Are your goals Achievable?
TL;DR
When it comes to determining if your goal is achievable, what you’re really asking is whether or not it’s possible to reach your goal based on the information you have about your life and your career right now.
This isn’t about perfection; it’s about progress.
This week, we’ve been doing a series on Instagram on the well-known goal-setting acronym, SMART (with our additional “E” attached at the end).
You can check out my tips on making your goals Specific and Measurable on our IG page (and catch the remaining tips throughout the rest of the week). Today’s focus is on the letter A.
A stands for achievable. You want your goal to feel achievable.
Notice that I said FEEL.
This is one of the more difficult aspects of goal-setting, because you won’t actually know if your goal is achievable until you achieve it.
Let’s pause for a moment and take a look at the definition of the word GOAL, which is: the object of a person’s ambition or effort; an aim or desired result.
Nowhere in that definition does it say anything about a goal being absolute or certain, and it’s important to remember that when thinking about whether or not your goal is achievable.
What you’re really asking here is whether or not it’s possible to reach your goal based on the information you have about your life and your career right now.
This isn’t about perfection; it’s about progress.
If your goal is to have auditioned for 10 new casting directors in the next year, would that be considered progress? And, if so, does it feel like the right kind of progress — challenging but possible?
If it feels like something that could be accomplished in a few months, then you might be playing it safe. On the flip side, if your goal feels so big and scary that you feel paralyzed, then that might be a sign that you are overreaching.
It’s important to get honest with yourself here.
Now, I am not a goal prophet — I don’t know whether your goal is achievable or not.
For one performer, getting called back for a lead in a Broadway show is totally possible. For someone else, just getting their first broadway audition is a huge milestone.
Be honest with yourself about what would be considered progress at this stage of your career. The idea is to play around here and adjust however you need to until it feels right to you.
In the event that you find yourself stuck with this one, I suggest looking at what you accomplished last month and asking yourself what would be an improvement for your career in the upcoming month (or within whatever timeframe you’re setting your goal).
Remember, when it comes to deciding what’s achievable, it’s not about living up to someone else’s idea of what success looks like for you — not your parents’, or your friends’, or your partner’s.
Other people will have their opinions, but only YOU can know.
Go ahead and get support from those whose opinions you value when it comes to your career, but at the end of the day, you have to strip everything else away and get to the heart of what matters to you.
This is about digging deep, being honest with yourself, and taking ownership of what it is that you truly want for yourself and your career.
You got this!
Betsy