This is sometimes a challenge even though it sounds obvious.

Of course you have to take responsibility for your career.

Yet there are reasons why people do not.

* blaming others
* blaming the organisation
* feeling fearful about doing career explorations
* don't really realise quite how important this is
* a tendency to be a bit passive and ambivalent
( hoping that somehow somewhere else will do it all for you)
* don't actually know how

This latter point - not knowing how - arises predominantly because career planning and exploring how to develop ones career into new avenues is rarely taught. Goodness knows why not as it seems to me to be of the greatest importance.

Careers and the world of work are changing. They are not what they were even ten years ago.
So to feel on top of ones career plan and to have motivating, realistic yet also challenging and exciting career goals would seem to me to be absolutely vital.

However all too often the formulaic and highly structured medical career takes away or never provides the skills one needs to truly see where one fits in the world of work,  how to capitalise on ones skills if and when one either wants a change of direction or merely to add new strings to ones bow. Even just wanting to reevaluate ones current career without any major desire for radical change or additions - can really benefit from some early stage planning and looking at ones attitudes to work.

My ebook - Easy career change - good career choice  gives the initial few steps that many people leave out of career planning. Unless these early preparation stages are addressed - many people who think they are doing career planning - run out of steam or wonder why it doesn't seem to progress things along. 

When asked what action to take to further a new career option - 9 out of 10 people say "rewrite my CV" . However this ebook has 9 things you need to do way way before a cv even comes into the conversation. Jump to the CV and the basic preliminary stages will not have been addressed. 
For some people these 9 preparation stages may be useful but perhaps not crucial - however for most people they are completely and utterly mandatory and essential reading.

 The sort of career decisions that many people worry about for years include

leaving medicine

choosing a clinical specialty ( even once one has been chosen - years later this can resurface)

taking time out of programme

letting go of a career dream

When faced with helping someone make a career decision that they are finding difficult - there are about 20 different methods and techniques or exercises that can really help the individual to confidently make a decision and feel happy about it - often after months or years of dilly dallying about.

A massive amount of emotional energy and time are literally sometimes completed wasted over a period of YEARS when in fact some straightforward career support would have resolved it quickly.
 Thus the time spent in "panic/worry/stress" mode regarding the career - had it been spent in logical career planning methodology with some personalised reassurances via a neutral sounding board perhaps as well - there would have been a swift resolution.

Here are some of the basic career planning principles as applied to career decision making...

1. Don't leave decision making till the last minute
   It is so easy to "put off" difficult or stressful decisions
2. Plan for both decisions WELL in advance of the decision
   ( in other words do all the research and planning as if each one was THE one)
3. Don't ask zillions of people their opinions - you'll get tons of conflict 
   (try to only ask a couple of people whose opinions you respect but also bear in mind that its only their opinion - they are not you!)
4. ​Pull together your own list of "criteria for a fulfilling and happy career" - your top five ( however many ultimately go on the list) need to prioritised and clarified ( without initially ANY reference to the decision you have to make  - going just purely on how you would like work and life to be ). Then and only then measure up the decision against those criteria.

If the above is not helping - you may really benefit from an objective evaluation by an experienced medical careers adviser where we can apply the other 16 methods and offer a neutral yet challenging sounding board and an objective view of your career and how you fit it and it you. Book in for our Career Review Programme perhaps?

There are a myriad of other options for doctors - some involve clinical work and some like medical informatics may not - but the main thing to keep in mind is - what do you love doing and what would you like more of ( NOT what would you like LESS of - as latter is negative and one can not easily persuade a brain to work towards negatives - it is simply not motivating - Oh and that is technique number 5 !!).

I speak to clients from time to time who appear to have a real problem with goal setting and it has prompted me to muse a tad on the topic.

I see it as absolutely critical to achieving progress in career planning.
It is a useful life skill to have.

So why would someone not wish to adopt it

A feeling that somehow it is not "nice" to set goals or to want or to achieved
Where might that come from - possibly parental attitudes, school experiences or religious influence inculcating that somehow it is not OK to earn a comfortable living or that one should not be motivated by money. I happen to disagree with the first point and agree with the latter but thats another blog post.

A dislike of the process of goal setting could on the one hand merely be a preference. 
But given that it is a crucial part of career planning one has to question - why a dislike? It is perfectly acceptable to dislike things. I dislike the idea of jumping out of a plane - and I have reasons. I get very motion sick, I have a mild BPV which means that tumbling through the air might well cause me to become very unwell - not great if one has to recall to pull the parachute chord. Even if I didn't have a good reason I would still be entitled to not want to jump out of a plane - merely as preference. However if I wanted to get a certificate of skydiving - then one would need to examine in more detail the reasons to see if any of them could be overcome.

Similarly if a person dislikes making money - that is their choice. However in our society - most of us have to earn money and earning it in the best way for our particular blend of skills and wants from work will lead to a greater sense of satisfaction and enjoyment. This in turn increases our wellbeing outside work and facilitates work life balance and more. So it makes sense to like making money if it is a byproduct of a career one truly enjoys and feels well suited to in all aspects. Taking this a bit further -  conversely not like making money could adversely affect ones ability to find the career that best matches as the attitude of "I don't want to make money - its bad to make money" could well be sabbotaging ones decision making regarding career choice or career planning or indeed setting career goals. Thus one possible cause of hating anything to do with goal setting is that it relates to achieving ( ie if achieving has been somehow programmed into you as something you should not aspire to)

I can think of many other reasons why a person might not want to set goals and whilst I am accepting that the whole world may not be motivated by goals - my own experience of setting them has been very positive, my experience of encouraging clients to do so has also been very positive too. Thus if a client appears to have some difficulty with or dislike of goal setting - I always feel I have to explore this further.

If there is resistance - there will be reasons for resistance as a person who is open to trying new things and learning new skills would normally accept that for their career path to be decided or to change direction - some goals are going to need to be set and that to attempt career planning or career change without addressing any rusty or vestigial goal setting skills is to court a very long drawn out career reevaluation and one that may easily drift off course.

One of many key techniques within goal setting is that of "writing them down". Rather simplistic you might think. However the process of actually writing them ( and I feel that handwriting them does more to imprint them than typing but each to their own - I also use a vision board app ) seems to do something interesting to the subconscious.

So why don't we all have our key life goals written down and refer to them daily? Probably because no one has suggested to you that it might be a useful thing to try. Or because you are someone who needs a bit of help with not only deciding what they should or could be but with the process of the setting them too ( there is a methodology).

Is there anything wrong with or painful about setting goals? Plenty. A whole separate article could be written on problems relating to goal setting. For example - one needs to know what goals to set and this can be a huge and anxiety provoking challenge for some people. Some people become obsessive about their goals - their choice - its probably what makes Olympian gold medalists. However there is so much more to career and life planning, feelings of contentment and happiness than merely setting goals and reaching them. This is why it is possibly to reach the pinnacle of ones career yet still feel empty and unsatisfied.

So my advice on goals is - learn how to set them  - it is a skill - one of many that are needed for career planning but do not assume they are the be all and end all.