We provide guidance and resources to help working people and job seekers find ways to manage their careers. When employees take full control of all the decisions that impact their working lives, they never make a single mistake, they bounce back immediately from job loss (which is never their fault, of course), and they make daily, flawless decisions about how to impress their employers and leap ahead of the competition.
But now and then, we hear a message from a reader that sounds something like this:
"I'd love to make ‘decisions' about my career, but that's just not realistic. I work to survive, not to achieve a glorious state of self-fulfillment. I'm giving my all just to keep up with the changes that happen around me, and most of the time, I'm hanging on by my fingertips. Decisions are a luxury. If I'm still collecting a paycheck at the end of the day, I call that day a win. First, is this normal? And second….help!"
When You're No Longer Holding the Steering Wheel
Yes. This is normal. TV and movies are full of people who stride confidently down the halls of their workplaces, completely in control of where they're headed. In this fantasy world, the careers we have are the ones we dreamt of when were in school, and as the years go by, our dreams are steadily coming true one by one as a direct result of our smart decisions, resilience, and hard work.
In the real world, this just doesn't happen. Working life is full of shifting tides and changing fortunes, and even if we stay in control of every change, setback, and opportunity that comes our way, most of us still change our own minds — many times — regarding what we want to do for a living. So don't panic. Even when you feel like you may have made a wrong turn a few years back, the road you're on is the right one. Because it's the one you're on. No matter where you head from this point forward, you'll be starting from only one place: Here.
What's Next?
There are three words that can help you regain a sense of control over the runaway train that your career has become: Goals, goals, goals.
To get on top of your career, you'll need to develop goals, revise them until they're clear and realistic, and write them down. Then you'll need to start taking incremental steps in your chosen direction.
If you're not pleased with where you are and you'd rather be somewhere else, write down where you'd like to be. Then break down this ultimate destination into several smaller milestones you'll need to check off along the way. Finally, break each small milestone down into a series of manageable steps that you can tackle one at a time. Then you can start from where are, put one foot in front of the other, and get moving.
I Don't know If My Steps and Milestones are the Correct Ones!
Don't worry — they probably aren't. You've been told over and over that you can't become a marketing executive without a bachelor's degree in business management from a four-year college. And that may be true. Or it may not. There may be many other paths to your destination, some of which you don't see right now. Just use the best information available to you to lay out your plan. Then as you move forward, stay awake to the appearance of other routes and unexpected alternatives.
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