Career Vision: Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
You've decided to create a career vision, you're going to become one of those people that has the career success plan.
But instead of a robust career vision board, you're coming up empty.
If that sounds like you keep reading, because in today's post, I'm going to ask you five questions that help you get clarity on what you want from your career.
What is a Career Vision?
In my last post, I told you about why a five year career plan is so necessary if you really want to be able to build the career that you dreamed of. The role of your career vision is it's actually a component of your five year career plan. It is a long term direction in terms of where you want to go.
Sounds easy, right?
Well, it's not so easy for the high achievers that I work with my Career Accelerator. Because here's the thing: when you're a top performer, you have so many options available to you, it's actually really challenging to pick one to really focus on. And that's why I'm going to help you narrow down your vision and discover what you truly want to get from your career by asking you five simple but powerful questions.
You are going to want to write down your answers, so either grab a notebook and a pen if you're like an old school type person like I am, or just open up a notepad on your computer or your phone and follow along.
Now let's get into it...
Question 1: What impact do you actually want to make in this world?
Now you don't actually have to pick only one thing, but for the purpose of this exercise, let's pretend that you do.
I'm going to walk you through this exercise, I invite you to take your time - close your eyes and visualize (Psst the video is linked above and I highly recommend listening to guide you through this exercise)...
You are being celebrated with a distinguished award for doing the work that you do. And you're not going to believe this, but Oprah is going to interview you. And she's going to ask you all about your journey and the amazing things that you accomplished along the way.
You can't believe that you're being celebrated and acknowledged for the contributions that you made to your industry and this world.
What contribution did you make?
Now open your eyes and write it down.
The first thing that came to mind might have actually felt a little bit disconnected. And that's not unusual. Like maybe you're a sales professional, but your actual vision is finding the cure for AIDS. While they may seem disconnected, they might not be entirely disconnected in terms of what your career is actually going to be and what your potential is that you want to capitalize on. For right now, you're just going to write it down.
Now goals for some of my clients have been they want to transform the accessibility of technology, they want to bring digital marketing into a more meaningful experience for their users, or they want to create schools in developing countries.
No matter what it is that you thought of no matter what came to mind, and how absurd or how linear it seems, write that thing down, because the first thing that came to your mind is is actually your truth.