Personal growth is a journey that’s never complete. It’s easily sidelined by the day’s urgent tasks, yet it’s essential for long-term job satisfaction and
advancement. There are some tips for career growth.
Set strategic goals
Invest some time brainstorming about your career. If you’re unsure what you want to do next, take the time you need for research, informational
interviewing, job shadowing and exploration. Once you understand where you want to go, it’s much easier to put together a plan to get there.
Set tactical goals
Start each day with a list of specific action items. Be sure to include tasks that support your personal growth goals at least once a week. Prioritize
the list to ensure the important things are addressed first. Unfinished items can be rolled over to the next day. And consider removing any items that are continually deferred.
Keep the big picture in mind
Post a reminder in your workspace to help you maintain focus on a larger business/career goal as the demands of the day distract you from more
strategic concerns. Change your reminder as needed; or create a set and post a new one every month.
Give it a deadline
It’s easy to defer action items—like those related to your own personal growth—when they don’t have deadlines. Elevate the importance of
tasks on the path to your personal growth by assigning firm, but realistic deadlines.
Allow transition time
An eight-hour workday doesn’t produce eight hours of output. There are too many interruptions and it’s unrealistic to think you can always finish one
task and immediately hit the ground running on another. When planning workdays and workloads allow for some transition time between tasks.
Learn from criticism
When your work or behavior is criticized, try not to take it personally. Try to remove any “attitude” from feedback you receive and focus on the
information. Chances are there’s something in it you can learn from. In fact, that’s the key value of criticism.
It gives us a different perspective and provides the opportunity to learn.
Share your results
The greater awareness others have of your successes, the more your career will benefit. As you develop project and career goals, establish metrics to measure your progress and success. When you have solid progress to report, share it with your team. Don’t brag, frame your accomplishments
in a form that others will benefit from. For example how you cut costs, relieved a bottleneck, applied new technology to an old problem, etc.
Stay positive
You can’t control the world around you, only your reaction to it. Think of your reactions as an opportunity for personal growth. Most of the time the cure for negative feelings is their opposite. When you feel judgmental, think of it as a chance to learn how to be more accepting and compassionate. When you feel insecure, use the occasion to learn how to be more confident and independent.
Increase your productivity
It may be counterintuitive to stop working when you have a lot to do, but it actually makes you more productive. Non-stop work slowly begins to take its toll on productivity. A short break will refresh your body and mind.
Regards
Muhammad Umar