It would be the understatement of the century to say COVID-19 has not affected us and the world we live in. Most of us have not heard of such a huge disruption to ordinary lives around the planet since the onset of World War II.
Career paths, holiday arrangements, savings goals, and plans in general have all been thrown wildly off course, and it would be foolish to continue on with your life as if nothing had changed. We need to adapt, and part of that involves our plans for the future.
You may have wanted to secure a promotion this year. Maybe you planned to gain industry experience, or perhaps you intended to move overseas to study or work? Whatever it was, there’s a good chance 2020 played havoc with your plans.
The flow on effect could mean that being able to achieve these goals and aspirations in 2021 may still be in doubt.
Where to begin
Step one to resetting your goals is to acknowledge they need to be reset in the first place!
It might not be the easy to look inward and realise that you won’t be able to attain something, but it’s 100% necessary. You don’t want to be pointlessly worrying about an impossible deadline or task because you don’t want to be a ‘quitter’. There is maturity in recognising when you can’t do something. In fact, recognising that you can’t do something is the first step in devising a way to overcome that thing.
Step two is not abandoning all hope! You don’t have to completely scrap everything, nor do you have to completely discard your goals. What you’re mostly doing is altering your goals to reflect new information or situations.
Of course, some goals may be unattainable indefinitely, so instead set goals that can be realistically attained. For example, were you planning to move overseas for work or study? For now, you could aim to network online with 20 people from that country. When borders reopen, you’ll have contacts to help you get a head start.
Some things to remember
Goals don’t have to be a single-use, attain it and you’re done kind of deal. They can be more timeline based with multiple checkpoints. This means you might not need to reset a goal entirely, just modify the timeframe.
Be realistic with yourself. If you know you can’t achieve a goal in a certain timeframe or to a certain level, don’t set it.
Just because someone you know achieved a particular something, doesn’t mean you must as well. You’ll have a much healthier experience if you’re aiming for your own goals, not someone else’s.
If you haven’t heard of SMART goals, now might be the time to check out this technique.
Goals can be fluid – in fact, they should be fluid. As your circumstances change, so should your goals.
For more information on goal setting, check out our upcoming online Graduate Gateway workshops. There’s one on this particular topic on Wednesday 9 December!
