Don’t Settle: Get The Career You Want

Reflections for a Brighter Career Path

As we usher in the new year, my hope is that you are returning from your holidays well rested and looking forward to the challenges that lie ahead. Too often the holidays are a short “breather” from people’s relentless, high-pressure job… hoping they can cope until their next vacation.

You would be surprised how many of my clients feel out of place and overwhelmed in their careers. They dread their “daily grind” at work because it is either too demanding, too unfulfilling or somewhere in between. History tells them that their mountain of workplace activities are rarely followed by valleys of rest, and the hectic pace takes a toll on their professional and personal lives. This is not something that more sleep, better nutrition or moderate exercise can fix. It’s the fact that they have settled and accepted their “grind” in order to maintain a certain lifestyle that is expected or desired.

To help my clients manage that hectic pace, we often start by profiling their personality and discovering their fundamental needs and wants. Using the Birkman Method—which establishes their requirements for specific factors such as esteem, structure, authority, empathy and change—clients discover what motivates (or hinders) them to becoming a top performer. In the end, by understanding their underlying needs, my clients make better decisions. This might lead to small changes at work or more radical ones. But they key is they have taken the time to reflect on what makes them feel accomplished and will therefore base future decisions—projects to accept, how to deal with their boss, etc.—on meeting THEIR needs in the long term.

So, the question comes back to you: Are you returning from the holidays revitalized or reluctant? If your answer is the latter, I’ve put together a few items for you to reflect upon. My hope is that it might give you some insight into making better decisions at work.

1. Define what success means to you. Success means so many things to so many different people. For some, it’s their job. For others, it’s their family, money, health, etc. If you wrote your own eulogy today, would you say that you have achieved success? Are you happy with your lot in life? And if not, what is it that would make you happier or more successful?
2. Understand your work-life balance. Working at a demanding, but well paying job might allow you to own a large house, enjoy several vacations a year, and live “comfortably”, but what if it comes at the expense of your family, friends or health? Is your current work-life balance sustainable? If not, what needs to change?
3. Does your workplace culture align with your needs? A highly accomplished friend confided that her new job was awful: even thought it paid well, the division in which she worked had an antagonistic culture with minimal accountability. We spend a lot of our life in a job. Enjoying work—or at least not hating work—is something we should all strive for.
4. Ask yourself what you want to do in five years? After several decades in the high tech world, I determined that coaching high performers was where I got my greatest sense of satisfaction. Slowly I moved from training and mentoring teams within my roles, to taking the big leap, going back to school, and becoming an independent leadership coach. Maybe you don’t have to make such a drastic change, but understanding where you want to be will identify what technical or soft skills you need to pick up in order to get to the next stage in your career.

To your Success… However You Define It!

January is a great month to think about your work situation. There are many tools you can use to reduce stress and get you through the hectic times. However, if you’re caught in the grind, it’s not too late to change your ways. In the immortal words of Steve Jobs: “The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.”

I hope that you have the opportunity to step back, reflect and if needed, to make the changes required. Whether you change jobs, upgrade your skills, tweak a few habits or totally reinvent yourself, you own the keys to your success.

Have you made changes that have made a difference in your life? I encourage you to share the secrets of your success to the rest of the community in this newsletter. Or better yet, join me in my free webinar, Defining Career Success.

Until then, be amazing!