Getting to the Second Floor

Last week I equated achieving your goals with climbing a staircase. This week I am going to continue on that idea. So let's get to it!

Let's say your career is the Empire State Building and in order to achieve your overall goals you need to get to the top observation deck at the 102 floor. Easy, just take the elevator and you're there. Wrong-o! The elevator is broken my friend. So now what do you do? Your dreams and goals are at the top of that building and you have to get there. Well, you can scale the side of the building or you can take the stairs. Of course you take the stairs, all 1,860 of them, one step at a time, each step gets you closer to your end goals.

The bad news is: This is going to be work.The good news is: It's not just 1,860 stairs straight up. They break it into floors, 102 of them. This is the smart way to build a building. This is the smart way to build a career. Speaking of building a career... Let's get started!

Let's say that your end goal/dream is to make 1 million dollars with music. This is the observation deck my friend, the top floor. You cannot focus on the top floor or you will jump off the building half way up. You need to focus on getting to the second floor. Now that we know what your over-all goal is, lets focus on the goals that are going to get you there. Today a Myspace page is usually one of the first three members of a band, it usually shows up before the bass player. I am not saying this should be your next goal, I just needed and example. So, for the sake of this post, let's assume that your most immediate goal is to add 1000 new friends to your Myspace page. This makes acquiring 1000 new friends on Myspace the second floor of your building. Alright, how do you get to the second floor. One step at a time. One friend at a time. Next thing you know you are at the second floor. Ready to move on up!

Now here is where the Empire States Building/staircase analogy begins to fall apart: Building your career is not entirely linear. There are multiple goals that need to be accomplished and if you wait to finish one before beginning the next it will take for ever. My point with the staircase analogy is: There are multiple accomplishments that must be achieved before you can reach your final goal and multiple steps to take before you can reach each floor (or benchmark). Being able to identify your goals and the path to achieve them is invaluable. I'm talking about creating a plan. What is the first step to creating a plan? Writing down your goals. If you write down your goals you are statistically more likely to achieve them.

Consider the simple act of writing done your goals the same as taking first step in the building. Now where are those stairs?