Great Occupations

by Angela Loëb

“Instead of making yourself a slave to the concept of a career ladder, reinvent yourself on a semiregular basis. Start by writing your own mission statement, to guide you as CEO of Me Inc. What turns you on? Learning something new? Gaining recognition for your skills as a technical wizard? Shepherding new ideas from concept to market? What’s your personal definition of success? Money? Power? Fame? Or doing what you love? However you answer these questions, search relentlessly for job or project opportunities that fit your mission statement. And review that mission statement every six months to make sure you still believe what you wrote.” – Tom Peters: “The Brand Called You”; Fast Company Magazine; August 1997

I heartily recommend doing what Tom Peters suggests – have regular personal retreats to review your personal brand, mission statement, career direction and life goals.

And if you’re making a dramatic and/or a quick shift in direction, I urge you to set aside time every week to review your plan and make course adjustments as needed. In the “Go For It!” module of the CareerFinder™ Method, Jay and I lay out suggestions about this process. Below is an excerpt from The CareerFinder™ Method Guide.

The Weekly Tweak
We recognize just how challenging it is in a busy life to stay on track and keep driving to achieve goals. Even if you’re the most disciplined person on the planet, you might find it difficult to carve out the time you need to give yourself during this journey. Unless you live in a vacuum, there’s always something pulling at your attention or popping up to distract you. Here’s what we suggest:

• Set aside one hour on your calendar as a weekly recurring appointment, preferably at the same time. If you can’t make it a habit to meet with yourself at the same time every week, then plan ahead and grab that hour every week wherever you can. Above all, stay committed and honor the time you have set aside.
• Close the door, get out of the house or away from the office, turn off the phone and give yourself permission to think without distractions.
• Review the recent week’s activities.
• Acknowledge the items you’ve completed – take time to appreciate what you’ve done and don’t forget to reward yourself!
• Reset anything you’ve not completed as planned.
• Review upcoming action steps, both long and short term.
• Add any new items as necessary to your plan.

Being flexible to modifying your plan as you go is paramount to your success. Life is so organic and often unpredictable. Getting clear and then focused about what we want will sometimes attract serendipitous situations that we couldn’t have predicted. This can cause unexpected course changes in our plan, which might slow us down as we explore a new idea or opportunity. On the other hand, sometimes simply getting clear can make things go so much faster than we ever dreamed.

Happy Hunting!

Angela Loëb is an author, speaker and co-owner of Great Occupations. She and her partner, Jay Markunas, help people make successful career transitions through workshops, “pajama learning” webclasses, personalized consulting sessions, as well as through The Job Search Boot Camp Show. Find out more at www.greatoccupations.com.

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