items from this list.

It is tough to pick only two, but that’s the only way you can achieve them. If you select more than two, you will not be able to finish any. You can pick them up in Q2.

Write a one-line summary of why you picked those two goals.

What will be the positive impact on your life after achieving it? What will be the negative impact if you do not work on it? For example, improving my accent (communication) will make me feel more confident. If I don’t improve my pronunciation, other people will not be able to understand me clearly. I will continue to feel social shame and embarrassment about my speaking.

Did you see it is not very hard to make a list of crucial goals for your

One significant advantage of this approach is that you will get to work on a few things and evaluate whether or not you will like doing them for a longer time.

By achieving smaller goals, you will create momentum in your life.

Use my Quarterly planning workbook https://quarterlyplanningworkbook.com to help you pick the right goals and translate them into daily actions and accomplish them.

I will end this newsletter with my examples from 2022

In Q1, I focused on my YouTube career journey podcast and finished 25 episodes.

About 90% of new podcasters drop off before reaching 21 episodes. Still, I was able to pass that milestone because of my quarterly focus.

In Q2, I focused on my writing skills and joined Ship 30 For 30.

It completely changed the trajectory of my writing journey. The program helped me build daily writing habits, tough me crucial writing techniques and provided a community of aspiring writers.

In Q3, I continued my focus on writing and finished 101 days of consistent writing.

I explored many topics, interest and I built version 1.0 of my quarterly planning workbook.

In Q4, I Continued to focus on writing to clarify my audience, topic and sub-topics.

I found a significant problem for programmers and a powerful solution for it.

I did more than ever in one year through quarterly planning. Trust me that this system will work for you too. So use it and take my help.

This is a wrap!!

As always, I would love to hear from you, so hit reply and send me a quick one-line comment.

Your Friend,
Vinod

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If you like my tweets, then you will love my free offerings.

🎓 Career Jumpstart Email Course to 🎨 craft your dreams

📔 Quarterly Planning Workbook to achieve your dreams one quarter at a time.

Use them to start your 2023 with a bang ⚡🚀.

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