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The road to success is paved with detours, speed bumps
and potholes. The Bureau of Labor Statistics tell us
that the average American will work for 10 employers,
keeping each job 3.6 years, and change careers
three times before retiring. Sometimes the changes will
be voluntary; sometimes the changes will be instigated
by outside forces. Either way, change is inevitable.
Therefore, if you want to get the most out of your career,
minimize the impact of the detours, speed bumps and
potholes you encounter, and maximize your chances for
success, you must be prepared.
Undoubtedly, you have already experienced some form
of a career transition. Remember, a transition does
not only mean a job change. Morphing from a junior associate
to a mid-level associate, or associate to partner is
a transition; so is switching practice groups or offices;
or going from a fulltime to a part time schedule. Then
there are the transitions in other areas of life that
impact your career path. Perhaps you became a new spouse
or parent; or lost a spouse or parent; or experienced
an unexpected illness, or have been affected by changes
in the economy. How have you managed these changes?
Hopefully you are not one of those people who experience
transitions as something that happens TO them rather
than as something that can be planned for and controlled.
If you are, it is time to take action.
If you are like most people, you spend more time planning
your vaca¬tions than you do planning your career.
Consider the vacation planning process. Most of us choose
a destination based on specific criteria about how we
enjoy spending our time. Why not use the same mindset
as a first step towards mapping out a career strategy?
Think about what you like to do and where the best place
to do it might be. Invest time and effort to assess
your skills and knowledges as well as your wants and
needs. Then determine where you can best utilize those
talents to soar to success.
Think about success for a minute. What does it look
like? Odds are, every person reading this has a different
answer yet there are four common elements in every vision
of success. They are:
- being content about your life;
- achieving measurable accomplishments that compare
favorably to others with similar goals;
- believing that you have a positive impact on people
you care about most;
- leaving a legacy in order to help others experience
future success.
Each element contributes to the way you experience
success right now. Success is NOT a
future event or something to aspire towards. Think of
it as a current state of being; the ability to pay full
and undivided attention to what matters most in your
life at any given moment.
Of course, the difficult part is figuring out what
matters most.
That’s where self-assessment comes in. Most lawyers
fail to engage in the self-assessment process. They
arrive at career/life decisions not on the basis of
any meaningful thought process, but rather on familial
obligations or societal expectations. They rely on external
definitions of success instead of following their own
path, with inevitably leads to unhappiness. Don’t
do it! Decide for yourself how you want to use your
skills and talents and how you want to invest your “human
capital” to achieve the desired return on your
investment. Only then can you be truly successful.
Success is a subjective perception based on what YOU,
as an individual, values. Values are those intangible
principles and standards that bring meaning to your
work and motivate your involvement and commitment. You
need to ask yourself what your values are and which
hold the most meaning and importance to you. People
tend to feel most comfortable when surrounded by others
who hold similar values and in situations where their
values are appreciated. These factors are crucial to
your job satisfaction.
Attitude drives behavior and a positive attitude is
critical to success. This is especially true when you
experience career setbacks—and we all do! They
are traumatic because they imply “failure.”
But consider the following failures:
- Babe Ruth struck out 1330 times in route to the
Hall of Fame.
- Elvis Presley was banish from the Grand Ole Opry
after only one performance and told, “You ain’t
going nowhere son.”
- Oprah Winfrey was fired from her job as a TV reporter
and advised, “You’re not fit for TV.”
- Walt Disney’s first cartoon production company
went bankrupt
- John Grisham’s first novel, A Time to
Kill, was rejected by 15 agents and a dozen publishing
houses
- Edgar Allan Poe was expelled from West Point
- Abraham Lincoln lost eight elections, failed at
two businesses and had a nervous breakdown before
becoming our 16th President.
Nothing succeeds like failure. Learning opportunities,
which are necessary for growth and development, sometimes
come in the form of what would traditionally be defined
as “failure.” The world is filled with examples
of people who used failure as a springboard to success.
While I am not suggesting you go out of your way to
fail to achieve your career goals, I am encouraging
you to accept the fact that failures are going to happen.
Readjust the prism through which you view such failures
and you can use them to your advantage.
Managing your career development is an on-going process
that includes planning and strategizing based on information
about yourself and the world of work, the match between
them and the actions you take. You must make a lifelong
commitment to actively manage your career/life and develop
strategies to adapt to the inevitable transitions you
are destined to encounter.
Career planning is like solving a business problem.
Every successful business venture begins with a comprehensive
business plan, updated annually, outlining goals and
objectives. You should have one too.
Think about the direction you’d like your life
to take. First, list the ten to twelve most important
things you want to accomplish during your lifetime.
Date your list. These are your LIFETIME GOALS.
From that list, select the four or five things you want
to accomplish in the next 5 years to create your FIVE
YEAR PLAN. Then, review your 5-year plan and
choose the two or three things you want to accomplish
during the coming year. These are your ANNUAL
GOALS. For each ANNUAL GOAL
listed, write down the answer to the following questions.
- WHAT is the goal?
- WHY do I want to achieve this goal?
- WHEN will I achieve this goal?
- HOW will I achieve this goal? (Or: What 3 things
do I need to DO?)
- WHO can help me achieve this goal?
Repeat this process once a year, referring back to
your LIFETIME GOALS and 5-YEAR PLAN. Revise each list
as circumstances warrant. You will be amazed at what
you can accomplish when you are clear about what you
want and have an action plan in place to guide you.
Finding the courage to forge your own path and construct
a personal definition of success in the face of the
external obligations and pressures isn’t easy.
In fact, it is downright scary. Do it anyway. I promise,
once you get started you will find the process is more
affirming than it is scary. Take a deep breath and take
the first step. The rewards will be monumental.
Kathleen
Brady is President of Brady & Associates
Career Planners, LLC in NYC and author Navigating
Detours on the Road to Success: A Lawyer’s Guide
to Career Planning (to be released Fall 2005)
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