Setting goals is a critical step towards growth in both personal and business areas. Having goals gives you direction and a purpose to keep learning, growing, and fighting for what you want in life. In my ninth month at Full Sail University, I completed an assignment called personal brand exploration. In one section of this assignment, I highlighted my short, medium, and long-term goals. Now that several months have passed, I am looking at these goals again and am shocked. All of the goals that I had listed had to do with social media following. This is still important to me as my primary source of income continues to be YouTube. However, my social media engagement is no longer my primary goal.
What has replaced this goal is my career progression in the gaming industry. Recently I have made it my goal to work remotely for a small independent game studio. Fortunately, I have recently achieved this goal. I am now working as a business development manager at Infernozilla, a small company that offers marketing and public relations services to indie game studios.
When selecting this new goal, my tactics were straightforward. I created a resume and cover letter, found gaming industry jobs online that I felt I was qualified for, and applied. I received many positive responses, interviewed for several positions, and finally received a job offer after several months.
“The great danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.”
–Michelangelo
What I learned from this exercise is that creating goals are essential. But equally important is monitoring your goals and making changes. If I had maintained my previous plans, I would have a slightly larger following on social media. However, I would not have the ability to put practical on-the-job experience on my resume.
As it stands today, my new primary goals are to gain a community manager or marketing position at a prominent game developer or publisher. After doing this, I believe my long-term goal would be to move up to a senior-level marketing position at a gaming-related company. My tactics for achieving this are to continue to learn and hone my skills, help accomplish significant goals for my current employer, grow my network of industry professionals, and continually look for new opportunities for personal and professional growth.
Goals are critical in giving direction and purpose to individuals and teams. However, it is also essential to change and adapt these goals better to suit the needs of an individual or organization. This is not to say that you should change your goals just because they are difficult. But when a better opportunity arises, be cautious but not afraid to change paths.
