Being Proactive in Building and Managing Your Career: How to Begin

In my years as a search consultant and career coach, I have observed that people often hunker down in one job for no apparent reason other than comfort or inertia. Others lurch from job to job for no clear reason. There is another path and it is one that a highly recommend and love to help people follow: to be thoughtful, intentional and proactive in building and managing your career.

Why does it matter? Well, because you matter! Your life matters! And in your one beautiful and amazing experience of being alive on this planet - granting it can be terribly hard at times for countless reasons -your career is probably a major part of your overall life. When you were a child, many things were chosen for you. One of the great things about being an adult is that if you want, you get to choose many things -including what you do for work.

Why not be one of the few people who intentionally chooses what they do and why they do it?  If you decide to follow this path, you will be opening to many new and positive possibilities. You will think and behave in ways that make it more likely that you will enjoy your time at work and your work will be well-aligned with your skills, interests and aptitude. As an added bonus, you will spend time with people whom you look forward to seeing at work and with whom you can take pride in what you are accomplishing.

Where to start? Here are a few suggestions - all good news!

• Start by embracing career exploration as an exciting adventure and not as a problem to be solved.
• Give yourself permission to be in the driver seat of your career - not someone else, like a parent, spouse, significant other or a mentor.
• Be hopeful and positive but let go of magical thinking. Career discernment, networking, interviewing and every other part of being proactive in your search will require thought and action. No one is going to be riding over the proverbial hill to swoop down and rescue you…not a headhunter, not someone who happens to see your LinkedIn profile and not someone you bump into at a networking event. This is good news, as you can have more direct influence on the outcome if you can choose the mindset, work ethic and specific behaviors to embrace.

These are just a few very basic ideas regarding how to start being more proactive in building and managing your career. If you embrace them, I am confident that you will see that you can in fact shape your career so that it is interesting, a good match for your gifts and talents and a satisfying part of an abundant and thriving life. More to follow.....