Five Reasons Why I Don’t Set Career Goals

I’m on a self-imposed Internet hiatus this week, mainly because I found myself blowing large amounts of my free time just screwing around online. I’ll share my grand thoughts about this little experiment next week, but in the meantime, here is a post I worked out on paper. How old fashioned!

To dovetail on my thoughts about Not Seeing Myself in Five Years, I also do not set career goals. Sure, there are places where I’d like to be and things I would like to do, but I keep my thoughts on this hazy, unformed and most likely jotted down in my little journal.

1. Goals are limited and give me narrow focus - After I left Carnegie Mellon, I was sure I wanted to be a science writer. After all, I have the experience, the smarts and the curiosity needed to be the next Richard Preston. Well, not quite. I may have all those qualities, but the fact remains that I struggle to grasp all but the simplest of scientific concepts. I realized this pretty quickly, but if I had stayed the course because my goal was to be a science writer, I may not be working for Startup today.

2. I prefer to concentrate on what I don’t want - You know what I don’t want? I don’t want to be an HR receptionist ever again. I also am very ok with never again writing about protective coatings. Being a machinist or an accountant doesn’t appeal to me either. Everything else? Bring it on. I’ll try it.

3. I’m scared I would miss out on an opportunity while focused on a goal - My husband actually proves this point. His goal was to go to school to be a Physician’s Assistant, when he was offered his job at a small coastal hospital. The position didn’t align with his goal, but he took it anyway. Now he’s much happier, less stressed and STILL furthering his education.

4. I’m afraid of failure - Who isn’t? A trendy business soundbite lately is to embrace and learn from failure. You know who are the people that can embrace and learn from failure? Rich men. Sure, I’ll learn from failure but I might end up sleeping out of my car. I do hope, in the future, to be less fearful of failure and more outgoing and confident in my ideas.

5. There is no 5 - My goal when setting out to write this post was to come up with five reasons I didn’t set career goals, but I could only come up with four. Rather than see these ideas languish, I say screw the five and went with four. You can’t be paralyzed by your goals.