Through my work, I’ve encountered many people who struggle with their career direction, and I believe there are even more of them out there. These people spend years bouncing from job to job or industry to industry. Some try to learn from past experience, and that’s a good thing. But where they falter is that they didn’t take the needed self-reflective time and space in the beginning to evaluate what they really wanted. They didn’t define what their pot of gold at the end of the rainbow looks like. That pot of gold is your career vision.
“If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.” —Lawrence J. Peter
I know this seems obvious. But I can’t tell you how many people understand it rationally, yet respond emotionally. Tanya, for instance, had three jobs in six years. She kept having problems at work and was let go each time. It was obvious the jobs were not a fit and that she had no vision for what she wanted instead.
How do you create a vision? For starters, what gets you excited or elicits an emotional response? Is it working with children, being a writer, managing people? Is it something you’ve wanted to do from an early age? Or something you’ve just discovered?
Vision is that answer that pops into your head without thought when the above question is asked. It’s a big picture sort of thing. And it is absolutely necessary to develop such a vision for what you want in a dream job. A job that is rewarding for the rest of your life.
You probably wouldn’t choose a partner or spouse based on two weeks of dating, so why would you choose a career that quickly? In both instances, taking time to think things through usually results in better outcomes.
Action step: Be mindful of the need to have a vision that inspires and motivates you.
