Plan your career success

There are hundreds of people who keep struggling and wallowing for decades without having any comprehension of why things have not turned out in their favour. Success continues to elude them. The job that they are in and the career path that stands in front of them are more often than not a consequence of coincidence. Evidently, the options that they have exercised that have brought them to wherever they happen to be in their life are not an outcome of a well-defined and conclusive preparation and scheduling.

If you are truly keen to boost your prospects of success in your career, you need to formulate a personal growth plan. This will serve to offer you a precise ‘to-do’ list of actions for the purpose. What you need to do is to make certain that all chances and probabilities are harnessed in your support to accomplish whatever you set out to in your career. And this can be achieved by the growth plan that you make for yourself. In order to lay the e foundation for success in your life and career alike, you need to understand:

·  What a growth plan comprises: You growth plan encompasses certain highly specific components that need to be reduced to writing. In essence, they are your individual career plan, actions that you need to take, your fortes, your principles and objectives that you set for yourself. Once you have it in a written form, you can always peruse it periodically and be reminded and goaded to move forward to materialise it. With regard to your fortes, you need to be clear about how they can facilitate your move ahead.

· How a growth plan helps you: Your growth plan impacts the manner in which you lead your life. Most of us live in the present, rather the current moment and are thus prone to respond to various changes that take place in our surroundings and resultantly on our lives. The foregoing notwithstanding, all of us harbour aspirations and yearnings as also an earnest desire to be successful. But if your compass bearings are not set properly, it is evident that you will head on the wrong course. The growth plan that you formulate will manifest your precise aims. If followed sincerely, it is unlikely that you will go off-track and fail in achieving your objectives. Your growth plan will prove to be a very useful tool to progress deliberately through a specific career path. You will be able to judiciously and decisively consider where you are in your current career, where you intend to be, how you think you can get there and how you will judge the effectiveness of the actions that you take.

You have to understand that creating a personal growth plan is plain and simple hard work. And following through on the plan and sustaining your efforts is something that may not come easy at first. It is bound to take time and a considerable amount of discipline. As a matter of fact, the process may involve some introspection to find out ways and means to deal with those facets of your life that so far you have felt were not possible to be addressed. All along the following aspects should always be remembered:

· Your growth is your responsibility and to attain your dreams, you need to regularly set higher yardsticks and targets. To start with, you should be fully aware of your strengths and weaknesses.

· If you really seek to be at the wheels, you must have well-defined objectives and the time frame in which ought to be achieved by you. Once attained, you need to assess yourself afresh and adapt proactively the limits of your job and functions.

· Stiff competition will be posed to you by others as you move ahead. You need to overlook trifling contentions and yet find a way out to keep moving forward.

· You may not be able to move ahead on your own steam. You may require guidance and which you will need to have a mentor. It is not that you will fail totally, but with a mentor by your side, you will be able to acquit yourself creatively, effectually and vigorously.

The crux of the matter is that sans any exact line of action, you will not be able to reach the zenith of your career, howsoever hard you may slog or remain devoted to your work. It requires only efforts of two or three days to formulate your growth plan and once formulated, you will realise that you possess the requisite three Cs - capabilities, capacities and confidence – that will impel you forward in attaining the career and life that you have always sought. Positive alterations will automatically be brought about in you and which will steer you towards success.   Although success does not come immediately, good judgment, conscientiousness, industriousness and careful planning are what it takes to propel even an ordinary career to enviable pinnacles.