Visioning Your Next Career Step

What if I were to give you exactly the job you always wanted? What would you do then? How would you do it? With whom would you do it with and why?

In teaching leadership and asking these questions, I often found a lot of vague answers that basically said, 'I'll figure it out when that (dream job) happens.'

Unfortunately, this type of approach to career advancement puts many into the mode of 'seeking but never finding', where there is always the dream of what may become but no real thoughts or steps to attract the opportunities to get focused and learn from experience.

Having asked these questions to people seeking career advancement in many levels of experience and in many different career fields, I found there are 3 major excuses as to why people dream of a better situation but keep themselves from moving forward into one:

1) No training or available tools to be successful

2) It would require an unwilling sacrifice (time, distance, family, flexibility, expectations, etc.)

3) Lack of clear opportunity

These are all perceptions, by the way, but most see this as real as the food they put in their mouths. When I took the time to explore all the opportunities to move things forward in small but simple steps, they came roaring back with more excuses that mostly talked about a lack of guaranteed success or whether they would be a good fit at the moment.

Even further, in a few situations where I did put forward opportunities that did have a guaranteed success, which did include training with no further sacrifice, guess what was decided? As you can probably guess from my writing, it was turned down, not from saying 'No,' but from not saying 'Yes.' In other words, people went away to think about it and took no further action.

So why would people avoid the opportunities they always wanted, even when they were literally handed out in ways that had no negative impact to their current approach to work?

Fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of failure. Fear that there was a hidden agenda. Fear that it would be taken away. Fear that they may actually get what they wanted instead of always searching for it or dreaming of it. - No matter what the reason (and I have heard many convincing reasons), it was still about the fear of 'What if?' And that fear comes from not being ready for opportunity when it shows up.

So how do you get ready? Just take the same time used to create excuses as to why something may not work and shift that mental activity into, 'How would I make it work?' Explore those thoughts and dream deep! See how things may or may not work. See what makes you excited and equally what makes you scared. See yourself as you continue to step forward in working through all the situations you may run into with your dream job.

If you are working in an environment that has the position you want? Great news! You get to observe and see if people or situations work out the way you would approach them. If not working in the same environment? Then start exploring those positions through the many blogs, articles and books that have been published along those career paths. Attend meetings or conferences where you can listen or even join in on the conversation...basically get involved and imbue yourself in that world to get a sense of what it is all about and how you would fit into it.

It is the exploration of opportunity, and not the clear and present opportunity (in a job offer) is where you will find yourself gravitating towards where you find yourself most comfortable and excited about the work you would be doing.

Opportunity may not show up in exactly how you envision it, but if you have a vision of not just the position you want but also the inner workings of that position, I can say with high confidence that you have begun to take important steps into the role you truly want. When this happens, fear starts to go away and the excited anticipation of what can be sets in and takes hold.

When anticipation takes the place of fear, 'What if?' takes on a whole new definition. When 'What if?' excites and delights in place of potential failure and pain, then you are moving along a very powerful way of being that opens you up to a whole new world of possibilities.

As long as you are flexible, able and willing to accept opportunities as they appear without judgement or hesitation? Now you are in a very good place to shift into what you really want!

So what will it be for your career advancement? A guaranteed future of success before stepping forward? Or will you be willing to take many steps in many different directions as they present themselves?

Let me put it to you this way...standing still while waiting is not fun or enjoyable. However...

...getting a vision and making a mess of it all along the way while sharing some great experiences with the rest of us! Much more fun there!

#AcceleratingYourCareer2020