When it comes to your career, it’s often easy to feel as though you’re stuck in a rut. For a lot of people, it’s all too common for them to end up working a job that they never really cared about in the first place for a boss who doesn’t care about or respect them. Sure, it’s something that we all go through but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have the potential to have a pretty serious negative impact on your life. After all, working a miserable job that you hate can end up leading to mental health issues, problems in your relationships, and even issues with your physical health. The obvious solution then is to try and find something new. To try and create a career for yourself that allows you to do something that you really care about and that excites you. Of course, doing that is most certainly easier said than done. Not to mention that it can be pretty scary to take that step. With that in mind, here are some things that everyone needs to be able to do if they want to succeed in their career.
Know what you really want
If you want to be able to make a change in your career and move onto something new then you need to know one very important thing: what is it that you actually want out of a career? One of the biggest problems that a lot of people have is that they become somewhat fixated on the things that they hate about their job and all of the things that they don’t want from a career, that they forget to think about the other side of it. You can’t just know what you don’t want, you need to know what you do want. What makes you happy? What engages you? What can you see yourself doing every single day for the rest of your life? Being able to identify those things is essential. Otherwise, you’re just going to bounce from job to job finding more and more things that you don’t like.
Identifying your skills
Of course, it’s not just a matter of what you want, it’s also a matter of what you can do. What are you good at? What skills do you actually have? A lot of the time, one of the reasons why a lot of people find themselves hating their job is that they’re not doing something that employs their skills. This means that they’re either constantly in a state of stress or what they’re doing is so mindless that it requires no real effort at all. Finding a job that lets you use your skills is a great first step to a much happier career. Of course, if you’re lacking in the skills you need for the job you really want, there are plenty of things that you can do. From an online leadership degree that can help you take on greater responsibility to night classes in a whole variety of subjects to expand your skill set, there are plenty of ways that you can give yourself the skills you need. And this is a constant process. You should always be trying to find ways to improve.
Working with awful people
Here is something that a lot of people struggle to come to terms with: even if you’re in a perfect job there are always going to be people who make yours and everyone else’s life a misery. Whether they’re terrible at their job and refuse to accept help or they’re just a complete narcissist who thinks they’re the best person in the company despite their total lack of skills, working with somebody awful can be one of the most miserably frustrating things in the world. However, that’s just something that you’re going to have to come to terms with. The reality of these kinds of people is that they’re not likely to last all that long. All you can do is focus on the areas of your new job that you do care about and do everything you can to shut them out. Of course, if they’re harassing people or behaving completely inappropriately then that’s different. At that point then you’ve got to speak to your manager or someone in HR and have that situation dealt with.
Taking charge
One of the things that ends up keeping a lot of people in jobs that they otherwise wouldn’t really care about all that much is the fact that they don’t really have to get involved that directly in the work that they’re doing. They can just follow the orders of their boss and get by doing the minimum amount of effort. If you really want to get something out of your career then you’ve got to be willing to take charge of it and go beyond the bare minimum. If you’re only ever doing what you’re told then there’s a serious limit to how much you can actually get out of in your career. Being able to take charge of a situation, a group of people or an entire project can be an incredibly scary idea but it’s something that can not only show just how ready you are for a more interesting career but it can also allow you to do exciting things that you otherwise wouldn’t if you’d just stood on the sidelines.
Being patient
One of the first hurdles that a lot of people come across when they try to make any change in their career is that things don’t normally happen quite as quickly as you might want them to. The truth is that it’s rare of a career change to be an instant thing. Instead, it’s often something that you have to work towards and wait for for a lot longer than you would want to. This can be incredibly frustrating and it often leads a lot of people to give up because it feels as though they’re putting in the work but they’re not getting anything out of it. The best way to get past this is to keep your mind set on the future. Instead of looking at the point in your career that you’re currently at as a roadblock, look at it as a stepping stone to something bigger and better. Just because you’re not where you want to be right this second doesn’t mean that you’re never going to be able to get there.
Confronting failure
Here’s something that you might not want to hear: in your journey towards a bigger and better career, you’re going to fail. Things are going to wrong, you’re going to get passed over for jobs that you think you deserve, you’re going to get ignored when you do great work and you’ll make mistakes that can bring your confidence way don’t. All of these things are pretty much inevitable and that can end with you feeling pretty discouraged by the whole process. However, it’s far better to look at it this way. Because these things are inevitable, you don’t have to be afraid of them. Instead, you can treat them as the incredibly valuable learning experiences that they are. Being able to take the right lessons away from the mistakes that you make is essential if you really want to succeed in your career.
Starting over
Of course, there’s always a chance that things simply don’t work out in one way or another. Sometimes you find that the path you went down was the same as the path you were already on. However, that doesn’t mean that you just give up and resign yourself to being stuck in a job you hate. The truth is that plenty of people end up having to take more than one crack at their career. Sometimes you find yourself having to start from the beginning. But at least you’ve got all of your past experience at your back driving you on.
The question is if being able to get out and start a new career is so possible then why don’t more people do it? Well, the answer is actually pretty simple: fear. Most people are extremely afraid of the concept of being able to take that leap into a new world. After all, the reality of starting any kind of new career, even if it’s one that lets you live a much better, happier life, is that there is still the potential that things won’t work out. Maybe you fall flat on your face or maybe you get what you wanted and it’s not quite what you thought it would be. No matter what it is, there are plenty of reasons that people give for not taking the chance on what they really want. The reality is that the only way to get past this is just to go for it. As the old saying goes: fortune favors the bold. If you want a better life for yourself then you’ve got to get out there and make it happen. Standing still never did anyone any good.
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