A pattern and a rhythm are established in life. The status quo is a common term to describe it. The world is constantly changing, and as a result, you may either feel like your life is evolving with it or that your career is stagnant. Nothing has changed in the course of a year. Getting ahead and gaining more traction for the development of the knowledge, skills, and abilities you already possess are likely on your future to-do list. It’s possible you feel undervalued, overlooked for promotions, or underpaid for the work you do. You may have been distracted from your normal routine by thoughts of a brighter future.
It’s only when a major life event occurs, like a global crisis, that you have an opportunity to re-evaluate your career plans. There are two options when that happens: you can choose to reflect and refocus your attention, or you can succumb to fear and become paralysed. It may seem counterintuitive, but now is a good time to reevaluate your career goals and re-prioritize them. Being productive can actually help you calm your mind and get your mind back in a logical frame-of-reference while you wait for a situation that seems so out of control to be resolved.
Emotional control will become easier for you as you evaluate your career and devise new plans to revive it. Taking cognitive control of the flood of information received by working memory is the reason for this shift in how your mind processes information. Implementing a guided career overview plan and asking yourself a series of self-analysis questions can get you started on this path.
Overview of a Guided Career
The first step in a renovation is to declutter your own mind. As you’ve been gathering information and misinformation about current events, you’ve likely felt a sense of doubt, fear, and unease about your future. The first step is to figure out what you and your family’s needs are. Then look for reliable, not recycled, sources of information. Get the facts, data, and stats you need directly from those sources. In order to make any plans with certainty, and to stop the flow of speculation from entering your mind, this is the only method available. As you use this mental process, you’ll find that you’re also engaging in logic and critical analysis.
In order to conduct a career plan review, you’ll need to first mentally prepare for the necessities of the job and then engage your rational thinking skills. If you’re reading this now, you’ve probably had a major shift in perspective on your career and the way you approach it. You could either be a remote worker, or you could be out of a job altogether. It doesn’t matter what the situation is, or how difficult it may be, this is the time to conduct a career overview. You’re taking a fresh look at your professional life than you ever have before.
To begin, make a list of your professional aspirations. Consider creating a two-year plan for your future if you don’t have any specific goals in mind. It’s an approach I’ve used as a career coach to help increase the success rate of achieving each milestone that differs from many self-help articles. Setting goals that are too far in the future makes them seem unattainable and makes them more likely to be forgotten. Having smaller, more manageable goals helps you stay on track while also serving as a source of inspiration and encouragement as you cross each one off your list. If you already have career goals in mind, you can use the two-year approach I’ve described here to refine them.
If you’re considering your professional aspirations, it’s possible that you’re unsure of where you want to go next. When it comes to career advancement, visualisation can be a useful tool. For your job or career, imagine yourself two years from now when the current crisis is over. If you have a new outlook on life, think about your goals and aspirations. A goal of becoming an expert in a role may be the next step for someone who is satisfied in their career but wants more time with those they care about, such as a spouse or significant other.
Questions for Self-Analysis
The process of self-analysis can continue now that you’ve started looking at your career from the perspective of what your future might look like in the next few years. The following questions have been used by me as a career coach, and I hope they will be useful to you as well.