HBR Guides to Managing Your Career Collection (6 Books)

CHAPTER 12

Stop Setting Goals You Don’t Actually Care About

by Elizabeth Grace Saunders

One January, I asked myself a question: “How can I make achieving my professional growth goals effortless?” I found the answer was elegantly simple—by focusing on alignment goals.

Many people fail on their professional development goals for the year because they take on a lot of goals—goals that they feel they “should” do but ultimately don’t energize them. For example, maybe they tell themselves that they need to read a pile of books in order to learn more, keep up with their colleagues, or just stay up-to-date with their industry. But if sitting down to read feels more like a chore, it’s unlikely they’ll make any progress—and they may ...