Navigate your career in the right direction

 Do you mentally prolong your working hours hoping that the day would come to an end? After lunch, do you keep thinking of your home and domestic obligations? Or do you feel that you must hit home at the earliest so that you could watch the cricket match telecast?

All the above situations are symptomatic of ennui and needless to state, manifest an absence of the desired oomph and focus in you towards your job. If this true, then it is high time that you drive yourself out of inertia. It calls for changing gears so that acceleration in your career is brought about.

Here is how you can set your compass so that you navigate yourself on to the right course:

·   Introspect the causes:  Who do you think is the primary contributory factor for your dissatisfaction? Are you tired of your routine charter of daily duties? Do you feel that your colleagues are upsetting you? Or is it that your boss is troubling your mind? Or do you suffer from a feeling that you are not being compensated enough? Whatever be the cause identified by you, a suitable line of action needs to be formulated by you so that the state of affairs get altered in your favour. In addition, you should also figure out if you too add to the overall disconcertion that you suffer from. Having done so, you should seek to know from yourself what needs to be done – should you switch over to a new job, face up to the person who is causing you agitation or even change your career?

·   Triumph over trepidation:  You should set your apprehensions and fright into your standpoint. That there is nothing more monumental in significance than the objectives that you have set for yourself should be acknowledged. It is likely that you are unable to face a gathering or do not feel confident enough to handle a greater responsibility, you have to look the problem straight into its eyes. No problem vanishes of its own accord; in fact, if left unaddressed, you are likely to encounter it on a larger scale and in the bargain your career will take a beating.    

·   Brush up your curriculum vitae:  If you feel that you are contented with whatever you have achieved, there is every possibility that you have not perused your resume since long. Any person who is in a forward-movement mode is physically and mentally prepared for the next step. Can you discount the possibility of a good opportunity knocking at your door – in your current organization or elsewhere? If you keep your curriculum vitae brushed up, you will be in a better position to act in response to new breaks. To be able to do that, you must keep track of all your achievements at work and document them appropriately in your resume on a continual basis.

·   Be a do-gooder:  You may regard your job as dull and monotonous; and think that you can work your way through it with ease. Simultaneously, you may also feel that it is not realistic yet to change it or that time is not opportune enough to change your career. Under such circumstances, you should mull over the option of being a do-gooder. You could take to advising others who may not be very proficient in their functions. In this way, the experience that you have gained will come to be used by others. In addition, you could also take on concomitant functions like presiding officer of a board or even training in a new discipline altogether.   

·   Display flexibility towards transformation:  Simply put and lastly, you may be suffering from a mental block. Narrow and restricted thinking could well be acting as an impediment for you to realize a job that you have been aspiring for. If you are not certain about what you seek to achieve, you should look towards people you know. You should inquire from them about their likes and dislikes; and keep your mind open. New thoughts and prospects should not be discarded. Research has shown that people become obdurate when they view themselves and their work; consequentially your friends, philosophers and guides cannot help you to think ambitiously.

Remember that when a door closes, another one is bound to open. Ironically, we tend to keep gazing at the closed door itself. You can climb up the ladder of success in your career by stepping on the rungs of prospects. That is precisely what will define your career.