Part 2
Photo: Drew Leavy
Photo: Drew Leavy
Evaluate Career Options on an Annual Basis
Assess your career options once a year and determine what you want out of your career and life. This will help you decide if you are satisfied in your current position or if it is time to move forward. If it’s time to move forward, make sure that you don’t make any brash decisions. Prepare for the transition, DO NOT tell your employer until you get the offer in writing, and pull the trigger.
Identify Your Dream Job
Determine your ideal job and the related responsibilities and related work tasks. Once you have identified your dream, accept nothing less than a road that will get you there. Identify your goals and start a plan to getting to that perfect position. If your dream job involves not working for someone, then it’s time to attain a skill set that will allow you to break into the market. Starting as an independent contractor is a great way to generate initial capital, and reinvesting accrued revenue into your own business will set you on the fast track to success. If you really believe in yourself, and the money is there, don’t be afraid to invest 70-85% of accrued revenue back into your business.
Fulfill Your Current Position
Your current job may be the best place for you to start advancing your career. If this is the case, then it is essential to do your job well and fulfill your responsibilities to show your dedication. Discuss your skill sets with your boss, offer help when needed, and suggest improvements at appropriate times. Do not become the ‘sacrificial idea lamb’, because you will only be hurting yourself and hindering the brainstorming process. Simply interject opinions with good timing, even if you don’t really believe the opinion yourself, as playing devil’s advocate can often help distinguish potential obstacles or flawed logic.
Ask Questions and Actively Listen
You can acquire a great deal of knowledge by asking meaningful questions and listening to individuals around you such as you boss, superiors, and co-workers. You can learn a lot from personal and professional experiences and gain different outlooks on a variety of issues.
Establish a Network and Allow it Flourish
Career advancement opportunities often stem from contact networks, and you may have the ability to: discover future careers, learn about new opportunities, and explore new areas. It is important to spend time establishing new contacts and maintaining current ones. An effective contact network can include family, friends, acquaintances, present and past co-workers, consultants, and teachers in a variety of fields.
Do Not Surround Yourself With ‘Naysayers’
Now, this may seem harsh or crude, but if you want to get to the top you need to surround yourself with others that are either have an equal or greater level of ambition than yourself. Surrounding yourself with successful people will generate success; conversely, surrounding yourself with ‘naysayers’ will turn you into one. People ultimately model their behavior around whomever they keep in their environment.
Do Make Sacrifices
Fear holds too many people back, and we cannot afford this ball and chain emotion in this economy. Making well calculated sacrifices can get you to places that you wouldn’t have otherwise found. These sacrifices can include time, hobbies, and even friends. Yes, even friends! Your new friends will be the contacts in your network. Evaluating your milestones will help you to see just how serious your sacrifices need to be.
Commit to Life-Long Learning
The world is constantly evolving, and most industries are seeking new and improved ways to function efficiently. It is important to regularly update knowledge and abilities to ‘stay in the know’ and add a competitive advantage. Benchmarking competitors is common practice of any successful business.
Lastly and Most Importantly: Set Your Goals High
The following is a tactful exercise, and it’s one that you can try right now. First, you will need to set your starting point, so stick a piece of tape to the ground. Next you will need a pencil, which you will place roughly 1 foot out from the tape. Now comes the fun part, stand on the tape, and jump over the pencil. Once you have done this, move the pencil 3 feet from the tape. Jump again. For the last part of this exercise, set the pencil about 5 feet out from the tape, and jump across it one more time. Why didn’t you jump this far when the pencil was 1 foot away from the tape? Set your goals high, and you’ll be amazed at just how far you can jump!
This article is a guest post from Monique at One Income Dollar, and sponsored in part by Inkpal.com. Click here to read Part 1: How To Excel In This Economy: 15 Detailed Tips From A Successful Entrepreneur.
