Put Your Glasses On

Deborah Brown-Volkman

Are you going through your career with blinders on?

Change in your career (and your circumstances) can not take place unless you are aware of what needs to be changed. If you want a new job, you cannot get one unless you understand why you are staying in a job that no longer serves you. If you know that it's time to change careers, you cannot do so unless you tap into your inner voice that wants to show you the way. If you have wanted to make a shift within your company for a while, you cannot do so unless you understand what is preventing you from moving forward.

It’s not easy to look inward, but without doing so, you cannot make outward changes. In other words, you can’t excel in your career until you can see what needs to be moved out of the way.

So How Can You See What’s In Your Way? Put Your Glasses On By Following These Steps Below.

1. Stop Going Through The Motions

It's easy to get caught up in the day to day of your routine if you are not careful. Do you eat the same thing for breakfast everyday? Work on the same tasks? Take the same route to and from work? How can change take place when what you do everyday is mostly the same? If you want something different, you have to start doing things differently. This means being present to your day, your actions, and yourself.

2. Decide To See

Sometimes we don't want to know what’s really going on because it's too painful. No matter what mistakes you have made in your career or upsets that are left over from wrong doings that were done to you, it's time to face them so you can put whatever happened behind you. Face your past and face yourself. The result is a stronger you and a better future.

3. Make Time For You

When was the last time your thought about what you wanted in your career? Who you are and where you are going in your career requires thought. Without time to think, you will not be able to find out what you are supposed to do with your career and life. Is time hard to come by? At times, it is. But what's more difficult, working hard everyday without a plan, or setting aside time to create a plan? Trust me when I tell you that it's harder to stay where you are.

4. Move Forward

Although we want understanding of ourselves to be immediate, unfortunately, the process of inner discovery does not work that way. But, you have to start somewhere. The place to begin is today. Take one action to discover yourself again. For example, speak to one person who is in a job or career you think you’d like to get information and motivation. Go through a report written by a department you don't work in now to get immersed in what else your company does. Your goal is knowledge. In addition, one action taken today leads to many actions taken tomorrow. That’s when true inner understanding and change in your career takes place, when you work on being the best you can be, a little bit at a time.

So, what do you say? You only have one life to live, so it might as well be a life you love!