No matter what you tackle in life, setting and achieving goals is a key to becoming successful. And setting goals is really as simple as defining various long-term, mid-term, and short-term goals. A goal must be written down and have a date by which you will complete it. Getting a job is not a goal, because you have no control of when and if you will be hired.

As an example, let’s say that your eventual goal is to become a successful songwriter. Right now, you’re working at a bank. But your long-term goal is to write Top-10 pop songs. You also need a mid-term goal, because it’s unlikely one can go from being a bank teller to a hit songwriter overnight. So what might be a good mid-term goal? Perhaps a mid-term goal is to be a published songwriter and have two to three songs recorded on an artist’s album. Pretty darn good; you got a paycheck. That’s a very realistic mid-term goal.

One short-term goal is to study and learn the craft of songwriting. For instance, you discover (via detective work) that there will be a master songwriting class going on at a local college taught by a well-known songwriter over a three-day weekend. You beg, borrow, and steal the money to go to it. Take time off work. Borrow a car, if yours is a clunker. You get there because you’re determined. Other short-term goals include practicing and learning your craft.

The craft of songwriting requires you to constantly be recording. At one point, you’ll be ready to put together a demo. You don’t need to hire a symphony orchestra for your demo. If you work with one good musician/arranger, you can do just about anything that’s required at this point. This demo may be a short- or mid-term goal, depending on where you start your songwriting odyssey.

How about identifying and subscribing to key trade magazines? That would be a short-term goal. Another is to locate a teacher/mentor. Say you attended a songwriting workshop given last year, and you began to correspond with one of the teachers via e-mail. Perhaps they would take on a student like yourself because you can learn so much in the right mentor or teacher relationship. Even if they’re writing in a different genre than you are, the craft of songwriting is nearly identical across styles and genres. And being exposed to those who are further along on your intended career path, no matter what it is, is essential to speeding up your learning process.

This is how developing your own short-, mid-, and long-term goals will help you to chart a path towards your ideal career. Let’s say you identify four short-term goals and set a six-month window to complete them. Your mid-term goal mentioned above-getting songs onto a record-is your one-and-a-half- to four-year window. And your eventual goal of writing a song that goes up the charts is your five- to ten-year goal. Break it down into bite-size chunks, and you will have a clear roadmap to take you to your long-term goals.

Don’t just stay up every night biting your fingernails worrying, trying to write that magical hit song. You may nail it, but your odds are so long it’s like playing the lottery. Don’t lose sight of your overall goal and timeline. Make your goals concrete with a chart in your composing room. Review the short-term activities in process now that are going to take you to your long-term goals.

It’s human nature to want to avoid setting goals and timelines. However, without using this tool and others like the marketable skill-set workshop and the interview workshop, careers in the music and entertainment industry seem distant and out of reach. You won’t know if your short-term goals are in sync with what’s required to make it on a particular career path if you haven’t researched your area of interest. Desire alone will not make your dream a reality.

If you want to be a program director at a major market radio station, you’ve got to know what it takes to get there. What skills, experience, salary, and geographic moves will be required? All that information must be at your finger­­tips. When you have that information, it will be crystal clear to you whether or not that is the right career path for you. If you don’t do your detective work, you may spend months or years pursuing a career path that really isn’t what you want from life. Don’t make that mistake.

That’s why goal setting is so important in this industry: everybody is following their star and chasing their dream. Almost everyone wants to write, record, sing, produce, promote, or engineer that smash hit. But how do you put yourself in the situation where you’re actually working with the artist who can write those hit songs? How can you work with a Tony Brown, Glen Ballard, or Quincy Jones?

Defining and achieving the little steps (short- and mid-term goals) will help you achieve your long-term goals.

So to recap, you need to identify attainable goals and set a timeline for accomplishing each one. Review goals as often as possible. Use the two one-year calendars in your career binder to track your progress. You can find and print annual calendars that are handy for goal-setting at www.timeanddate.com.

Update your goals as you move forward. Some will be completed and you can cross them off. New ones will become clear to you as you continue your career development.

Finally, remember to be patient. Be sure to print out and keep your career goals visible-for instance, prominently posted near your computer or in your personal rehearsal space. Doing so reminds you daily of your goals, nudging you to gauge your progress to achieving them. Maintain and update those goals, pat yourself on the back when you accomplish each one, and let the goal-setting process work for you. If you are diligent in maintaining your goals, you have a much better chance of achieving long-term success.

Here’s a table with a sample set of goals for our aspiring songwriter.

This article is excerpted with permission from “How To Get a Job in the Music Industry” by Keith Hatschek, © 2001, all rights reserved.