Whether you want to start your own business, get a college degree, or create multiple income streams — these seven steps to achieving your professional goals will help you get there.

Before the tips, a quip from Canadian Grammy-award winning singer Shania Twain: 

“I find that the very things that I get criticized for, which is usually being different and just doing my own thing and just being original, are the very things that make me successful,” says Twain. 

When you’re setting professional goals, make sure you tune in to your own style and plans – not what others want! For more info on setting and achieving goals, click on Making Dreams Come True Without Money, Might, or Miracles: A Guide for Dream-Chasers and Dream-Catchers by Ivan Scheier. And, read on for Scheier’s seven rules for achieving your professional goals…

7 Steps to Achieving Your Professional Goals

1. Hunker down for the long haul because nothing happens overnight. Scheier says, “Stay with your dream and live close to your beliefs.” The path to achieving goals is littered with huge leaps forward, and then no movement for months or even years. To achieve your professional goals, keep a long-term vision in mind.

2. Be flexible. “Dreams don’t usually come about in the way that you first visualize them, so don’t expect them to,” says Scheier. If a master’s degree in business is your goal but you don’t have the time, energy, or finances to go to university, then focus on business classes at your community college, or learn all you can from a mentor. Be open to different ways to achieve your goals. If you are going back to school, read 7 Success Tips for Mature College Students!

3. Be inflexible about your values. Scheier advises not compromising your values, even when “they come disguised in nice names like team building, negotiation, or consensus.” Embrace working with other people, but don’t bow under external pressure.

4. Build a support system. “Dreams rarely survive their origins without evolution to a broader ownership,” says Scheier. “Get your ideas out into the universe and see who they inspire.” Find a tribe who believes in and supports you. And — another key to achieving your professional goals is taking risks, asserting yourself, and learning to succeed despite criticism.

5. Avoid tight planning. Scheier recommends not letting your plan become an end in itself. So, if your professional goal is a master’s in business administration and you finally achieve it only to wonder “what next?”…then your plan may have been an end in itself. To achieve your professional goals, keep a fresh list of future, revised goals in front of you.

6. Factor money out of the equation. “Money is never the main ingredient of dream achievement, so free yourself from major money needs,” advises Scheier. “The ‘if only I had the money’ mind-set can result in neglect of other potentially more feasible approaches.” This is an important step to achieving your professional goals, because we generally think that money is all it takes! But it’s not true — achieving your goals is about perseverance, discipline, support, and faith.

7. Keep an eye on your past accomplishments. When you get discouraged, look back at your professional achievements. Scheier says, “Looking backward reminds you how many dreams have actually come true in your life, while looking forward only reminds you of the obstacles you face.” If you’re “stuck”, read Overcoming Obstacles to Your Goals.

Do you have any thoughts or questions on these steps to achieving professional goals? I welcome your comments below…

~ Resources for Achieving Your Goals ~

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