The Power of Being Intentional

I do not think anyone ever sets out to live a mundane and mediocre life. Well, certainly not any one I have interacted with. From the time we are born and able to comprehend life we are constantly seeking different environments and adventures which eventually determine our status in life. What does being intentional have to do with it?

I will digress a little. As a little girl I always took the time to study my surroundings before opening up. It earned me the title of being shy and meek but the thing is I did not find it necessary to explain what my intentions or ideas were because I figured out pretty early in life that not everyone would understand my goals. My late father however picked up on this and we would have long discussions late into the night about my ambitions. These were talks held with a seven year old while sitting outside taking turns at gazing into the night with his telescope.?

Back to the topic. You will notice that very few people are given a head start in life, what we commonly refer to as being born with a silver spoon in their mouths. If like me you were born into a middle income family in a small mining town you quickly realize that in order to succeed you needed to take very deliberate steps towards achieving your dreams. I wanted to be a Lawyer so I had to make the grades to first get accepted to University, then Law school and finally clear the Bar exams.

The day I got the news that I had passed my Bar exams, I sat down and made a plan of the path my career would take. I decided that I would continue working in private practice for a year or two then move to the public sector (preferably where I could sharpen my trial advocacy). My goal was that after I clocked five years at the Bar I would begin to pursue lead legal positions in an organisation either in the private or public sector.

As I approached the five-year mark, I reviewed my goals which still remained to head a legal department. Unfortunately, I had spent quite a large portion of my career in a very specific field which was criminal practice. The opportunity for substantial career advancements seemed quite bleak.

Throw in a couple of a hundred job applications (a story for another day!), interviews, networking events. Nothing worked. Enter anger, regret and downplaying myself for a couple of months before I was honest with myself and admitted that maybe I didn’t have what it took to pursue the career I had dreamed of and I needed to make some radical changes. As fate would have it, an opportunity arose and I made the hard and painful decision to leave an area of the law I had become passionate and literally start afresh in an area of the law I wasn’t so keen on…legal research!

This meant giving up what appeared to be a promising career path to literally starting afresh in a pool office in a relatively junior role. Why did I do this? Because I needed to revamp my skill set to acquire the skills I needed to get the role I wanted as In-House or General Counsel. I was intentional.

The start was shaky but I was lucky enough to meet an amazing boss who gave me very honest feedback on my work and lots of insight. I never gave up. I read more and I opened my mind to different opportunities. An opportunity came along and nervous as I was I reached out for it.

I was intentional about my career path and it paid off. So I’m here to tell you that there is power in being intentional about any aspect of your life because it sets the tone for your attitude in achieving goals. I wish I had someone senior in the law profession to help guide me in my decision making because I learnt the hard way that decisions I made early on affected my career path. Looking back now, here’s what I would tell twenty-six-year-old me to do:

1. Set realistic targets for yourself.

2. Identify a positive figure in your profession and approach them to mentor you. Meet them as regularly as they would allow but be careful not to hound them!

3. Draw up realistic plans on how to achieve your targets.

4. In drawing up your plans, set realistic timelines to achieve your targets.

5. Conduct periodical reviews and assessments to determine if you are making progress with your targets.

6. Ask for honest feedback on your work from superiors at your workplace or lecturers.

7. Take up practical short courses that will add extra skills to your resume that your academic curricula would not.

8. Network. Network and Network! Join productive organisations and volunteer your services. You might just meet a valuable contact.

9. Be confident in yourself. If you can’t convince yourself that you are worth it, it’s highly unlikely you’ll be able to convince someone else. ?

10.????????Be humble. Valuable opportunities most often come in the simplest of ways.??