How can you set and achieve ambitious career goals while still nurturing your personal life?

Is it possible to pursue big milestones at work and succeed without compromising your purpose, family or personal wellbeing?

It is absolutely possible. Many women have grown through the ranks while also launching businesses, building ministry initiatives and pursuing creative projects.

The following are practical strategies to help you achieve ambitious goals while still thriving personally.

1. Establish a Clear Vision

You need to have a vision of where you are going. 

When you think about your career, where do you see yourself in the next 5 to 10 years? 

What kind of value would you be offering and what roles would you be doing in what kind of organization?

A clear vision gives you direction and purpose, makes it easy to set goals and say, “This is where I want to be.”

2. Research the Path to Your Goal

Once you are clear on your vision, go look for people who are currently living your vision. 

Go on LinkedIn and check who the directors are in your desired area and the kind of company you want to work for. 

Then, look at their path and the kind of things they have done.

Based on this, you start to set your ambitious goals. For example, if you are a sales manager and want to become a sales director, figure out what knowledge and skills you need to do to achieve that.

3. Be Disciplined with Your Time

You have 24 hours, just like all the successful people we know. 

In those 24 hours, you need to thrive in your career, your personal life and your purpose. You need to be disciplined to ensure that if you work from 8 to 5, you complete what you need to.

Keep your eyes clearly on the ball, what are your deliverables and what does success mean for every assignment you are doing? 

Focus your full time and hours (8 to 5 or whatever your schedule is) on achieving that. 

In the evenings, you can focus on your purpose work or personal life.

4. Communicate Your Ambition

Begin to communicate your ambition to your managers and mentors. 

The objective of communicating is not just to let them know you want to become a director; but also to ask them what kind of assignments and experiences they think you need to get involved in to develop yourself.

Share your ambition with your superiors and mentors so that you are constantly getting advice and are moving in line with your goals.

5. Get Support from Your Spouse

If you are married, it is always a great idea to get the support of your spouse. 

Sell your vision to your spouse, share what you are looking and hoping for, then ask for help. 

Explain what your goals would mean for the support you need.

6. Systematize Your Purpose Work

If you’re involved in purpose-driven work, create systems so it can continue without your constant hands-on input.

Leverage technology, delegate to teams or create structures that allow projects to run independently.

This ensures your purpose work thrives alongside your career.

When you have all this in place, you will see yourself achieving those ambitious career goals while thriving in your personal life and purpose work beautiful.

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