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Career Development - Recognize Your Readiness

Written by: Martin Haworth

Article Overview: Careers are fluid. For a while we rest up and then we are off again. But how are we able to understand just when is right? Noticing the subtle messages, that's how...

Career Development - Recognize Your Readiness

In our work, we set ourselves goals for where we want to be if we are able to. For some this structured career path works, yet for many, they aren't able to be so organized. Indeed, there is very often a sense of simply not knowing what they want to do in their work. And that's wholly understandable, because here's a secret - many of us feel we have not got clear view of actually what we want at all.

A career is something that people rarely have a defined path for and yet, one way or another, we make the progress we seek somehow or another.

In fact, not having a defined path is such a good thing, because it allows us to take up opportunities just by the very interesting nature of them, rather than reject them because they don't 'fit' what we expected.

The challenge comes from conflicting emotions. Where we have a sense of belonging and consistency, there is great temptation to hang around. Only when there is a sufficiently big emotion in opposition are we able to decide to move on.

It could be that you don't get on well with someone. It might be that you felt unfairly treated for a while. That promotion didn't come off as you thought it might.

Then there might be organizational issues that give you the hump. Maybe they don't get the core basics right, like having your pay on time; or the resources you need aren't there when you need them. They ask you to change your vacations or time off with no thought to your needs.

There are a load of hints like these that can give you the nudge that it's time to move on.

Hopefully you will know what's next, because these changes are opportunities to take a further step that you should know about. You see, there is another set of reasons that you might feel the urge to move right along and these depend on how sensitized you are to yourself.

Because sometimes, the changes that you need to make are simply the result of a deep down internal grumble that lies there, masked heavily by the comfort-zone of work you know and is, well, OK for now.

There is so often in people yearning for 'something more' from their workplace. Yet, so often they resist it for too long, because of all sorts of reasons they can drag up.

Most often though, following a passion is the hardest thing, because it throws you right out of kilter with what you've been used to and worse - what others have been used to you being as well.

So, when something comes along that irks you enough to leave, make sure that you have been prepared already to get to know the direction you really want and where it's feasible, move towards that if you can't get there in one single bound.

Take the time to get to know just what it is that you'd really like to do and direct yourself nearer.

Understanding the hints you sense in your body when you are nearing that career change readiness is the first step. The second step of action them becomes your passion and whilst this is not an easy journey, it's well worth while.

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Article Tags: career change, career change readiness, career development, employee development, management development



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