SET GOALS

It's difficult to imagine embarking on a journey, adventure, activity – any endeavor – without having a goal, however vague that goal might be. Even if you don't study a map before going on a road trip, you at least think to put gas in the car. Goals for a holiday might be explicit or implicit, and they can range from short term to intermediate and somewhat long. A career in science, starting from your period in graduate school and continuing into a life of research, is a journey, a long one. Much more so than for a holiday journey, the thoughtful setting of explicit goals is of crucial importance for a successful career in research and for success in the research itself. By success, we mean here the achievement of valuable contributions in your field, accomplished with a good deal of pleasure and a minimum of needless pain and time wasted.

Goals give direction to our actions. By clearly choosing and defining goals, we provide a focus for action needed to arrive at a hoped-for destination or outcome. Defining goals not only helps in creating a mental commitment to take certain action, it also enables us to formulate a plan of attack toward reaching the desired ends.