FROM WHERE TO START?

During my Corporate life of 17+ years so far, I have worked with various Managers, Peers and Team members who would want do make an impact by achieving some milestones in their professional lives (and milestones can be achieving certain position in a company, attaining certain designation, or getting to do their dream role in a company etc…). During career path conversations with them, very often the discussions would revolve around career aspirations and what each individual wants to be at certain point of time. In most of the cases, the person talking about his career aspiration was clear on what he wants to do but how he wants to do was where the conversation would happen.

?Well, that’s how most of us would have done similar conversations in our professional life and that’s the right thing to do. But have we ever wondered why only handful of those individuals would have actually attained what they wanted to attain and most of us would have failed in that journey? Have we ever tried to understand that, and if not yet, then may be its time to do a self evaluation of where we stand and from where to Start?

?Let me ask a simple question, which I am sure, all of you would provide the right answer. If you are at Delhi and wanted to go to Mumbai, then what you will do? Ahh…that’s simple, isn’t it? Catch a flight or catch a train or go by road travel from Delhi to Mumbai and you will reach your destination. Now, let me ask this question again with some missing information. If you wanted to go to Mumbai, then what you will do? And yes, the missing information is from where I need to go to Mumbai. In this case, the destination is known but it is not known that from where the journey towards the destination has to start? If you are at Chennai and purchase a flight ticket for Delhi to Mumbai, then you will never reach Mumbai irrespective of ALL the effort which you will put. So to reach Mumbai, first you have to know is where you are currently and accordingly, the journey towards the destination has to be made.

?This is exactly what we need to know in our professional journey also that where we currently stand and from where to start. The destination might be known but the origin of the journey has also to be known. In our professional lives, many of us fail to know where we stand and hence start the journey towards the destination in a wrong way and hence doesn’t reach the destination at all. You have to first reach the right origination to embark upon the journey which will take you to your desired destination.