Those readers familiar with my column will understand my lament that people usually spend more time planning the purchase of a second-hand car, than they do planning their career. However this time of year may present a great opportunity to take stock of your career, without the distractions an extra five hours of sunlight brings. Questions you may want to ask yourself include:
■ How fulfilled am I in my career? Understand that this is quite a separate question from 'how successful am I in my career'? We can be on a great salary, with lots of perks and business based baubles, however are we trading this 'success' for other more important areas we are not factoring in?
■ Am I passionate about my job, my company or my industry? It's very hard to get started in the morning if you are not passionate about any of the three factors above.
■ How am I going in line with my ten year career plan? If you do not have a 10 year career plan, write down in detail the type of role or position you would like to be employed within in July 2029. From here, reverse engineer this goal, by figuring out what you would need to achieve in 2024 to be on track. After this, decide what goals you would need to hit in the next twelve months to reach your five year plan.
■ Coming back to the first question, having a strong life balance is vital for a successful and sustainable career. How is your family life? Personal health? Spiritual life? Personal outlook? Unfortunately many people define success by the amount of money they earn, or the status they receive in their position. The issue here is if they are suddenly made redundant, they lose their sense of 'self', taking a huge toll on their perceived 'personal worth'. Define success for each of area of life as you would for your career. This helps give you a wider sense of context, and personal goals outside of the standard '9 to 5' (or 8 to 6…)
