Working on self-improvement and personal development can help you deal with stress and improve you level of confidence. But, it is also possible to apply some of the same techniques toward working on your career as well. There are numerous studies showing that working to “improve” yourself can have a significant impact on your everyday life as well as with helping you learn to work more efficiently and effectively. This happens when you begin to integrate your personal development and growth to your professional growth and development.
There are several different elements to this:
• Be proactive
It is important that you learn to go after what you really want. You need to clearly identify your goals and take the necessary action to move toward them. With this element, you learn to move beyond the “usual” barriers and limitations on a daily basis. You do not have to feel like you need to try to overcome everything at once, you just need to keep doing consistent and focused action everyday.
• Connect
To begin to effectively connect with other people or network, you need to be able to connect with yourself first. You get the power and the intelligence of connecting with others from first learning to understand yourself. How you understand and interact with the inner you will spill over into how you interact with others.
• Be informed
Being informed is not limited to having top-notch up-to-the minute information about your current job. When beginning to consider other career options or job ideas, you need to know your what your options really are. And, making the best and most correct decision, is based on gathering enough information.
• Focus
When you are setting your goals, you need to make concrete decisions about how you plan to attain them. The method for achieving your goal obviously depends on your decisions, and that depends on your information. And all of this is why you need to keep your focus on making the decisions and directing your career.
• Got potential?
It is important that know your potential along with your strengths and weaknesses. You are the only person responsible for your actions, so you need to be able to figure what works for you in terms of achieving your dream.
All of these elements can help change you change your behavior and improve your attitude, if that’s what you want to do. Just as in the rest of your life, it is important to take charge with your career. Throughout your life, schooling and career, these five elements will keep showing up. Ultimately, everyone wants to do something they love. But for some people, knowing what that is isn’t easy. Often, people confuse what is logical and radical with something they think they want. According to Peter Senge, “adults have little sense of real vision.” What he is saying is that people may be able to set goals and objectives in their lives, but these things are not necessarily their true vision in life.
Changing or shifting your career around is by no means easy. You must learn to master yourself and your important basic skills before you start thinking about changing careers in order to maximize the use of your potential.
Thoughts?
Photo Credit: Alex E. Proimos via Compfight cc
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