The start of a new year is always a good time to think about goals. You may be coming up with personal resolutions at the start of the year such as losing weight or saving up more money. Professional goals should be an equal priority.
At the beginning of the school year this past July, I asked each clinician on my team to write up a couple professional goals for themselves and a couple for our team. I review these goals every quarter to see how we’re doing and what progress we have made.
If you didn’t have the opportunity to write goals at the beginning of the school year in 2009, now is the perfect time to do it. We all know how to write IEP goals. It is important to use some of the same techniques when writing your professional goals.
An excellent resource when considering how to write or set goals is:
http://www.goal-setting-guide.com/goal-writing.html
This site reviews all of the best ways to write and set measurable short-term and long-term goals. In my experience, the most important things about goals are that they must be within reach and have a deadline.
Goals must be reasonable, or you will only be frustrated by your lack of success when you don’t meet them. For example, someday, I would like to be an expert in Yoga Therapy, but a more reasonable goal might be for me to take a course in Yoga Therapy within the next year or to read Sonia Sumar’s book, Yoga for the Special Child.
Goals must have a deadline. Otherwise, you may procrastinate on working toward them and they’ll never be met. If I simply say, “I will read Sonia Sumar’s book,” and I don’t place a deadline on it, I may not read it for another 5 years…
Remember that goals are an excellent mechanism for helping you toward a successful and fulfilling career. Good luck setting new goals in 2010!