Assess your career honestly

Do you feel contented having reached wherever you are?

Does your present position offer you adequate motivation and competition that you seek to move ahead?

Does the future hold out good prospects for you or are you likely to stagnate for the next decade or so?

Do you feel that your career will meet all your current and future requirements?

If there happens to be any iota of doubt in your responses to the above questions, you need to seriously re-assess your career. After all, like anybody else, you will never like to be faced with a situation wherein you brood over spill milk. You will never like to be critical of the decision that you took about your career some years back and feel that you would have been comfortable, more contented and at an advantage if you had gone in for something else.

The difficult part of the exercise is however, weighing your current career to conclude if it is worth pursuing or worth bidding farewell to. You need to come up with honest responses to the following questions:

·      Is your present career an exhilarating experience?  You may have made slow or good progress in your career so far. But do you genuinely feel happy being wherever you are today? Remember that happiness and contentment is a state of mind; they vary from person to person. There are many people who always wear a smile on their face, irrespective of the strains and pressures of work. This is largely because they enjoy their work. On the other hand, there are many who though contented with their work yet find their jobs very demanding and strenuous. But they do not complain because they think that they are holding   responsibility and performing for the good of everybody. The actual issue that should not escape your attention is whether your career is able to cater to all your necessities and aspects significant to you. 

·      Do you see prospects of growth in your present career? This is a matter of great significance. The prospects of growth should extend into the next fifteen or twenty years. In case, the future is bleak with the growth prospects limited, does it ring bells or are you unruffled at this prognostication? There are several people who do not get tired doing mundane jobs for prolonged periods; in fact, they derive happiness performing humdrum tasks repeatedly. But there are many who want to move forward, move ahead and move up; they seek career advancement on a periodic basis. It will be prudent if you identify people at your workplace holding analogous positions for similar periods of time as you. They may be happy and contented, but are you too? There may or not be prospects for advancement, but this aspect should not serve to prompt you to quit. However, there should be no inhibitions whatsoever to cogitate seriously and honestly over ground realities.     

·      Are you content at staying wherever you have reached today? Imagine that you have attained the age of your superannuation and you are still holding an appointment that you are holding today. Will you be happy at that? Surely, there will be a list of several things that you would have wanted to attain; you must make a note of them. To be more specific, you should know exactly where you want to be. It is possible that the path that you are trudging on may be leading to your dreams. Or perhaps not too. You should know precisely what the fact of the matter is and in case you do not, it is high time that that you get into the serious business of evaluating your objectives so that you are clear about what you want to achieve in your life. But if case you feel that your present career is unlikely to fulfill your aspirations or satiate your requirements of the future, perhaps you may elect to go in for a fresh career.

There were times when careers were self-propelled; they did not require any push. Today, with things having changed, it is you who is responsible to steer your career in the direction that you want it to proceed. If that be the fundamental truth, you should not be unduly hopeful and wait for providence to push you forward. You need to be in command of the vehicle that you are seated in. If you remain at the wheels, you will be able to write your future and your success story.