Where do you want to be three years from now?
Perhaps you want to transition to independent contracting or ascend to a C-suite position. Or maybe you want to leave your company and go at it alone. No matter how you imagine your future, a surefire way to inch closer to your career objectives is by mapping it out step-by-step, year by year.
Creating a detailed 3 year plan is a useful strategy for visualizing short-term professional aspirations and charting a course to achieve them. Tracking your progress helps you work with purpose, find a sense of accomplishment, and prioritize tasks that contribute to your end goal.
What’s a 3 year plan?
A 3 year plan is a series of strategic and specific actions aimed toward a particular goal or objective. It’s a course designed to help you manage your decision-making and resource allocation to ensure you’re working toward the desired outcome.
With a clear action plan that centers specific goals in your planning, you’re empowered to make decisions that support your end target and deprioritize work that doesn’t contribute. Developing a plan with structured goals is a great way to work with more intention — plus, it encourages organization and time management in your day-to-day work.
A 1 year or 2 year plan can help you map out short-term career goals. Maybe you want to learn a programming language or earn a certification to help you stand out from your peers. And for big career transitions or life-altering aspirations, such as becoming a certified actuary or launching a startup, a 5 year plan or 10 year plan may be a more realistic timeline.
A 3 year plan is useful for starting on long-term goals related to personal or professional development, like implementing a personal brand strategy or enhancing an industry-specific skill. They must be attainable within the three-year timeframe without dragging on for too long.
15 questions to ask yourself before creating a 3 year plan
Effective goal planning requires you to reflect on your starting point and future objectives. You don’t want to decide on a 3 year plan impulsively — this time frame is a serious commitment.
Thinking deeply about your goals encourages you to stay realistic and build a plan that fits into a long-term mission. Here are some questions you should ask yourself to reveal your most pressing aspirations:
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What are the ethical values and principles that guide my career path?
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What’s my long-term personal vision and life plan? How does a 3 year plan fit into these?
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How can I explain my goal in a concise mission statement?
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What specific goals, expertise, or know-how do I want to develop or improve in the next three years?
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Are there any specific certifications or degrees I want to pursue?
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Does my plan fit into other career milestones, such as an internal promotion, a leadership role, or industry recognition?
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How could I build a networking plan to help me achieve my goal?
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Do I have a community of friends and colleagues who can provide me with emotional support?
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How can I break my final goal down into smaller milestones?
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What financial resources do I need to dedicate to my goal?
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How much time do I need to dedicate per day, week, or month to reach my goal?
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Do I need to turn to a mentor or career coach for guidance?
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Which key performance indicators and metrics can I use to measure my progress?
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What obstacles stand in my way? Do I have money or time constraints, a skill gap, or a lack of self-confidence?
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How regularly will I monitor my progress? Will I set weekly goals, monthly goals, and quarterly goals?
How to make a plan
Three years might sound like a small amount of time in the grand scheme of your career. But, when used effectively, it can be a significant period for setting and achieving professional goals.
Here’s how to develop a strategic 3 year plan to propel you forward in your profession:
1. Understand the ‘why’
Think deeply about what you really want and why you want it.
Knowing you hope to improve your communication skills, for example, empowers you to define specific skills to practice, like negotiation or active listening. But understanding the “Why” can help you deepen your development plan. Improving your communication skills to get larger pledges from fundraisers is a more specific goal. With this knowledge, you might join a workshop to improve your storytelling or have a weekly goal to cold call one new high-value donor.
Likewise, according to self-efficacy theory, setting goals that make you feel in control makes you more likely to achieve them. Let’s return to that fundraising example. If you want to improve your communication skills because you feel pressured to bring in bigger donors, you’ll likely struggle to stay motivated. But when you set your own goals, you’re more likely to take negative feedback in stride and build stronger strategies for success.
2. Find the one
Goal-setting theory suggests that specific and challenging goals consistently lead to higher performance. But too much of anything — including ambition — can be counterproductive.
Goal shielding theory suggests the mind naturally sheds goals when you have too many at once. As you successfully advance towards one goal, you tend to ignore or abandon the others. To do your best work, narrow down your objective to one core focal point. It’ll encourage you to maintain clarity and avoid feeling overwhelmed and burnt out. Later in the planning process, you can break down your larger focal goal into several smaller complementary goals, if necessary.
3. Research, research, research
How realistic is your goal? Do some due diligence before you get started to ensure your objective is within reach.
Beyond researching any financial, resource, or time commitments, look into the strategies you need to adopt to achieve your objective. A web developer who wants to become proficient in a new programming language may need to connect with a coach and improve their time management to balance work with their learning objectives.
