By now you’ve figured out your values and strengths. You really did your research and have identified a career path, a destination, a goal. Now it’s time to make a plan for how to get there.
But stop! Check out this video first about goals and the journey! [when Dr. Srikumar refers to ‘universe’, I interpret that to mean ‘God’]
“Goals are important but they are only important because they set direction. Once the direction has been set forget about the goal, don’t even think about that. Instead pour all of your emotional energy into ‘what do I have to do to achieve my goal’.”
When you enjoy the journey and are detached from the outcome, the more likely you are to reach your goal. Why? Because in your journey you WILL hit obstacles (and if you don’t your goals weren’t high enough!). Your mindset when hitting these obstacles is critical. Will you take them as a learning experiences and find a better way, or will you see them as failures toward achieving your goal and just quit? If you have the correct mindset, you’ll learn during the process and enjoy it. You’ll understand that the obstacles are there to help you grow, not knock you down!
Obviously you’re going to want to keep your end goal in mind when setting your strategy. But also think of what process you’d enjoy while getting there. You have to enjoy the process or it’ll be tough to ever get to your destination. Think about it – you’re trying to get to the top of Pike’s Peak in Colorado. Everyone tells you that hiking is the best way to get to the top. But you hate hiking and have a bad knee. Are you really going to enjoy getting to the top by hiking? And once you get there, will all of the torture be worth it? Probably not! On the other hand, what if there was another way… a scenic train ride that better suits your style. Maybe that’s a better way for you – by relaxing and enjoying the views. Not only will you enjoy the process of reaching the top more, but you’ll be a lot happier once you get there!
Here are some ideas to help you get started
Go back to some of the people you talked – ask them how they got into the field and if they have any suggestions for you!
Examine as many job descriptions as you can and identify your gaps. Do you need extra training or experience?
Let your manager know what your career goals are. He/she should be more than happy to work on a plan with you!
Volunteer to work on projects related to that field. Let’s say your a software engineer and want to get into user experience. Talk to that team, the manager of that team or a lead. Let them know your intent and find out if there are any projects that they need help with!
Take training courses, get certifications.
Go back to school!
Take part-time courses through a university.
Consider internships. Internships are not just those in college, but you can consider them for career moves especially if the move is a big change.
Consider how you’ll want to present yourself. How will you present transferable skills, your new experiences and education?
Attend workshops, seminars and industry conferences.
How do you figure out what you want to do next in your career? For some it’s obvious and for others the decision can seem utterly daunting, so much that it freezes them in their path. If you are considering a career change and you’ve found yourself here, congratulations! You’re already taking steps to figure out what you want to do next!
Before you consider any options, it’s extraordinarily important to understand your values and unique strengths. Aligning your career path to your values can quite literally make or break your decision. So if you haven’t already done so, check out my advise on how to understand your values and strengths here.
Now that you know your values and strengths, you can begin identifying your destination. The destination is your end goal, where you want to be. Without a goal it’s hard to know what steps to take to get there. Here are the steps I took to identify my goal:
Write down values and strengths. Know them inside and out, by memory so that there’s no need to constantly reference. You just know them.
Throw all pre-conceived notions of what you can do out the window. This is not the time to filter and especially not the time to limit what you think you can do!
Consider all possibilities. Think of it as a brainstorming activity. While brainstorming, everything is on the table. If you need help getting started, check out this article and consider their recommended questions!
Write down your initial reaction to some of these ideas. Before giving any thought, what do you think? The purpose of this exercise is to try to tap into your sub-conscience. Your sub-conscience is an incredibly insightful tool that guides you, so try to figure out what it’s telling you!
Talk to those in field to find out what the role really entails. People will gladly tell you all about what they do, so have fun with it. Try to get as accurate a picture as you can of their role, from the good to the bad. Don’t forget that what might be challenging for one person could be a great fit for you, and what your interviewer loves might be a challenge for you.
Take a close look at your list. See how they match your values. See how they match your values. See how they match your values. Yes, I said it 3 times! Immediately discard any career paths that don’t match your values, but keep 2-3 that appear to be good fits.
Identify ways that your natural strengths could be especially useful in the role.
Sit on some ideas for a while – like weeks or months. Deep dive. Keep in mind that first reaction from step #4. Envision what it you think it’d be like to be in certain roles. Don’t let the obstacles of getting there prevent you from picking a destination!
Through the process, one career choice will eventually rise to the top. It’ll sound so interesting to you. You’ll get excited just thinking about what it’d be like to be in that role.
Its about the journey, not the goal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op8jSxpxA3A
Understand yourself to maximize your value and fulfillment!
