So you are in the mid-stream of your career. You have a set of career goals and you are working towards achieving these goals. But are the goals right for you? Are they too high or too low? And what does this mean for your life? Do you remember when you were young you had these incredible goals to be someone really important in your workplace? People described you as very ambitious and you felt uneasy because this sounded as though you had an inflated opinion of yourself and were probably too competitive or materialistic? Or, conversely, when people asked you what you wanted to do and achieve you had no idea? Well, either way, goals too high or no goals at all, you have a career workplace stress trap that could cause you a headache and elevate your personal stress and your work stress. 

Not that there is anything wrong with being either an over-planned or under-planned person. We all vary in how we approach our careers. Sometimes our career and unexpected events have a way of shaping outcomes for us – we have little control over them. A new branch is established in your organization that no one expected and you were in the right position to run that branch. Or, you picked up a paper and looked at the Jobs Vacant section and a job that you had never really dreamed of but felt that it was a perfect fit leaped off the page. All of this is good and serendipity does sometime shape our life’s journey. But what if you are caught in a career goal trap? 

How to Escape the Workplace Stress Trap of Career Goal Failure

Let’s partition this issue into too many goals and not enough goals. Scenario 1 – you have all of these unrealized career goals. They usually relate to promotion. You set a time limit on being appointed at a particular level (branch manager, chief physician, site foreman, full professor). You are mid-career and nothing is working. You wanted to be top dog but you are middle management. You have applied for several jobs in the last few years, you get to interview, but then no-one takes you to the appointment step. What is going on? Do you lack the requisite skills, or experience, or personal style? Are the interview panels all desperately hopeless and unable to see your talent (that’s four panels in the last 16 months)? Are you destined to be the prophet never honored in his or her (work) land? 

What is the escape from the workplace stress this is creating for you? Number 1 – re-visit your goals. Perhaps your goals are not aligned with your skill set. Perhaps you need to have an external consultant (an Executive Coach) work with you to re-align your goals and to give you an honest appraisal of your skills and talents. Perhaps your sights are set far too high – you are currently in middle management on $80k and you are looking at jobs in the $200k range. Is the distance from here to there too great? Are you in the right industry? Sometimes people stay in a certain industry or occupation because of the familiar and because of security – not necessarily because they are in the right job. Re-evaluate your job alignment and see if you are in the right place. Perhaps you are limiting yourself by wanting a senior position in the same locale as where you live. Perhaps your job requirements are too tightly focused around you and not the organization. Or, let’s be frank here, perhaps your goals far exceed your talents. 

Second scenario – your career goals are too low or non-existent. This does not have to be a career workplace stress trap. You might be perfectly happy where you are; you might have low levels of ambition; you might not be a risk taker; you might like your current work location, tasks, remuneration, and locality and you have everything that meets your needs. Congratulations – you are not caught in a career goals workplace stress trap. You are free, happy, and unencumbered by unsettling career goals. 

Bottom line – it is you and you alone that will determine if you want to have low or high career goals. You should do this for yourself – not for your parents, or your colleagues, or your partner (though it would be bad karma NOT to talk about these goals with your partner). You set the goals and you work towards achieving these goals. If they are low and you are happy – enjoy yourself. No stress trap here. If they are high and you are achieving your goals – congratulations. If they are too high and you are frustrated and stressed, you are caught in a career goal workplace stress trap. Get out of that trap. It is not enriching your life.