Tools for making your dream career a reality
Often the hardest part of any process is getting started. Acting on your career aspirations might feel like this. You know where you want to go, but you can’t seem to take the first step. To help you to move to action we have pulled together some different techniques for getting motivated to act on a career dream or change you’ve been contemplating. Not all of the strategies will suit you, but hopefully one will be a good fit for motivating you to move to action!
Make a public commitment or share your plan
Telling someone about your career dream or the change you’re trying to make can help to solidify your commitment. Once others are engaged in your thought process it can stimulate new ideas and commitment to your plan.
Count the cost
You might not be moving to action because amidst everything going on you haven’t had time to sit down and contemplate just how significant the choice you’re going to make is and how much it could improve your life. Take time this week to sit down and reflect on how much time and energy you are spending in your current position and what you could gain from making the change. Would you make more money and how much? Would you gain more free time or flexibility and how much? Sometimes just calculating the benefits of making the change will help you encourage you to get started.
Raise the stakes
Sometimes you need to put a line in the sand and make a deadline or ‘decision day’ on which you are going to act. It’s easy to keep dreaming, but if you want to move to action it might be worth committing yourself to a certain plan and time frame. People who respond to this style of thinking also often put in place some sort of penalty for missing the deadline. If they don’t make a certain deadline they might create a financial penalty or restriction which will encourage them to act early and to get started.
Break the change down into tiny steps and take the first step this week
Making a career change can feel like an overwhelming task unless you break it down and just focus on the next step. Is it the overwhelming nature of navigating the change which is a big deal for you? If this sounds like what you’re experiencing then it could be worth breaking the process down into a range of really easy to act on steps, for example update my resume this week. Then you can simply focus on crossing one thing at a time off the list instead of worrying about doing 20 different activities at once. Try to break down your tasks and work through theme one at a time.
Create an incentive scheme
Rewarding yourself for your hard work can be a great way to make it worth the effort to begin your career change. What incentive would it have it worth getting started for you? Once you know this perhaps you can make a plan and add an incentive worth working hard for that you get to enjoy once you’ve made the change.
Enlist help
Sharing your dream with someone can be a great way to motivate you to get started. The person might help you to see a great way to get started or they may even be able to expose you to more of the opportunities you’re looking for. Often people love to help other people and what’s important is to think about who is the best person to share your dream with and how you can be clear about what you’re looking for. When picking the right person to ask it might be worth thinking about who is likely to support you, to ask some open-minded questions and to encourage you to seek out what is best for you?
Get started with confidence
These are just some of the simple strategies worth considering that might help you to get started in seeking out your career dream. Getting started is all about getting clear on where to start, enlisting help and deeply understanding that the dream is worth all of the hard work to get started! Lastly, it is also about having confidence that you will land on your feet, or even that you’ll be able to handle whatever comes.