Successful people distinguish themselves as much by their preparation as they do by their outcomes. Their achievements demonstrate an absolute correlation between planning and success. So it’s no wonder that winning organizations ask job candidates about their career goals.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could answer that question by detailing your goals, your plans for achieving them, and your progress to date?

In this post, we’ll give you a simple, concise, and powerful framework for setting and achieving five-year goals: Following this plan will enable you to:

• Decide what you want to achieve in the next five years.
• Determine what can help you along your way.
• Stay motivated and happy on the journey.
• Build your self-confidence.
• Reach your goals.

So get out a pen and paper, and get ready to write.

1. List the areas of your life that matter most to you. Beyond your career, there are your personal relationships, health and
fitness, financial life, educational attainment, philanthropy, and even your basic day-to-day attitude.

2. Write down your innate talents. What do you do easily? The vast majority of people who are both successful and happy find ways to maximize their natural abilities in pursuit of their goals.

3. Brainstorm goals for each area. These goals can be long- or short-term. At this point, the more ideas you generate, the better. Think about objectives that involve using your natural abilities in the areas of your life that matter most. If you’re musically inclined, you might want to play in a musical for a local orchestra. If you’re a natural teacher with a philanthropic heart, you might want to mentor a struggling teenager to achieve high school graduation.

“Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in 10 years.”   ― Bill Gates

4. Narrow your list to S.M.A.R.T. five year goals. This mnemonic will provide clarity and precision and place you at the starting line toward your objectives. Commit to realistic goals, over which you have a high level of control, and minimize the luck factor. For example, two promotions in five years may be more likely than a specific position.

• S – Specific
• M – Measurable
• A – Attainable
• R – Relevant
• T – Trackable

“It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.”   ― Tony Robbins

5. Write down the specific personal benefits of achieving each goal. Will striving toward completing a marathon make you eat healthier every day? Will earning six figures in five years’ time make you happy? As you consider the benefits, consider the sacrifices. Will career success jeopardize your family relationships? Also, think about whether your goals are influenced by others’ expectations or your own desires. Achieving your goals should satisfy YOU.

6. List possible obstacles, distractions, and competing priorities for each goal. Perhaps you’d like to become a music producer, but some of the talented people you meet will nosedive into substance abuse. Starting a family may slow down your progress toward a career goal, and you will need to balance both objectives. In this step, you just want to build in reasonable expectations, anticipate problems, and avoid non-beneficial derailments.

7. Write down the steps required to reach each goal. Each goal is comprised of short-term targets or milestones along the way. When will you need to reach these targets in order to attain your goal by the five-year mark?

8. Create daily to-do lists. If you already do this for specific tasks at work, don’t commingle your two lists. Each day, create a separate to-do list with incremental steps to take toward your short-term targets.

“Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.”   ― Benjamin Franklin

On the journey toward your five-year goals, there will be unforeseen pitfalls and fortunate happenstance. Life is unpredictable, but you can move forward with more confidence and motivation when you have specific goals and a detailed plan for reaching them. As always, we are here to support you, and we would love to hear about your progress along the way.