By: Yazi Bakhsheshi

If you’re like me then you’ve probably already made some New Year’s Resolutions and posted them somewhere handy. Mine are on the bulletin board right next to my precious coffee maker! And what do you know, we are almost a week into the new year and I catch myself thinking about taking down my little sticky notes. Feeling discouraged, I have begun thinking about how in the world I’m going to accomplish these goals?

I’m just going to be transparent with you. In our modern day society it seems like we are always looking out for ourselves and it’s easy for our goals to become self-centered. As our clients, students and family members quickly fade behind the scenes I want to challenge you and encourage you to put them first. Allow me to digress, there’s nothing wrong with taking care of yourself, if you can’t take care of yourself how can you expect to take care of others? That’s why the Certified Autism Specialist Credential and the Autism Certificate are so counter cultural; these credentials allow you to put your clients first through knowledge and expertise. Let me ask you a question, have you even thought about what your career will look like this year? or what your client’s resolution look like? What if becoming a better version of yourself not only benefitted you but benefitted your clients, students and the other people around you? When my clients are happy and progressing through their lives that makes me happy and brings joy to my life. I can only imagine and hope that it would do the same for you.

Eye on the Prize

I really believe that in order to have successful goals you need to implement practical objectives and action steps that keep you focused. University of California, Berkeley has seven practical application in reaching your career goals. One practical way to further your career is through our Certified Autism Specialist Credential or our Autism Certificate. Randall S. Hansen of Quintessential Careers, created these 7 Successful Tips that will help you frame your New Year’s Resolution for a lifetime!

1. Carve out a chunk of time. Career visioning cannot — and should not — be rushed. It’s also something that may take several efforts and false starts before things begin to clear and you start getting a grasp of your ideal future.
2. Review your career goals and core work values. For help identifying your work values, consider attending UC Berkeley’s Understanding Your Work Related Values workshop and learn about setting career goals in our Taking Action workshop.
3. Suspend logic and pragmatic thinking. Remember that with a career vision anything should be possible to accomplish, so find a way to turn off any negative thinking that will block you from thinking big. Don’t assume the future is limited to what is happening today.
4. Try one or more of these visioning exercises to help get your creative juices flowing.Think deeply about the questions and answer each as authentically as you can:
   • How do you define career success?  Are you achieving some level of success in your current job? What job will help you achieve complete success?
   • What would you want to do today if all your bills were paid and you had relatively unlimited cash reserves?
   • What would your career be like if you had the power to make it any way you wanted?
   • What you would like your obituary to say about your career accomplishments and the types of impacts you left with the people you worked with?
   • If absolutely no obstacles stood in the way of your achieving it, what would you most like to attain in your career?
   • Who are the people you most admire? What is it about them or their careers that attract you to them? Is there something about what they have or do that you want for your career vision?
   • Imagine yourself in the future at a point in which you have achieved great career success. What is it that you have accomplished? What does your life look like?
   • Do you feel as though you have a gift or calling? How can you share this gift or best answer the call in a way that will fulfill you?
   • What’s the one activity you most love? Is it part of your career? If not, how can you make it part of your career?
   • Where would you like to be in your career in 5 years? In 10 years? In 15 years?
5. Put it all together. Using one sentence or a concise paragraph, write your career vision. Consider writing a short vision statement along with a short description of how you currently see yourself accomplishing it – reaching your vision. Write everything in the present tense, as if you already have accomplished it. This creates the right frame of mind – confidence about your future – rather than keeping your vision in the distant future.
6. Keep your vision visible. Once you’ve created your career vision statement, plaster it in various places and read it and say it aloud often. Imagine yourself achieving your career vision. Constantly reinforcing the image of you in your career vision will help you both consciously and subconsciously develop goals and action steps that will lead you to success.
7. Review your career vision statement regularly. Your vision can – and most likely will – change as you move closer to it. As part of an annual career planning process, you should review your career vision statement and make any adjustments that you feel are necessary.

 

Good news… We’re only a week into the new year, let’s make it count for something bigger than ourselves. Thanks to Randall Hansen we can create some practical and impactful career goals! What are you waiting for?? Don’t forget to take a look at our Certified Autism Specialist Credential and our Autism Certificate, very helpful resources when working in the field! Side note if you select “SM141” when creating your application it will give your priority processing.

If you want to share some of your goals with me you can post them to our Facebook Post about Goal Setting. I can’t wait to hear about some of your life changing goals!

Certified Autism Specialists Facebook 

Sources

Hansen , R. (n.d.). Developing a career vision statement. Retrieved from http://hrweb.berkeley.edu/learning/career-development/goal-setting/career-plan-vision