18 Personal Goals for Work to Help You Succeed in Your Career

It’s easy to blend into the crowd at work. The majority of workers choose to settle for mediocrity and anonymity, especially if they work in a large or virtual work environment. It’s much easier to go to work every day and contribute just enough to meet your job’s requirements than it is to leave a lasting impression on your coworkers through personal goals for work.

By setting workplace goals, you can intentionally work towards getting noticed, which will propel you towards getting your dream job. After of course after setting the right goals, you need to know how to achieve them — and this is what you can learn from the Make It Happen Handbook. Get it and find out how to stick to your goals.

To not settle for mediocrity or anonymity, start achieving your goals and stand out from the crowd. Here are 18 examples of goals for work to help you stand out from your coworkers and lead a successful career.

1. Self-Mastery

Self-mastery is all about deepening your awareness of your skills, strengths, and weaknesses. Once you identify what makes you unique and what you’re most passionate about, use that awareness to develop your skills even further.

Use your awareness of your weaknesses to identify areas of improvement. By practicing your self-awareness in these areas, you will demonstrate an ability to self-regulate your development and growth.

2. Being Grateful for Where You Are

Take a moment and reflect on how hard you worked to get where you are today.

How many times did you apply to your job? How many interviews did you go through? How many hours have you put in?

You’ve worked hard to get to where you are today. Be grateful of all of the hard work you’ve put in to get you where you are today and the lesson you’ve learned along the way.

By practicing gratitude, you open yourself up to receive what’s next.

3. Staying Excited for What’s Next

When it comes to personal goals for work, it’s important to practice gratitude for your current situation and to feel excitement for what’s coming next.

Anticipate that you will accomplish your goal and that you’re working towards your dream job. Be open to receiving what’s coming your way next, whether that’s a raise, a promotion, or an entirely new position in a new company.

4. Celebrating Differences

As coworkers, we all bring different strengths to a team environment. Introverts bring deep thought to current issues, and extroverts do well in busy meetings and discussions. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is an excellent measurement of personality differences and brings an interesting review of how your team members’ personalities interact with each other.

If possible, request to have an MBTI done with your coworkers so that you can learn more about your similarities and differences; or recognize the differences in your team’s personalities and appreciate that they each contribute different values to the group.

5. Using Your Team’s Differences to Your Advantage

Once you learn more about the different personalities on your team, you can work more strategically with your coworkers. Some coworkers may present as introverts who prefer to take time away to review information before making decisions. Other coworkers may present as extroverts who excel in group discussions and facilitating presentations.

Once you identify the different strengths of your coworkers, you can plan projects and group work according to each other’s personality strengths.

6. Managing Conflicts Effectively

If conflict arises between yourself and another coworker, take time to assess how you’d like to work through the situation rather than reacting in the heat of the moment^[1]. This is one of the essential personal goals for work.

Request a private meeting with the other coworker, and present the facts in an objective manner. Initiate a practical conversation to discuss the issue, and then find a mutually-beneficial solution together.

Doing so will show your coworkers and your boss that you have developed emotional intelligence and are capable of dealing with emotionally-sensitive discussions while keeping a cool head.

Learn more about conflict management: Conflict Management: How to Turn Any Conflicts into Opportunities

7. Becoming a “Yes” Person

Volunteer for new projects and special assignments. Be the first person to put up your hand.

If your boss is looking for someone to step up, be the first to volunteer. It shows you’re engaged and gives you the opportunity to learn new skills. This will require stepping out of your comfort zone, but the more you do this, the more you will develop personal growth and professional development.

8. Saying “No” When Necessary

This may seem contradictory to the previous point, but keep reading.

If you’re close to burnout or have a lot going on in your personal life, choose to say no to additional work if you must.

Be aware of your own mental health, and make it a work goal to pull back when necessary. If you’re incapable of taking on more, say no rather than saying yes and being unable to submit impeccable work.

If necessary, share with your boss privately that you’re not in the right place to take on work but that you intend to get back on track and as soon as possible. Here’s how to learn The Gentle Art of Saying No.

9. Making Meaningful Connections Regularly

This piece of valuable advice is given by Candace Doby, a leadership coach that teaches young leaders to build courage. Here’s what she says about making meaningful connections:

Setting an everyday workplace goal to make meaningful connections with colleagues can help you build critical relationships that cultivate trust, respect, and compassion—even as you challenge each other.

What qualifies as meaningful? Experiences, conversations, or other exchanges that provide value and have meaning to both people. In fact, meaningful connections often include elements of vulnerability because when you really connect, you expose your need to be seen, heard, and accepted. That, in itself, is an act of personal courage.

A workplace goal focused on connection can assist you in showing up in relationships more powerfully and intentionally and help people to believe in you. In addition, your ability as a leader to better connect with your team helps your company better address the needs of and care for its people.

