This post is a part of PRofessional Development Week. The posts from March 2 to March 6 will focus on the development of professional skills of public relations students. If you would like to contribute to this special week on A Step Ahead, e-mail Rachel.M.Esterline {at} Gmail.com.

Renee Walker, the associate vice president of public relations and marketing at Central Michigan University, shared this quote with us at the CMU-FSU PRSSA Regional Activity:

Don’t let the fear of falling keep you from knowing the joy of flight.

— Lane Wallace

Here are three ways to help launch and manage your career that I learned from Renee:

1. Create a list of “must haves,” “deal breakers,” “professional goals” and “personal goals.”
   To help you evaluate whether or not your career is going in the right direction, Renee suggested creating a list. For example, one of my “must haves” is a job that challenges me. If it is too easy, I won’t be learning much. A “deal breaker” is a job that requires me to fetch coffee. I believe in paying my dues, but I don’t want my position of intern to be taken advantage of.
2. Identify your talents and experience gaps.
   By identifying your talents, you can better promote yourself. And, by identifying your experience gaps, you can find ways to gain the experience you need. My talents include social media and writing for publications. But, I don’t have a lot of experience in media relations. In order to close the experience gap, I should work on gaining experience in media relations in order to advance my career.
3. Establish stretch goals.
   Since working with Renee when I was an intern in her office, I have realized she believes in pushing yourself to reach higher goals. She calls these “stretch goals.” She said it is OK if you don’t always reach your stretch goals, but you can never reach them if you don’t try. This is where her favorite quote, at the top of this post, comes in.

Rachel M. Esterline works as an account executive for Central Michigan Life, the nationally award-winning school newspaper at Central Michigan University. She is as an account executive for PR Central, CMU’s student-run public relations firm and as a public relations executive with the Student Government Association. Additionally, Rachel serves on the executive board of the Public Relations Student Society of America at CMU and has completed a seven-month internship with her university’s public relations and marketing department. Rachel will graduate in May 2010 with a degree in public relations with minors in journalism and communication.

The most successful people in the world have written Goals, everyone else has resolutions, hopes, and dreams.

The New Year is almost here.  A time for a fresh start, for new opportunities, and time to reflect on what we have accomplished in the last year.  It is time to set new Goals for the coming year, time to draw the road map for business and our goals operate as sign post along the way.  Without them, we are just rambling along.

It is important to set goals in every aspect of our lives, Personal, Professional, Spiritual, and Physical.  Most entrepreneurs get so caught up in their day to day businesses that they forget about their personal, spiritual and physical goals, and that leads to a lack of harmony in their lives.

As entrepreneurs it is important that we look at all aspects of our lives and set goals with the intention of having harmony in our lives.  Everything is often out of balance for entrepreneurs but we can create harmony so that the personal, spiritual, physical and professional goals begin to have flow between them.

Spiritual – a goal as simple as taking 15 minutes daily to reflect, to go inward, to rejuvenate the soul will make a difference in your day to day life.  A friend of mine set a goal to  go to church regularly and become more active in the church.  Unfortunately she has gotten so caught up in the DOING of church that it has become just more work to do in her already hectic life.  She still is not nurturing her spirit because she is distracted with the doing.

Physical – setting goals for our physical well-being is important for entrepreneur.  If we are not in good health, we cannot perform at the top of our game when running our business.  Don’t just set a weight loss goal, set health goals.  Plan a physical, find out where you are at with your health.  Set a goal to take time out daily to do some physical exercise, even if it is only walking for 30 minutes a day.  When your health suffers your business suffers, and unlike big companies who have employees to replace the one who is off sick, most entrepreneurs do not have someone to cover for them while they take sick time.

Personal - Look at your family life, have you been neglecting it?  We often do that when we are busy working on our businesses.  Set a few goals around family time, vacation time, or dating time.  I cannot tell you how many entrepreneurs I speak to who virtually have no personal life.   I promise that when you are 70, 80, 90, you are not going to look back on your life and wish that you had spent more time at work.  Take time out honor your personal life.

 Professional - What is there to say about your professional goals?  It is the one area that entrepreneurs often have goals.  They may not be written down, there may be no plan and they are often not measured or reviewed, but everyone says they have them.  A professional goal not written down and without a plan behind it, is little more than a dream.

It may be wise to set fewer professional goals and spend more time digging deep into them, make them SMART and ask yourself why?  Why is this goal important, what will it do for my life and the lives of others?  How will it affect the others Goals I have set in my life and how can I make it flow with the rest of my life.

You are one person, your goals should be for your life as a whole, they should flow with each other.  Your spiritual life affects your personal life, which affects your physical life that affects your professional life.  Each goal should support the other to create a healthy well-rounded life.

As the year draws to a close, take time to reflect on the past year was our life well rounded?  If not make, it your mission to set goals that will create a well-rounded, rich life for yourself and others.

Hazel  owns and operates a franchisee of Referral Institute, a worldwide referral marketing training organization. As a Master Trainer, Hazel provides business-expansion expertise to entrepreneurs and corporations by teaching business professionals comprehensive referral marketing stratagem. In 2006, her franchise earned both the Top-Grossing Franchise award and the honor of hosting the Referral Institute International Conference.