It's May. For many of us, that means it's time to start making our summer plans. These holiday excursions and family trips are important events, so almost no one treats them cavalierly.
We browse the internet looking for vacation rentals. We talk to friends and co-workers about the trip packages they bought, the hotels they stayed in and the restaurants they enjoyed. In short, we invest a lot of time and effort to make sure it all goes well and that we have memories we can treasure for a long, long time.
Why, then, don't we invest a similar level of effort in making our career plans? Clearly, they're just as important, just as central to our happiness this summer (and the rest of the year) and for a long, long time after that. Yet most of us treat career planning as something only slightly better than a root canal. We only do it when we absolutely have to, and we wait until the absolutely last minute before we do so.
While there may be several reasons for this aversion to career planning, I believe one is the principal culprit. Most of us don't know what career planning is or what it entails. The prospect of doing it, therefore, seems a whole lot more like work than planning a vacation.
Now, I won't try to con you. Career planning takes some time and effort, and the gratification you get from doing it is different from what you experience lying on the beach getting a tan. But there are some similarities:
- A vacation liberates you from work; a career plan liberates you from unexpected changes at work. In other words, a good career plan makes sure you are in charge of what happens on the job rather than its victim.
- A vacation enables you to regenerate your enthusiasm and capabilities so that you can enjoy work more once you return. A good career plan enables you to build your enthusiasm and capabilities so that you can enjoy success in the job you have now and compete effectively for the job you hope to have in the future.
- A vacation lets you spend some time enjoying hobbies, avocations and other interests that you have outside the workplace. A good career plan lets you spend your time in the workplace doing something that is engaging and rewarding for you.
What's involved in building a good career plan? It takes just four steps:
Step 1: Figure Out What You Want to Do with Your Career.
In short, what is the objective of your work? As fundamental as that may sound, many of us spend our entire careers trying to earn an ever bigger paycheck rather than working to build our sense of satisfaction and fulfillment at work. The U.S. Bill of Rights doesn't promise wealth to all Americans; it guarantees them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That's where you want to focus your career -- the pursuit of whatever brings you real, lasting joy in your work -- and it's never too late to start that quest.
Step 2: Identify Your Achievement Goal.
This is a goal that you can accomplish in the near term, say the next 6-12 months. It identifies an outcome you can achieve in your current job or employment situation, such as the completion of a special project, the solution to an especially tough problem or the resolution of strained relations with your boss or a co-worker.
The achievement goal enables you to make a meaningful contribution to your employer; that's the only definition of loyalty that makes any sense in the 21st century. Be loyal to yourself by advancing your own performance in the workplace; that's the only way to enjoy true employment security in the 21st century.
Step 3: Identify Your Advancement Goal.
This is a goal that you can accomplish in the mid- to longer term, say in the next 2-3 years. It identifies the next job you want to hold or the next level of work you want to perform. It may involve your current employer or it may require that you move to another work situation, but it will always represent a major leap forward in your effort to develop and express your capabilities in the workplace.
The advancement goal is the way you ensure that your career is always moving forward -- not up some employer's corporate ladder -- but ahead in terms of the skills and experience you can use in your work.
Step 4: Identify Your Development Goal.
This goal is a bridge that connects your achievement and advancement goals. It enables you to build on the success you achieve in your current job by adding the supplemental capabilities and knowledge that prepare you appropriately for the next challenge in your career. That might involve acquiring a new skill through training or a formal educational program; it might require that you achieve greater stature in your field through participation in your professional society or association; or it might mean that you gain more insight and understanding about certain aspects of your work through discussions with a mentor.
Once you have these four goals in place, revisit them occasionally to see how you're doing. Just as we sometimes forget to make our plane reservations and thus lose out on that great holiday we'd planned, you can forget to focus on your career goals and lose out on the security, opportunity and, ultimately, the happiness we deserve from our work.
I call this review process a "personal performance appraisal." It's a candid conversation that we hold with ourselves every quarter, just to make sure that we are still pursuing our own happiness. If we keep ourselves focused on that outcome, we will always enjoy our careers as much as we enjoy our vacations.
Peter Weddle is a veteran as well as the author or editor of more than two dozen employment-related books.
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