What is your career outlook?

People who make it to success do so largely on account of their enterprising approach to work and life as distinct from the employee outlook in general. How does an enterprising approach differ from an employee outlook? The major difference lies in the mindset to play with possibilities and chances. Related to this is the aspect of going about dealing with botches.

The connotation of employee and enterprising outlooks are:

·   Employee outlook:  Under normal circumstances, employees tend not to make mistakes. Their work demands that they be familiar with rules and regulations; and perform all assigned duties within their parameters. They are expected to make use of their abilities and understanding of matters in an appropriate manner. In other words, employees are required to do everything correctly and as assigned. If they seek to take risk and go tangentially, they are dissuaded; and if they try to function by not adhering to the laid down strictures, they run the risk of being given a pink slip.

·   Enterprising outlook:  People who have an enterprising outlook are venturesome and disposed to taking chances. Existing state of affairs are contested and new methods, sometimes rather too weird, adopted in their working forms. Springing from this approach is a frame of mind to be ready for fiascos and accept them as part of their work and life. An enterprising outlook does not necessarily signify carelessness or rashness; on the contrary, it permits people to play with premeditated perils to their advantage. Should unfavourable circumstances unfold, they do not abandon hope, even if failure is imminent and proceed ahead with a positive note.

How do the above approaches connect with your career? Your response will throw light how these two varying attitudes can influence your overall disposition towards your work and life. You need to be clear about your responses to the following questions:

·   What is your characteristic or distinctive conviction?

·   When you begin to ponder over your career; and fresh and unmarked bearings that it may be heading to, do you have a tendency to slide into employee or enterprising outlooks?

·   Do you contemplate on the electrifying likelihoods that could be present and grasped?

·   Do you think that you are well-geared up to indulge in unconventional cogitations and musings?

·   Do you feel that it is high time that you start subscribing to inklings that are sweeping departures from your present work?

·   Do you want to take off immediately and believe that you will be able to discover and catch things as you move ahead?

·   Are you sure that you are prepared to chase your prospects over your wellbeing and other personal interests?

Or is it that you are inclined to be in line with the employee outlook? If this be so, you would be niggled by the following issues, some again more prominently than others:

·   Your charter of responsibilities and precise duties.

·   The correct things that you ought to be doing.

·   Anxiety in anticipation of any occurrence prior to initiation of action by you.

·   Feeling of uncertainty that everything has been looked into before you get on to them on ground.

·   Apprehensions about mistakes that you may commit and become a laughing stock in the eyes of others.

·   Inability to identify and grasp opportunities because of being overpowered by a feeling of excessive safekeeping.

As with everybody else, the chances of you as an enterpriser going in to clinch the potential of a change in your professional conditions will always be there. You will perhaps accept it even if the employee outlook in you still persists.   

The crux of the matter is that learning comes not from experience but from reflecting on it. And if you seek and blunder, you will definitely learn. An employee outlook will not facilitate the foregoing. It is high time that you move on to an enterprising outlook to remove all elements of ambiguity and insecurity that may be pervading in your current job and career. The shift may not be an effortless affair, but is definitely worth an attempt. You need to be physically and mentally robust to jump off a cliff and build your wings on the way down. Remember that a change, if it has to take place, will take place; and hence it is better to accost it optimistically.