It is hard to achieve your goals if they are not clearly defined. If you want to work in your dream company, complete an MBA, or already have a promising idea for a start-up, formulating career goals is just the beginning. You should always have a goal in mind for your professional development. The other side of the coin is realising your goals. To ensure that your formulated career goals are more successful than the usual New Year's resolutions, here are 10 tips on how to achieve your career goals.

1. Set intermediate goals

From intern to CEO? Your ambition deserves recognition, but such lofty goals usually fail for one simple reason: If you set yourself goals that are too high and unrealistic, there is always a risk of losing sight of the big picture and losing motivation.

However, if you divide your professional goal into realistic intermediate goals and set time frames for achieving them, the big career goal loses its horror. Just like a beginner in running gradually improves and does not immediately complete a marathon, smaller realistic goals help you to achieve more motivation and a sense of achievement. An example of smaller professional goals could be a conversation with your line manager or the successful completion of a challenging project.

2. No Ego Trip 

To be honest, your chances of achieving your professional goals and professional success through an elbow mentality alone are very slim. Of course, there will be situations on the way to the top where you have to act on your responsibility and make difficult decisions that can also have an impact on others. However, behind every successful company or leader, there is usually an efficient and well-functioning team made up of independent personalities in different professional positions.

Therefore, you should not fear your fellow students and colleagues, but see them as valuable partners, critics, supporters and also door openers for your professional goals - whether during your studies, in your internship or when working in a team on projects. A good colleague will always support you in reviewing your ideas and may notice before you do if you are moving in the wrong direction in realizing your professional goals or making one of the typical career mistakes.

3. Question or Discard Habits

If you have previously found it difficult to achieve realistic career goals, it could be that you are trapped in old habits. In this case, it is important to analyse these obstructive habits, consistently declutter them and establish new behaviours instead. In the spirit of New Year's resolutions, you should devote your energy from tomorrow onwards to developing new ways of thinking and taking bold steps.

This could include improving your time management, socializing more intensively with fellow students or working more effectively. 

4. Learning from Setbacks

Professional and personal setbacks are an inevitable part of life and all of us have to deal with them, regardless of our level of success. In Silicon Valley, professional failure is even considered one of the most important factors for success. The important thing is to learn how to deal with setbacks. So don't let them demotivate you for too long, but take a closer look. Why did you fail? Get feedback to eliminate sources of error and grow from them.

5. Optimum Time Management

Behind every successfully completed project is efficient time management, which significantly increases the chances of success, and this also applies to the realisation of your professional goals. It can be helpful to compare your career planning with climbing a mountain. The steeper the path to the top, be it in your studies or on the career ladder, the more you have to proceed step by step. This slower pace gives you the time you need to look left and right as you climb, rethink your career goals and gain valuable experience.

Important milestones on your individual mountain climb, i.e. your long-term professional goal, are short and medium-term goals that give you a sense of achievement along the way and help you not to lose sight of the big goal. Your principle should always be to aim for a goal at the right time and with the time you need.

You’ll find more information on ideal time management in this article.

6. Have a Plan B

Whilst it is important to consistently pursue career goals, it can also be useful to have a plan B for an alternative career up your sleeve from the outset. This not only contributes to mental clarity but also mitigates excessive determination in career planning. It also creates a protective wall against panic if an application is rejected and your career goals don't go as smoothly as planned. 

7. Find Suitable Goals

You may have heard about the top salaries in management consulting, and both your parents, your friends and your professor recommend joining the leading companies in the consulting industry. For many young professionals, this may be a promising and fulfilling career goal, but it is certainly not for everyone. As you formulate career goals, it's important to do some self-reflection and ask basic questions about your personality, skills and aspirations. It is by no means inappropriate to abandon incorrectly formulated career goals or give them a different course.

8. Optimize Self-Management

Honest and critical self-management is a crucial prerequisite for achieving your formulated professional goals. Only those who can assess and motivate themselves, but also occasionally hold themselves back, are able to manage themselves and keep their personal and professional goals in check. This includes the ability to recognize and admit one's own mistakes. Finally, unexpected obstacles will always arise, but you must not jeopardize your professional goals by using them as an excuse. Effective self-management involves the willingness to leave your comfort zone when difficulties arise, to apply efficient time management and at the same time to give yourself a break when things are not going well.

9. Chance of Success Through Prioritisation

Do you want everything at once and preferably tomorrow? It is admirable that you are pursuing your professional goals with such determination, but if you really want to achieve the position or promotion you are aiming for in the company, it is advisable to proceed step by step. Firstly, you should find out what is important and which goals should or even must be achieved first. At the same time, it is important to consider your situation. For example, if you intend to complete your Master's alongside your job, you should bear in mind that your free time will be limited. A useful method for setting sensible priorities and achieving professional goals is still a list of pros and cons.

10. Keep the Individual Steps Simple

No matter what your professional goal is, try to keep it as simple as possible. Although to-do lists and mind maps can be useful, breaking down your actual goal in too much detail can cause it to lose clarity and contour. Give your professional planning enough weight in clearly defined steps and focus on the next step in each case instead of getting lost in countless small alternative possibilities.