- Make a Decision to Take Action.While this may seem like an obvious place to start (and it is), most people are more worried about making the RIGHT decision than they are with just making a decision and seeing it through to the end. If you are feeling stuck in your career, then make a decision to take action and make it non negotiable. Making the decision to move towards the career of your dreams is the first step in getting it.
- Know Your Why.Why does this decision matter to you? What is at stake? Think about what your life will look like five years from now if nothing changes. How will this affect your relationships, your health, your finances? Understanding your why is what will keep you focused on your end goal when the going gets tough. Maybe your why looks like this, “I need to stop being available for work 24/7 because if I keep this pace up, my body is going to physically shut down and I won’t be able to do my job at all”, or maybe it looks like this, “Working all these late hours and early mornings means that I’m missing out on all of the milestones that my kids are experiencing. If I don’t see this decision through till the end, I’m going to miss out on them growing up which is the very thing I said I’d never do”. Regardless of what your why is, it’s important to know so that you can come back to this any time you start questioning your decision (which you inevitably will).
- Tell Someone.This is key to any big decision you make. Once you tell someone, you’ve vocalized it out loud and now you are accountable to seeing it through. No one wants to be the kind of person who says they’re going to do something and then doesn’t do it.
- Create a Plan and Take Action.If you ask any hugely successful person what advice they would give to someone who is just starting out, they almost always say to TAKE ACTION and DO SOMETHING that propels you forward. Do this before you feel ready. If you wait until you’re ready, you may never take action. Ask for help, do something that is totally outside your comfort zone, extend yourself, risk rejection, hire a coach, read a self-help book, listen to a podcast. The possibilities are endless. It really doesn’t matter where you start. The important thing is to do something every single day that is moving you towards what you want. This action will almost always be something that scares you a little. Remember that growth lives on the other side of fear. If you’re not growing, you’re dying.
- Be open to course correcting. While it’s important to have a plan, it’s also important not to be too attached to the plan itself. The thing to be attached to is the end goal. If you are following the plan you’ve mapped out for yourself and you’re not getting the desired results, you’ll need to course correct as you go. Follow the plan, make mistakes, learn from them, adjust the plan. It’s a bit like taking a road trip. You have a destination and a planned route when you leave home. If, half way through the trip your map app tells you that there is a 2 hour traffic delay up ahead and offers you an alternate route, the smart thing to do would be to course correct. This is a no brainer, yet many people are set on following the original plan (before they even know what road blocks may lie ahead).