Having a Career Vision

Picture this: It’s summertime and you have just finished your final year exams. Summer break has started. As your home fills with visiting relatives, you find yourself inundated with the familiar and often repetitive question – What do want to do after you graduate? What career are you thinking of? And sometimes you found it cumbersome to answer it repeatedly. However, that question did make you put on your thinking caps and ponder as to what career would suit you the best.
Now tell me, how many of you were able to exactly envision a distinguished career track? Most of you would now agree that you had no idea about the correct answer and just got onto the bandwagon possibly driven by a desire to compete. Well, I am now very sure that with time you have had more clarity of what you presently do. On other hand, aren’t we still worried about what choices we have? Are you torn between pursuing your dream and financial stability? Do you often yearn for a sense of purpose and direction in your professional life? If yes, then it’s time to tap in the transformative power of having a career vision.

Now Picture this: You wake up every morning with a fire in your belly, excited to embark on your journey toward a meaningful and fulfilling career. Your day starts with gratitude for your work and ends with satisfaction of a productive day. How did you feel? Did you feel confident? Did you feel fulfilled and satisfied?

This is what having a career vision helps you with. Career vision acts like a north star that ignites your drive to reach new heights in your career. A career vision is a clear picture of your professional pursuits. It’s all about self-awareness – knowing your strengths, passion and most importantly knowing your values and aligning them with your aspirations. Having a career vision empowers you to take measured and methodical decisions, foresee, accept & resolve the risks with a certain phoenix like confidence. Challenges become opportunities, setbacks become stepping-stones and achievements become milestones. So how to start crafting a career vision for yourself?

Having a career vision requires a lot of self-exploration & reflection. Make time to assess your professional skills, your personal strengths, core values and fields of interest. Simple questions like What am I good at, what are my interests and what are my skills are the easiest yet effective ways for self- reflection and exploration. Another common yet simple and impactful method is the SWOT analysis. You can also try taking online personality tests/ questionnaires that are freely available on the internet – while they may not be as effective, they will surely help you find what you don’t want! Understanding what you dislike paves the path to know what you wish for.

Many a times we don’t even dare to dream big. Ask what legacy you wish to leave behind that and allow yourself to dream big! Afterall, you can be anything and anyone in your dreams – so why not be bold, brave, beautiful and be battle ready!

Create a career vision statement that will inspire you regardless of where you are now. Putting the vision into words will make set a motion for you to act upon it. This statement should energize & motivate you. It should make you restless and should make you excel yourself for a better future. How would you feel if you are driving on a highway without any specific destination in mind? Lost, right?

As Kalpana Chawla said – The path from dreams to success does exist. May you have the vision to find it, the courage to get on to it and the perseverance to follow it.