Soul Searching: Discovering the Career Planner Within
Soul Searching: Discovering the Career Planner Within
"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." - NBA basketball player Michael Jordan
The mission, should it be chosen, is to unearth the inner hidden purpose - to reveal the true reason for being a unique individual while being on this planet. Only then will the career seeker fulfill his or her deepest desires, and thus make a meaningful contribution to society and history through work, and at the same time become independently wealthy with firm control over their own destiny...
Or, perhaps it's all about just wanting to make enough money to live comfortably, retire early, and spoil the grandchildren.
Either way, the future begins in this moment, as the career seeker contemplates where to start. Whether beginning a new career path, or making a mid-career change, taking time now to form a career plan will help set the right trajectory for the best professional outcome.
The Creative Career Plan
A career plan is like a map of the journey a career seeker can expect to travel from where he or she is now to the desired point of arrival. By assessing specific needs, setting long-term goals, establishing short-term objectives, identifying the resources necessary, and setting a timeline, a career becomes a project. That makes the career seeker the project manager of his or her own career. Read The Career Project: Planning from Start to Finish
The key to developing a career plan is to make it right for the individual. It will be a touchstone over the lifespan of a career, so it should reflect as much as possible the career seeker's deepest desires and strongest abilities. It should be clearly defined yet flexible. The plan should instill confidence that it is going to bring the career seeker to their desired destination, and that he or she will find rewarding and challenging experiences along the way.
Know Thyself - Know Thy Future
To make a solid, workable career plan, a career seeker must first have a working idea of what he or she truly wants, individual skills and talents, and goals for lifetime accomplishment. (That probably sounds like a tall order, but the great thing about a career plan is that it can be changed anytime.) Once the current position has been plotted, the process of finding a career that makes the most of those three things can begin.
The first question to ask: Is there one activity that captivates the career seeker more than anything else? When is he or she so happy doing something that the world around them is forgotten, leaving superficial thoughts and worries behind? Perhaps it's helping people, making websites, or working on an engine. Maybe it's being up high in the sky or singing.
Those who are already smiling and nodding, with a far-off look in their eyes, know their passion. That's a big first step in choosing the right career! The next step will be to figure out how to live a comfortable life (or become wildly wealthy) doing what they love. Read the series of articles on Matching Personal Passions to Promising Careers in our Career Path section.
But perhaps nothing really stands out for some. Whether they are one of the many who can't think of anything that truly appeals to them, OR they can rattle off a long list of things they could happily do for the rest of their life, they will benefit from getting a little insight from the experts through career testing (read Career Testing: Taking Tests to Reveal Talents, Interests and Potential).
The Path from Success
Whether driven by a dream for the future, a fear of failure or a "just do something" mentality, a career seeker is contemplating future success. Therefore, once he or she has identified a specific point of departure, mapping out a career path should then look to the destination and work backwards to the point of origin.
Looking back at the end of a lifetime, is someone's success defined as having been modestly happy 80% of the time? As having accumulated wealth for the comfort and security of family...or living the high life? When can it be said that someone has arrived at the finish line of their career? Will it be after they've written that novel? Become a famous performer, professional athlete or real estate mogul? Changed the way the world sees (fill in the blank)? Or is their version of knowing that working 8-hour days kept the bills paid, the family out of debt, and supplied a retirement fund? Perhaps it's knowing a meaningful difference was made through hard work or sizeable donations? Was there freedom in being an entrepreneur? Or joy in knowing that the fiery passion got fed - and so did the kids?
Ultimately, when the career seeker arrives at a vision of success, and he or she has a clear picture of what they want to be able to say they did with their work, they can begin to set specific career goals and develop a detailed itinerary for the journey. To learn more about planning backwards from success, read Defining Career Goals.
Resources for Discovering the Career Planner Within
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