The difference between goals and intentions is a goal is purposeful, deliberate, actionable and an intention is a probably. With an intention a person can want to do something and have plans in his or her mind to do it, at some point, like intentions or plans on enhancing ones career capital. In contracts or statement of work proposals, a goal is where a person writes down the goal and action steps to take to reach the goal, including dates or times to complete the goal. An intention is purposeful or valuable when someone wants to do something, but setting a goal is valuable when something actually needs to be completed.
For example, you may intend on going out to eat this afternoon for your work lunch break, but do not have to since employees are allowed to order in versus the lease on your apartment ends at the end of the year and you need to either renew the lease, find another apartment, or purchase a new home liked you dreamed of purchasing, which takes action steps to complete. Tips for setting intentions for this new year and new decade are when you want to do something, put the something you want to do on a to do list… on your refrigerator. And tips for setting goals are to write down the goals in a planner or wall calendar along with dates the goals should be achieved by, research the specific action steps you need to take to achieve the goals, and then as each step for the goals are finished, check-mark the steps off of your list you wrote in your planner or on your calendar.
Business and career capital
Business enhancement and career capital can go hand in hand. To improve your business improving your career or career standing, for example, can assist. To enhance your career standing, three things you can do are (1) separate goals from intentions, (2) improve your skills, and (3) make your goals to achieve official by writing them down and setting a completion date. It might also help you to work towards you goal if you write a sentence next to the goal explaining why you need to complete it, for example, the skill acquired will increase your firm’s annual revenue by 30%, you will gain 6 new major clients, and 3 year contracts can now become 5 year deals with the option to renew 4 times.
Later, this piece of advice is very important, skills can become services within a professional services business or help create products for a product oriented enterprise. Increasing your skills is basically an increase in your “career capital”, which are rare, niche, valuable skills to heighten your career. So, build your business wisely by conducting research on the skills or capabilities you or your business needs to go to the next level and set goals of when to acquire the skills.
Affordable career capital resources
In conclusion, to increase skills a number of approaches can be taken, like securing a mentor, joining an organization or association whether via paid membership or free to join, or taking courses. If an individual or business owner does not have the financials to enroll in courses with a tuition, free online courses at world renowned colleges and universities can be completed on platforms like Class Central, Udemy, or Coursera, which also saves you time and gas money form having to travel to a brick-and-mortar location. Based on extensive global research of massive open online course (MOOCs) platforms and personally testing the platforms, Udemy is best to obtain certifications specific to your business niche or industry and Coursera to create products or services. Coursera also places deadlines for each week of material you are supposed to learn inside of your course to keep you on track and moving forward towards accomplish gaining the new skills.
With Coursera, you can earn a certificate (not certification) if you pay a small fee or sign up to receive financial aid. For Udemy certifications, niche certifications can be in your industry or service specialty, like becoming a women’s empowerment coach or market researcher if your own a coaching business or market research firm.
Four key tips and take-aways:
- Goals are set when an action truly “needs” to be accomplished.
- Goals can be short-term, long-term, personal, professional, specific, and have a start date and end date. They can also have a start time and end time.
- Dissimilar, an intention is something someone “wants” to do or intends on doing, but is not specific with the details of what they plan to do along with a start and end date or time.
- With an intention, you are less likely to accomplish a desire as opposed to with a goal you are more likely to works towards achievement.
These are just a few tips and take-aways that can help women further their business goals to ensure continued success. Prioritization, deliberate planning, and sticking to your goal no matter the circumstance or distraction will also increase the chances of you accomplishing goals and improving your business. Be strategic and determined about your next level, business growth, and success and you will get there.