Likewise, research courses, workshops, and groups to support your efforts. Following people in your industry on LinkedIn or meeting new colleagues at networking events allows you to glean advice from other people’s successes.
4. Prepare a contingency plan
Lots of things can change over the course of three years. Your 3 year strategic plan should anticipate interruptions, roadblocks, and changes. Here are a few obstacles that might pop up unexpectedly:
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Time constraints: Carefully analyze your daily, weekly, and monthly schedules. How much time can you realistically dedicate to your 3 year plan? Are there times in the year when you have more or less time? Maybe your job gets busy at the end of the year, and you’ll need to take a break or work less on your final objective. Or perhaps certain months are always slow — and that’s when you can bulk up your dedication.
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Steep learning curve: A 3 year plan is a big goal. Maybe you’re laying the groundwork for a small business or teaching yourself a new coding language. Reaching your objective may be more complex than you initially anticipated, so look into resources that can support you if things go south. This way you can maintain the energy you need to keep yourself in a growth mindset no matter what challenges arise.
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Blows to motivation: Staying motivated and consistent throughout a three year career journey isn’t easy for anyone. Consider what keeps you motivated and work that into your 3 year plan. Join a professional community that will celebrate your milestones with you. And break your goal into small, achievable initiatives to keep your enthusiasm high and visualize your progress.
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Burnout: Hitting your goal shouldn’t sacrifice your well-being. Take breaks when you need them, practice self-care, and maintain a work-life balance. Prioritizing yourself helps you respond better to stress that could otherwise derail your progress.
5. Break your plan down
Using the SMART goal-setting framework, break your 3 year objective into smaller steps. Each step should be:
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Specific
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Measurable
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Attainable
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Relevant
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Time-bound
A helpful way to envision each step is to move backward. Break your final objective down into progressively smaller achievements and milestones. Setting yearly, monthly, and weekly goals encourage you to consistently check in on your progress.
To stay motivated, consider sitting down each Monday and reviewing your goals for the week. Establishing a routine can transform a hard-to-imagine 3 year plan into a more attainable daily habit.
3 year plan examples
Let’s look at two examples of 3 year plans and explore them in more depth. You can use these plans as inspiration or as templates and edit them based on your goal.
Transition to freelance work: year-by-year
Imagine a data analyst who works full-time for a marketing agency and wants to fully transition to independent contracting. Here’s a possible 3 year plan template with yearly goals:
Year 1: Create a financial plan to comfortably leave a full-time salary, identify weaknesses and improve your skill set, and define a target market to improve your professional network.
Year 2: Create a professional website and revamp your personal brand, establish an LLC, and use a professional network and portfolio to line up new clients.
Year 3: Schedule out projects for the remainder of the year, transition out of your full-time job, and continue professional learning and self-promotion.
Transition to freelance work: month-by-month
Let’s break this plan down further. Here’s what monthly goals might look like for year one:
January: Research and evaluate finances, including your desired income, and budget a savings buffer.
February: Audit your current skill set and define areas for improvement. Research relevant courses and workshops to upskill and re-skill.
March: Attend industry events and actively engage with professionals to identify the best target market.
April: Sign-up for a two-month intensive course in artificial intelligence for qualitative and quantitative research.
May: Practice verbal presentation skills for the Q2 quarterly meeting and ask colleagues for feedback while completing your course.
June: Speak with your manager about opportunities to take on more client-facing roles and gain hands-on experience as you finish the course.
July: Evaluate progress in the first six months of year one. Review financial plans and evaluate changes for the rest of the year.
August: Continue attending industry events and expanding your professional network.
September: Begin a three-month Google Analytics certification course. Set aside 10 hours per week to dedicate to coursework.
October: Continue the Google Analytics certification course.
November: Complete the Google Analytics course. Evaluate your progress in year one, review your financial plan, and make necessary adjustments to the year two plan.
December: Take a break to focus on end-of-year work responsibilities and the holiday season.
Break down each year like this as you progress to continue moving toward your overarching objective.
Plan for success
Some of your career dreams might feel lofty. After all, you’re pushing yourself past your comfort zone and imagining a new and different professional future. But you can get there — all you need is a good map.
Depending on your goal, a 3 year plan may be the right time frame to make significant changes to your career path. Think carefully about the ‘what,’ the ‘why,’ and the challenges you may face. Take stock of your current resources and note what you’ll need to get from A to B. And don’t forget to set a concrete plan for maintaining your wellness along the way.
All if this careful attention to detail will help you build a strong and impactful plan to turn your dream into a reality. The next step? Getting started.
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