Are you living every day or just going through the motions. Every day presents another opportunity to grow your career if you approach it right.
A career is a lifetime of adventure piled up one day at a time. The steps you take every day to tackle everyday challenges are your career foundations.
Here are five questions to challenge yourself to create opportunities for growth every day.
What do you want to do? This can be a big hairy goal like “I want to cure cancer or solve world peace” or a smaller daily challenge. It is important to work towards something concrete. For example, Dave wants to get recognized for completing a big project this year. Let’s help Dave organize his opportunity.
Why do you want to do this? The “why” is a pretty big motivator to stick with the goal. For Dave, getting recognized for completing that big project can be the foundation for big career growth.
How long do you think it will take? You have to put a timeframe or how will you measure progress? Dave knows that the project must be completed by the end of the year.
What do you need to do to reach this goal? Break down the goal into smaller, more manageable chunks. Dave’s project is huge with many project components. But even in a daily activity, breaking the big goal down into smaller parts allows us to see progress towards the goal.
What help will you need to accomplish each step in the project? There is always someone out there who can help. Dave has three team members and other folks on other teams he can call on. He needs to use all possible resources to get the project done on time and under budget so he can get recognized.
Even small assignments offer the opportunity for career growth if you ask yourself the five big questions and organize yourself to be successful.
Check out The Interview Doctor’s Career Advancement Checklist to optimize every day.
