Find your North Star in Career

Imagine, that your career is like a treasure hunt.

Like any good treasure hunt, you have a map to guide you with a start point and clues to multiple treasures that lie along the way. In career, the map if your career path. If you are able to follow a career path, you can experience success in your career. However, a career path is not simply about a good organization, or ?titles, hierarchies and designations. It is a complex framework consisting of tough skills, knowledge, difficult experiences and challenging networks.

Like in a treasure hunt, there are some low hanging ,easy wins, likewise in our career path too there are some parts which are relatively easy to win. These can be the basic qualifications or schooling (at least for most of us reading this blog!),? competencies for your role, starting level skills , getting entry level jobs, and building a network of people you are comfortable. These are the low hanging wins in our career paths.

Now there are also other areas in the map of a treasure hunt, that are difficult to access. These are usually cryptic, challenging and not so easy to do parts. But they do lead to big treasures, the hidden gold in your career. These can be things like networking with people (external or internal) you haven't had the courage to connect with, an assignment that you haven't had the confidence to raise your hand for, a mentor you haven't reached out to proactively, or a difficult stakeholder you have been struggling to work with. These are the parts of the career path that we may tend to by-pass, or avoid, as they challenge us.

Sometimes you do begin to work on the tougher terrains of the map and encounter a challenge or two along the way. You raise your hand for a tough project that can help you build some critical future skills, or step out of your comfort zone to network with important stakeholders. However as you go through these, you realize that the treasure that you were expecting, is not so easily accessible after all.

You tend to tell yourself, “This doesn’t look like the path I want to be on, as I am not getting the success I desire. I am wasting my time on the wrong path!”

After few more attempts, you would conclude, “Maybe I should switch my career path for a different one. Let me give up on this organization, or my research work or this project, for a different one. I am sure there is better or bigger treasure elsewhere.”

The career path that we started excitedly pursuing—a project, a P&L leadership role, leading a team, shifting cities or countries, or making a switch from a large organization to a start-up, turns out to look very different once we get inside. We are out of our comfort zone and familiar space and it is normal to feel disappointed or frustrated.

I think the challenge is not the difficult situations in our career. The challenge is that we do not have an overarching purpose, a direction beyond the treasure gains that entice it is deeper problem is rooted in how we approach our career, the treasure hunt, in the first place. We have a map, but we don't have a Compass, a North Star!

?A compass for our map

The problem with treasure hunt is that most would spend all of their time thinking about the treasure- that role, that title, and that salary! What is actually needed is a compass, a north star, that gives us the direction so that we can keep walking in spite of the struggles, disappointments and frustrations that come along they way. Else, we will be quite satisfied with just the easy wins.

If you have your north star clear, your compass in your hand, you would continue walking the direction. Sometimes fast, sometimes slow, but walking in the right direction.

In my work as a coach, I have had the privilege of having intimate conversations with many successful professionals, and I can tell you that even people who, from the outside, look like they have their lives in perfect order often feel unfulfilled. And it’s usually because, even though they are successful by outside standards, they haven’t found their own North Star.

The idea here is to have a purpose defined for yourself, a broad focus for where you are headed. Once you have your north star clear, something magical starts to happen. You release the desire to win every day, the desire to stay away from losing in challenging situations and hardships, ?and focus instead on the slow march forward.

In other words, your career is guided by your North Star, and not titles, designations or organization brands, or other short term wins. When guided by your North Star, you start enjoying the career journey. Your career has a mission, a path that you follow. Whatever hard experiences you need to live on that path, throwing you out of your comfort zone—well, that’s just fine. It is the commitment to walking the path that matters.

In his George Washington University Commencement address in 2015, Tim Cook says:

“Work takes on new meaning when you feel you’re pointed in the right direction—otherwise, it’s just a job. And life is too short for that. We need the best and brightest of your generation to lead. You don’t have to choose between doing good and doing well. Find your North Star, let it guide you in life and work and in your life’s work.”

Careers are a long term play, and have to be carefully nurtured. We all have a treasure to pursue, and map to explore. Determine your North Star guide and let it guide you through your journey.

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