When you know who you are, it is much clearer to understand how you can stand out and maximize your potential. This is a critical first step in figuring out what things you should and shouldn’t be doing. Without knowing yourself, the temptation to compare or copy what others are doing can be extremely detrimental. By understanding your own unique self you’ll gain confidence in what areas to focus so that you can be successful. This is your own personal selling proposition and its the critical foundation for all important future decisions!
But where do you start? Start with understanding your values.
You beliefs become your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, yours words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits become your values, your values become your destiny. -Mahatma Gandhi
Your values should dictate your actions, actions will then dictate emotions and then these influence your thoughts. Actions, emotions and thoughts are all related and they are guided by your own personal values. Think of values as the lighthouse guiding you. As long as your actions align with your values, emotions and thoughts will fall into place. This will give you vigor, you’ll feel alive and excited about the work you’re doing, which ultimately will lead to success!
Subconsciously, you probably know your values. Writing them down and knowing for sure what they are is another story. It can be challenging! I found this online test to be really useful and accurate. It costs $20 and takes about 50 minutes, and it’s a fantastic investment to make on yourself. Values Profile Test
Once you’ve figured out your values, its time to understand your strengths. This is best done in a variety of ways. Take a close look at significant experiences, both good and bad. These significant experiences can shed light on what you are really good at and what you aren’t. You can also take personality and strength tests, ask others what they think, read performance reviews you’ve been given. Take it all together and a picture of your own strengths will become more clear.
Are you still a little unclear? Here’s a book I’ve taken a myriad of strength based tests, and this is the one I’ve found the most useful. I’ve take it three times over the course of ten years and my results were identical!
Aim to have a clear and concise list of your strengths (5-10 is ideal). Then really think about the single strength that speaks to you most. Its likely this strength will also align nicely with your value system. Take this one strength and focus on it the most! This one strength will help you maximize your full potential.
My values and strengths
I have to be honest – I didn’t start this journey by understanding my own value system. Intuitively I understood them but they were always hard to verbalize; I’m sure you can relate. Knowing your values is hard, and it took me years of life experiences to figure out. I took and thought through the results to understand myself.
VALUES Wisdom – Understanding, intelligence, good judgement, intuition, personal growth, innovation, approach to work is logical, efficient, and well thought out Realistic – Productiveness and usefulness, achieving an efficient return on investment of time, money and effort. Practical, reasonable, and think actions through before acting Empathy – Understanding the needs and sufferings of others Aesthetics – Creative, unusual way of thinking, and want the environment that they surround themselves with to be reflective of that. Things need to be aesthetically pleasing. Love – Patience, kindness, trust, forgiveness, compassion Integrity – Honesty, truthfulness, reliability, justice, sincerity
If you want to invest in yourself, start with understanding your values. It has helped me immensely in deciding the best career path to take; product management! Product Managers must be innovative, logical and think things through (Wisdom). They need to be aware of the ROI for all of their team’s efforts (Realistic). Their number one job is to understand their customers (Empathy). They also must have a keen product sense of what makes certain products stand out (Aesthetics, Wisdom and Empathy). While managing teams they must be able to earn trust (Integrity) and be kind and thoughtful to the needs of their teams (Love). With this in mind, some of the core traits that make good product managers are also a part of my core value system, therefore it should be a good fit.
STRENGTHS and NATURAL ABILITIES
Contrary to values, I’ve been keenly aware of my own strengths for a long time. Early in my career I had a fantastic manager who helped his whole team by having them take several strength and abilities tests. We went offsite to better understand these which you’ve probably done too. At first I thought the results were interesting, but years later I took one of those test again. To my surprise the results were identical! Not only that, but I was asked to take the test yet again even more years later and the results were the same the third time! So, I’m a big believer in this test and the power of focusing on your strengths while minimizing your weaknesses. Here is that book. They’ll even provide a personalized action plan. Get it!!!
So what are my strengths? See below. I’ve also included a “natural abilities” list that is a combination of several other tests that gave me even more insight.
The one strength that intrigued me the most was individualization. Most of my other strengths do a great job of explaining why I’ve had so much success in various product development and cross-functional leadership roles. Certainly this strength of individualization played a part, but it’s the one strength that I always seem to think about and notice. Somehow I’m able to put myself in another person’s shoes easily. I can understand them and anticipate what they want or need. It seems like a unique strength to have and therefore I decided to focus on that the most and make it my “selling point”. Taking action to understand another’s view falls nicely in line with my value of empathy, so I believe this is a really strong strength to use as a differentiator.
Wrapping things up, if you can figure out what you values are, what you natural strengths and abilities are, you’ll truly understand yourself! You won’t compare yourself to others as that will be unproductive. They have their own strengths and you have yours. So what are your own personal values? Do you live by them on a daily basis? And what are your strengths? Do you currently work towards maximizing them? If you’re finding success in life you are! I’d love to hear from you below!
