After a client cancelled a meeting today, I revisited some older files and rediscovered a framework from 2012–2013 that feels even more relevant now — REAL Goals.
So many experienced professionals and career changers tell me the same thing:
“I’m not lost — I just don’t have clarity anymore.”
And it makes sense.
Roles shift. Tools evolve overnight. Entire industries transform.
It’s not a talent issue — it’s a clarity issue.
After 23 years of helping people navigate career transitions, I’ve learned this:
The best goals aren’t about perfection — they’re about becoming.
REAL Goals help people at any stage of their career reconnect with direction and purpose by focusing on what matters, what they’ll try, who they’re becoming, and what they’ll learn.
What is the REAL goal framework?
REAL stands for:
- Relevant and Realistic
- Experimental and Engaging
- Aspirational and Actionable
- Learning-Based and Linked
Relevant and Realistic
Your goal needs to matter now and it needs to be something you can reasonably achieve. For example, “I want to learn to cook” sounds realistic but it doesn’t explain why. “I want to learn to cook because ordering in or going out to eat is too expensive now” provides the relevance.
As the relevant motivation is financial what you really want is to create weekly meal plans within a specific budget (and your budget needs to be less than what you’re currently spending). Now your goal is real.
Experimental and Engaging
The goal has to be interesting and compelling, something you can be excited about achieving. If you’re not being challenged and you aren’t really motivated in achieving the goal, it’s going to be very difficult to succeed in your goals.
Continuing the previous example from R, creating a weekly meal plan within a specific budget means that you’re going to need to be interested in learning how prepare the raw ingredients or at least mixing pre-prepared elements. Without being engaged with cooking it will make meal planning a chore and thus you’re far more likely to give up. If you don’t seem to enjoy cooking but you want to save money, maybe look at minimizing the aspects you dislike.
Aspirational and Actionable
The goal needs to have specific steps you could take today to help you grow into the new you.
In the case of creating that weekly meal plan, consider this actionable step:
Sit down and calculate how much you’re currently spending on food — not just dinner, but breakfast, lunch, and snacks. You might want to tackle this by writing down everything you bought to eat for the whole week, or maybe just save all the receipts. This will provide you with your baseline budget for the week, and your meal planning goal needs to be lower than this in order to be worthwhile.
Learning-Based and Linked
What this means is that your goal needs to improve you in some way. Completing the goal will give you new skills and experience that can contribute to a better quality of life for yourself.
Our meal plan goal won’t just save us money, but we’ll learn things like how to manage time (cooking takes time) and money (but it saves money compared to eating out), how to prepare ingredients (buying pre-prepared or doing it ourselves), and how to shop. All of these skills are transferable to other elements of life.
Why Real Goals Matter Today
For older workers and career changers, Real Goals offer a path back to confidence and momentum. They help you:
- Understand why your work matters
- Try new approaches without fear
- Stretch toward meaningful development
- Build skills that last
Real Goals create growth that sticks with confidence, clarity, and curiosity which is exactly what today’s workplaces (and workers in transition) need.
Who are you becoming through the goals you set?
If you’re feeling unclear about your next step, reach out. With 23 years of experience supporting career transitions, I help people find clarity, direction, and renewed confidence every day.
