I’ve been giving career guidance sessions now for ten years. During that time, one thing that has been consistent is the lack of agreed definition with regards to the words we use about career progression.

Some people say goals, others use aims, some even use targets. Because they’re all the same anyway right, and really, who actually cares?

Can you imagine if a doctor said that about the parts of your body? ‘Arm’s the same as a leg anyway, right?’ You’d be pretty horrified I reckon.

The same goes for your decision-making related to career progression. The lack of definition often adds to the confusion about what to do next, simply because you have no clear way of thinking about the different components that make up ‘work’.

Shock-horror, the dictionary has three separate definitions for three different words. Because they’re different.

A goal is: ”a desired result”

An aim is: ”a purpose or intention”

A target is: ”an object selected as the aim of an attack”

OK, really cool, this helps us a lot to figure things out. So, there you are, with your desired result in mind. That is to say, your ”goal”. You might not really have much clear detail, but you can sort of describe it: ”My goal is to write a book!”

When you begin to think about how to achieve that desired result, you realise there’s a few steps to take before getting there. So you have to think about what your first target is, something you wish to ”attack” to gain results in order to get closer to your goal.

To hit your target properly, you have to have a careful aim. You have to strike with purpose and intent. A ‘why’ as well as a ‘how’.

What would happen if you confused all of these things? You might think you just needed an end point in mind, but you’d be lacking a purpose, a method, and a target. You’d also be lacking in the ability to add detail to your goal after you had hit the target as things might be different afterwards.

There’s a whole bunch of other words in the dictionary related to goal setting, and it’s worth becoming familiar with these as it helps you actually achieve things instead of getting lost in a maze of meaningless ‘positive thinking’.

I’ve actually marked up a dictionary with words that help you find your way forward. I like definitions, and I also like case studies, so guess what? For the remaining weeks of this blog series I’m going to present one new adventurous case study per week with a key word to highlight how it all works. Each case study will present something which has been widely regarded as an incredible achievement, providing both inspiration and also a lesson of some kind we can all apply to our lives.

The first case study? ”The Kon-Tiki Expedition” by Thor Heyerdahl.

Until next week…