“Early in my career, I was very confused regarding the path of my own version of success. Additionally, I used to get easily frustrated with my job responsibilities and looked for frequent changes in career profile.”
Do you see the challenge? It is a challenge that many face today. However, careful navigation is required out of this as waiting and dwelling in this type of thinking for too long can jeopardise your career and might lead to entrapment in sunk costs (in the form of time, efforts, and energy).
The Way Out
Follow the paths below as a step towards aligning your attitude with your goals.
- The most basic step (and starting point) is awareness. To solve any problem, you need to be aware that there is a problem. Without awareness and due recognition, you might never invest your time in rectifying the challenge.
Now, how do you do it?
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- Observation: observe your career trajectory. Do you notice any identifiable patterns of changing job roles? even if your official title remains the same, focus upon the tasks that you are actually performing in your job.One of the hallmarks of success is focus on a niche, a particular point.
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Diverging your limited pool of energy into many tasks of unrelated nature can downsize your learning and growth opportunities in your desired field of career. Hence, make sure that you remain dedicated and honest towards your job profile.
- Now you have recognised that there is a challenge. What should be the basis of your action?
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- Self-inquiry: in order to align yourself with your goals, you need to quite obviously be aware of your goals, and what is it precisely that you wish to achieve in any dedicated job profile that you choose.”Where do I see myself in 3 years?” Answer this question yourself, and you will come to realise the goals that are actually important to you. How does this work? by focusing on future you are actually de-personalising your goals, so that you may view them objectively and independently.
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This “future-oriented thinking” will help you to separate short-term and meaningless considerations of the present from the stable long-term achievements.
Great going! now you have two things at hand:
- A challenge waiting to be rectified
- Knowledge of precisely what is it that you wish to accomplish in life
Now comes the hard part that any person faces (but is also a key managerial trait), implementation!
- The final step in aligning your goals and actions has now boiled down to one simple step: implementation. How do you implement?
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- Target the core: target and analyse your core motivations for constant dissatisfactions with your roles, frequent changes and impulsiveness. Then, think if those core motivations have any rational basis.
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Most often there is no rational basis, core motivations boil down to considerations like “I don’t feel like doing this task anymore” or “Idk man, I was very confused what led me to this”
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- Now, accept and resolve these core motivations. Start with affirmations like “I always wanted to be in marketing, I hold the capability rebuild my career in it” or “I will achieve what matters to me the most in long-run”.
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Short-term considerations should be a big no-no for you. Focus on future, focus on building systems for the longer run. This will ensure that you get the maximum profit from your inherent and acquired abilities.
Conclusion
It takes at least 3 to 5 years to build career in any field that you choose. Make sure that you choose your career wisely that provides you fulfilment. As 3 years is a long time to build-rebuild your career as a result of your constant dissatisfactions and impulsiveness.
