Each year starts pretty much the same, we optimistically begin the year with great health and fitness goals, financial goals, personal growth goals, and career goals. Even though most of these ambitious aspirations don’t make it past February, we continue to be optimistically hopeful. The plans that fail don’t stop us from making new ones year on year, and sometimes we are not entirely to blame, a huge portion of the goals we do not quite manage to achieve are sometimes due to factors far beyond our control. If you look back at the career goals you set out and realize you are moving nowhere in a hurry, time to hit the reset button.
Back to the drawing board
Most companies face incredible financial loses and many internal career growth plans are subsequently derailed. There is still room to make career goals that are not entirely depended on company performance. A good starting point is to evaluate ways your industry has evolved in the past couple of months and try and project what this means for your career in the foreseeable future.
A solid recovery strategy
“The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” — Confucius
Once you have reflected the next logical step is draw up new plans or adjust existing career goals to current circumstances. It is important to keep the plans bite size, keeping plans manageable is a sure way to stay on track. If the plans involve a career shift, check what you need to have in place to fulfil the transition, example to need certain certification/s. No strategy is complete without identifying potential risk factors, and after the number of surprises 2020 & 2021 held, we’ve learnt a thing or two about the certainty of uncertainty. So whatever strategy you design to get your career goals back on track, leave leeway for unplanned obstacles.
Constantly review your your career goals & objectives
Every working professional should have a career development plan, this is your blueprint to achieving success in you career. It is a detailed map of current location and path to short/mid/long term career goal/s. Your career development plan is a living document that will change as your objectives change. In order to maintain alignment with your general life goals, you need to keep checking if your objectives are still the same. For example, you may have started your career with the objective of securing a job that will allow you to travel a lot, but may now find you are ready to settle down and would like something more stable.
Stay in the game. Keep on keeping on
Once you have theoretically figured out how to get back on track, the last component is staying power. Oxford Languages define staying power as “the ability to maintain an activity or commitment despite fatigue or difficulty; stamina.” No matter how slow or hard the progression is, stay the course, don’t lose sight of what you are trying to achieve. Without true commitment you won’t see meaningful results. Be willing to invest your time and efforts accordingly, things are a little tougher now, but pushing through will be worth your while. Nothing for mahala.
“Being defeated is often temporary, giving up makes it permanent.” — Marilyn von Savant
Bonus Tips
- Keep an updated CV, when opportunity knocks you want to be the first to answer. You can check the quality of your current CV by requesting a free CV review.
- Expand your network, LinkedIn is a great place to start. If you’re not sure if your profile is a winner take this quick quiz to see how impressive your LinkedIn profile is.
