Who are You?  What do you want to be when You grow up?  This never-ending question can be tough to answer the same way all the time.  It may change up or down, forwards or backwards depending on what you are doing and what stage of life you are in.  Past decisions can greatly impact your future.  Every decision you make at every stage is important and requires careful thought. Every working person has a goal in mind.  Maybe the goal is money.  Maybe the goal is being in charge.  Maybe the goal is more about finding your place in the world.  Your goals might encompass all the above and more.  Whatever they are they should be broken into two categories:

1. Short term goals – immediate need.

2. Long term goals – direction you are going.

Let’s start with the long-term goals because they are many times where your heart is guiding you.  Using words like dream or mission helps to describe these best.  These goals are where you are heading; your “destination”.  Your destination can change course and often it might.  But if it does, then you have to rethink your short-term goals to make sure they are keeping you on the path towards your destination.  Many people decide to take a job in the short-term without ever thinking about their long-term goals.  Then when the new job doesn’t pan out as well as they wanted, they either adjust their long-term goals or go off job searching again.

Short term goals are much more immediate and where the pain is.  If you have lost your job then you understand your need to provide an income as soon as possible.  Most people don’t have financial back up plans which is a mistake.  Short term hiccups happen all the time and everyone should have an emergency plan to address them.  If you don’t plan for an emergency, you derail your long-term efforts tremendously.  The purse strings will bind you and having a financial plan in place with cut them and give you room to breathe when a downturn happens; it will happen.  Debt free is the way to go and this is the best place to go:  www.DaveRamsey.com.

Decisions on what to do in the short-term should never be made when you are feeling lots of pressure or fear.  A temporary job to fill a gap for financial reasons is sometimes required.  Just remember this temporary job is just temporary and you will get back on your path.  You will have to work extra hard to find what you are looking for and you will.

Short-term job goals should be in line with your long-term plan.  For instance, if someday you want to own your own business such as a bakery, you need to think about what skills or experience you need to get that bakery off the ground.  Let’s run through short-term plan for a long-term goal of opening up a bakery.  Remember not all things run this smoothly but it is an example of how to use short-term jobs to help you achieve your long-term goal.

Amy wants to open a bakery in the next three to five years.  She is a go-getter and loves to bake.  She has never had a retail outlet or had to sell her products or services so she is not sure if she is equipped to handle the entire bakery business.  She is thinking she wants to start out with one bakery and then if things go well she will open multiple store and hire people to do the work she doesn’t want to.

She is in her thirties and has had a few good jobs throughout her career so far.  She started out as an administrative person, moved to customer support and eventually started managing a group of creative people at a design house.  Her love is still baking and she wants to start working towards her own bakery. She has decided this after talking with her best friend’s mother who is a great encouragement to her.  Her first task is to write down the top two or three things she thinks she needs to learn more about in order to be successful with running a bakery.  She figures she needs help with the accounting part of a business (finances), a good idea of what it is like running a bakery (operations) and some experience understanding the challenges of marketing a product to consumers (marketing/sales).

Her current job managing the creative team at the design house has helped her understand how putting together great marketing pieces can be effective.  What she hasn’t worked on was how businesses sell to consumers.  She cannot probably use her current situation to help get that experience.  She likes her job but doesn’t want to be there forever.  Her job has a little flexibility and she asks if she can come in late a few days a week so she can take a few accounting classes in the morning.  Her boss says no so she decides to take the classes at night.

While she is taking the accounting classes, she has also decided to try to find a bakery or a similar operation she could work at on the weekends to gain some experience within a small retail store.  She finds a local flower shop that needs some help on Saturdays and Sundays.  It is not a bakery but it should help her better understand both operations and sales.

Amy is going to be busy for the next six months or a year but the experience and training she will receive will be priceless.  She will start her training to be a successful bakery shop owner.  Maybe this
experience will solidify her desire to own a bakery or maybe her long-term goal will change.  We don’t know until we try new things out if we are going to like them or not.  Everyone is in a job, training for something.  Is your job training your for what you want or what other people need?

Get on a training program and Let’s Get Started!

Jeff