Some time ago, talking to a colleague, she told me very relaxed that she asked her boss to explain what the career plan that the company had for her. This surprised me quite a bit and was certainly not correct, but I realized that it is also… quite common. That someone else decides your career plan is the same as your boss decides your next vacation destination !, or until someone else decides who you are going to marry (well, that in some cultures is very common, but It seems crazy to me) or where you are going to live or what house you are going to buy. A career plan is nothing more nor less than a road map to get where you want to go. To be exactly what you want to be professionally. If someone else decides for you, that person is managing your life, your career and where you are going to get to.How about? Do you want to take control of your career or leave it to someone else?
I imagine you want to take control of your career so I invite you to design what your road map will be to reach your desired destination.
A dream may seem utopian, but when you visualize it as a direction in which to move, it becomes something more concrete: it is your vision of the future. Be it your life or your career, designing your future will give you the characteristics and qualities of what it is that you want to achieve in the future so that later you can put together a plan, a map to reach that destination.
Imagine that it's like thinking about your vacation. How far in advance do you plan your vacation? I know people who plan their vacations almost a year before actually living them. They think that they will go, for example, in the next year to the Caribbean. They are displayed there. In their light clothes, drinking a cocktail by the pool of one of those luxurious hotels that have everything included. They will get a nice room with a beach view. And they will take several excursions: diving, snorkeling, and other activities that they cannot usually enjoy. In the evening they will have dinner each day in a different restaurant and then have a drink in a bar before going to sleep. Can you imagine in detail your next vacation? Where would you like to go? How would you spend the morningsevenings and nights? What kind of activities would you do? It's hot or cold? Who or who are you spending that vacation with?
Dream about you, 5 to 10 years from now: who will you be? Think about all aspects of your life: What is your job like? What is your career like? What characteristics do you have? What skills do you handle, what abilities do you master? How is your family made up? What qualities does your partner have? What is your environment like? And your home? What kind of relationships do you have? What do you do to have fun? Who do you share your goals with? of week?. This will determine your future vision of yourself in a few years. We will call it "strategic vision" because it is what will set the direction and towards which you will direct your efforts and your strategies to achieve it.
Another way to do it is to think about the life or career of someone you admire. Describe it and imagine that you are experiencing it in great detail! What things do you like about that life? What exactly do you admire and what would you like to enjoy in that situation? What is a day in that person's life like?
Do not limit yourself, it is a dream and although you do not know how or it does not look like your current life, go ahead and dream big!
Identify what is important to you: when you visualize your desired future, what is most important to you? How do you feel? What do you enjoy the most? Once you have those answers, you will be discovering what are the personal values, what is the personal importance that is represented in that future dream. You will call this value “personal impulse” because it is the one that pushes you, the one that moves you towards that vision of the future, towards that dream that you want to fulfill.
If you follow the example of the holidays, you could say that your "personal impulse or value" may be the tranquility or inner peace that you will feel while you rest with all your thoughts in order and serenity. You could also say that your "personal drive" is independence, which you will feel because you made the decision to go on vacation by yourself and you have decided on the course and planned down to the last detail. Or perhaps your "personal value" is adventure, because you will be in exotic terrain, on a unique journey and living a very different day to day than usual. Going back to your career, what is the drive or personal value of your vision for the future? What is the important thing you want to achieve when you fulfill the goal of living that dream? What is it that moves you towards it?
Build your career design step by step: when you think about the next vacation destination, you think about all the details and what things you will need to bring, you will also have to book the hotel or cabin where you will stay, you will determine how you will get there up there, and other things. But you won't be packing months before traveling, are you? Putting together a design or career plan is identifying what steps you need to complete and what are the intermediate stations or destinations you will go through before reaching your desired future.
While the desired future or strategic vision shows you the destination, career design helps you decide the best path to get there and the direction to get going. Each step with its corresponding expected results and the correct date and sequence for all of them, is what will generate a good plan to build your career and design your own future.
Here is an additional step: start enjoying your vision for the future today. Look at your life, your job and your career today. Which of those wonderful and dreamy things you described in step 1 today do you enjoy? It can be the security of being doing what you know a long time ago, the good work environment that you can have with your colleagues, or even the confidence that your boss has in you.
There may be many other things that are nothing like your future dream, but think about what they do. What other things that you have today would you love to continue enjoying in the future you dream of? And then how can you have more of those things and enjoy them today?
Keep it simple and don't complicate yourself: if you envision a future with a lot of free time, try to give yourself only 15 minutes a day to do something you like. If you see creative and innovative work in your future, try to do some of your tasks in a different and more creative way, at least once a month.
Remember, don't limit yourself. You can always do something else and enjoy it on the go. Then you will take the rest of the steps in your plan, but these first steps will not really cost you anything and you will renew your energy by enjoying enjoying getting started towards the design of your ideal life and career.
Do you have difficulties designing your career or your life in the future? Do you feel that your professional dream is unattainable? Let me help you step by step and take you by the hand so you can design your desired and realistic career plan, and so you can start working towards it.