Setting a goal to make a meaningful connection every day doesn’t mean that you need to scheduled daily Zoom calls with a different team member to get face time or ask them about their weekend. The only shift you may need to make is to purposefully elevate and personalize the conversations you are already having.

10. Asking More Questions

Candace also suggested asking more questions to foster curiosity.

Curiosity fosters openness, creativity, growth, achievement, and learning.^[2] On top of that, asking questions—for clarification or discovery—creates an entry point into intimidating conversations that you may have otherwise avoided. Your workplace goal to be more curious also has lasting benefits for your company because it invites awareness of external pressures, creative problem-solving, high-speed adaptability, and better decision-making.

There’s no right or wrong way to ask more questions. You do, however, want to be mindful of the energy you attach to the questions you ask out loud, in front of people. A line of inquiry that comes in an overly combative, intrusive, or trivializing way may unintentionally deplete this goal from the goodness it offers.

11. Taking a Risk Every Day

Another valuable advice given by Candace is that, being a courageous leader means choosing growth over fear consistently.

When you make a habit out of taking risks, you get consistent practice in acknowledging, settling into, and taming discomfort. The leader who hasn’t practiced being uncomfortable may find current workplace challenges—that call for radical innovation, company culture overhauls, and upskilling employees—too overwhelming to address. That leader may double down on the status quo to avoid failure or keep quiet to circumvent humiliation. But when you’ve built up the ability to be uncomfortable, you better position yourself to instigate change.^[3]

Your commitment to taking risks every day is mutually beneficial for you and your employer. You walk away with self-discovery, improved skills, and expansion of your comfort zone. Your employer increases its ability to fail-fast, innovate, and transform itself into a courageous organization.

12. Showing Humility

It’s not possible to be perfect at everything all the time, so if you make a mistake, own up to it.

Let your boss or coworker know that you made a mistake and want to correct it. Tell them that you have learned from this experience and will do things differently going forward.

Practice humility so that you may demonstrate a willingness to do better.

13. Modeling a Work-Life Balance

Make your own self-care a priority through personal goals for work so that you’re allocating time out of the office to your exercise, health and nutrition goals.

Carve out time before or after work to take care of you. Propose walking meetings during the day or try organizing group fitness classes at lunch. Invite your coworkers to join you in trying a new yoga class.

Show your coworkers that you’re committed to a work-life balance^[4] so that you can show up as your best self while at work.

Try these 13 Work Life Balance Tips for a Happy and Productive Life.

14. Under Promise, Over Deliver

If you commit to finishing a project by a certain time, be certain that you will do what you said you’re going to do.

Do not commit to completing a project using an unrealistic time frame. If you’re unable to deliver, you will inevitably harm your reputation and will negatively affect others’ expectations of your abilities.

Rather than committing to more than you can accomplish, commit to what you’re capable of or slightly less so that you can over deliver on your promises.

15. Finding Your Own Answers

Rather than quickly turning to your coworkers or your boss when you have questions, do your best to find your own answers.

Review company policies, best practices, and previous situations. Use critical thinking to determine how to best handle a situation and demonstrate that you’re able to make sound decisions when it’s required.

After doing your research, present the situation to your boss and share how you would handle the situation. Ask for guidance to see if you’re on the right track. By doing so, you’ll demonstrate drive and ambition.

16. Asking for Help

If a situation arises that is above your pay-grade and you must ask for help or guidance, do so with humility as part of this workplace goal.

Respectfully ask your boss or coworkers for their help. Let them know that you are grateful for their assistance and that they’re willing to share their knowledge. Offer to be of assistance to them if it’s needed in the future and repay the favor.

Here’re some tips for you: How to Ask for Help When You Feel Silly to Do So

17. Offering Help

If you can see a fellow coworker is struggling, offer to help them out. Offering your help will demonstrate your ability to work as a team player, so this is one of the most important personal goals for work.

If your workplace has hired a new employee, offer to take them under your wing and show them the ropes. It will demonstrate your seniority in the workplace and your interest in fostering teamwork and morale.

18. Taking a Brain Break Regularly

Take a few moments whenever you can for a mini meditation. In the bathroom, the coffee room, or on the subway on your way to work, take a few deep breaths and center your mind.

Slow down your heart rate and tune in to your inner self. Remind yourself that work can be stressful, but we don’t need to let the stress affect us. Return to this grounded and centered state whenever you feel out of alignment.

The Bottom Line

Use this list of personal goals for work to skyrocket your career path. Let your actions and body language speak louder than words in both your personal and professional life.

Demonstrate to your boss and your coworkers that you don’t intend to settle for mediocrity; you intend to stand out from the crowd and will do so by implementing personal work goals and actively working towards your dream job.

Featured photo credit: krakenimages via unsplash.com