Taking a step back in your career is also good judgment

Most people regard their career as something very diverse from that they are doing in their current jobs. The truth however, is that your career commences the very moment you agree to accept your maiden job offer and persist with each and every consequent step you take. People who excel in their careers comprehend this and mull over the consequences that will result tomorrow of whatever they undertake to do today. They also know that a career may not necessarily adopt a course that will take you to the top; lateral, backward or circular movements can also do so.  

People who decide to take a step back in their careers do so view their career decisions in the framework of a decade and what is likely to transpire in that period. It is also their conviction that going down and then moving up would facilitate getting close to their eventual career objectives. And hence it is no surprise to see many upcoming people leave their lucrative appointments and take on subordinate assignments that are plagued with contests, challenges and risks.

Planning for a step back

It is important that you contemplate on what you genuinely seek from your career. That is what career planning and management is all about. Planning for a step back is also career planning; and its maiden step is to visualize the level at which you want to be a decade hence. Thereafter, you should travel in reverse from that wished-for post to identify spots that will have to be compulsorily be in a nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three and two and one year span from the starting line. You will know what you have achieved so far and where you are pitched at now. The point of take-off can thus be determined by you. As you formulate a retrograde plan, you will get to identify measures that need to be initiated straightaway to bring you close to your wished-for point.

You will undoubtedly come face to face with doubts, ambiguities and improbabilities in your career. There are many people who end up at unanticipated position. However, the career planning that you do will help you attain most of your career objectives and also strike targets beyond them. But if you leave everything to gamble and luck, the stakes being high will not unfold in your favour. The biggest disaster that is witnessed in the corporate world today is when people slog for donkey years hoping to reach the zenith only to realise that they had embarked upon a wrong path or the steps that they took were leading elsewhere.

Have you designed a line of action?

There has to be a workable balance between all your deeds and deliberations. You may be required to strive and toil; and occasionally sweat it out. You should not be apprehensive of taking a break. Just as there is a break during a football match, the break should be utilized to unwind, discern, note and get ready for the grind once again.

If you are geared up for a career advancement contemplation, move ahead for the implementation of your plan. The following four-stride wherewithal inventory will stand you in good stead as you move forward with your plan:

· Buoyancy: You need to brave past downbeat conditions like hindrances, non-acceptance or disappointment. Howsoever hard you may try, no career will unfold as per your visualization. There will be reversals and you will have to be buoyant enough to overcome them with confidence.

· Evaluation: You must know your plusses and minuses; and be able to relate them to your various facets of your career. Do you feel that there is something that you need to do to update or complete your skills-set?

· Knowledge: If you scan the environment, you will discover a horde of sources that will foster your progress. Distance education modes and off-duty internships are good ways to gain knowledge. Do you have such idea in your mind?

· Persons: You need to find individuals with whom you can have a straight talk about your career. They will render you frank advice, appropriate counselling and excellent motivation. Have you identified any such persons already?

You must gauge where you stand today and accordingly direct your efforts on to the future. When you do so, you are unlikely to lose track; and if you resolve to do all assigned tasks well, the contentment that you experience will be of a different magnitude. The point to be remembered is that your today will decide and speak of your tomorrow. And to be able to do so, sometimes you will have to take a step back and look at your life in order to take a step forward and move on in it.