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Once we’ve narrowed our focus and considered different ways to improve ourselves, moving toward a dream career becomes a little easier. However, it’s vital to take an honest look at personal obligations before jumping into a career that might challenge your ability to keep them.
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Once we've narrowed our focus and considered different ways to improve
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ourselves, moving toward a dream career becomes a little easier;
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however, there are more things to consider than your skills or experience
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as you make choices along the path you'll follow.
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Your needs and wants matter a great deal, but you might also have to
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consider the needs of others.
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It's vital to take an honest look at personal obligations before jumping into a
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career that might challenge your ability to keep them.
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For example, your family.
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Do you need a job that offers financial stability for you and your family?
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Do you need health benefits for them as well?
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Overall, what kind of work situation could you live with?
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For people with families and similar concerns, a more conservative approach
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to your career is often appropriate; however, if you're younger and
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don't have the same obligations, you may have a lot more flexibility to pursue
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different kinds of jobs.
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Your Finances: Simply put, how much money do you need to make?
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It's not all about getting rich.
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It's important to consider how you will pay your bills or perhaps pay off debt,
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like student loans, a mortgage, and more.
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If you don't have as many financial constraints, you should have flexibility to
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pursue jobs that don't pay as much but might be a better match
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with your skills and interests.
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Your Location: Certain jobs and industries might be difficult to get into
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where you are; however, so many tech jobs offer flexibility because the work
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you do can be primarily online.
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The challenge becomes finding those businesses that
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offer the jobs you'd want to do.
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After this analysis, do you need to stay where you are or could you leave?
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Moving might be the way to go, but remember that the supply of jobs
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can be cyclical, so it's important to research your industry and
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the geographical region you have in mind before taking that step.
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Things can get overwhelming quickly for anyone considering a career change.
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Sometimes, it's just easier to write it all down and give everything a second look.
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What can't you live without?
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What needs are non-negotiable?
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For some help with this, we asked author C.C. Chapman for another activity
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that can help us focus and plan our attack.
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So one of the activities in the book is called, "Simplify, focus, and attack,"
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and it may sound sort of self-explanatory at first, but to be able to focus
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on what it is that you want to do—whether it's a career path or whether
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it's a project, or whether it's a business goal.
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It seems like there's a lot that you can do with this activity.
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What can we learn from this?
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[C.C. Chapman] [Author: Amazing Things Will Happen]
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I'm one of those guys who always has a million things going on,
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so the "Simplify, focus, attack" approach has always been something
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that I try to do and try to live, and what it means is that,
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if you have a million things on your plate, you're never going to get
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them all done—something's going to suffer.
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So that, you simplify—get it down to a couple—let's focus on the career side.
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If you're looking to take your job to the next level or even get a new job, right?
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Simplify down what it is exactly what you want.
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Is it—do you want to keep doing the same thing you're doing now?
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Is it to step up into a new realm of designing or developing?
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Maybe it's starting your own business.
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Really simplify it down to a couple key objectives of things you want
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because then you can focus on them because the shorter the list—
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I don't know about your to-do list.
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My to-do list on any given day is way too long, so simplify it down to
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those ones that you can focus on, and then the last step is the most crucial.
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It's one people skip on.
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They actually don't attack.
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They don't do the work.
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They don't make it happen.
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Making a list is easy.
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Putting in the time to make those things happen—not so easy,
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so that's why you simplify it down, you focus on what you're trying to do,
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and then you attack and get it done.
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So from a project point of view, I think we can also take
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"Simplify, focus, and attack" and apply it towards projects as well.
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So from a project management type of methodology of—
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let's say, for example, that the designers and devs out there, this is probably
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a common issue that comes up, is you have someone come to you with a
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project that they want built—a website; say, a portfolio project, for example.
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How can we take "Simplify, focus, and attack," and apply it to a project
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like this?
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What's a good way that we can apply this methodology?
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Sure—so as you're sitting there talking to your clients—
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clients are always going to want—they want everything, right?
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They want it all, and they can't pay for it all, so sitting down with them and
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actually saying, "What are the top five things?
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"Let's simplify it—let's narrow it down to the five things you must have in this site,"
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and then what I like to do is talk about, "What are the nice-to-have things,"
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that second tier, because then you can focus on the things that really matter
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and it focuses them.
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It's one of those exercises that it doesn't matter what sort of project
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you're working on with a client.
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If you get them to actually talk about what is it that they really, really need,
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it'll let them focus, and then it allows you to attack the things
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that they want the most.
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Now part of that focus means taking a good, hard, and honest look at
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personal needs and personal obligations, and no matter what it is
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that you want to do, there's always things that are getting in the way,
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whether it's short-term things like, "I've got to take my kids to soccer practice,"
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or longer-term concerns like financial—things like, "I have to pay back
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student loans," or "How am I supposed to do this if I've got this in the way."
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How can you take your "Simplify, focus, and attack" approach and be able to
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sort of put those concerns—those needs and obligations—in the right context
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to move forward.
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So one of the exercises I talk about is stepping through and really figuring out
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what it is in your life that you have to take care of.
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Me having 2 kids and a wife and a mortgage—I've got a lot more
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responsibilities than, maybe, a college student, but they've got
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student loans—they've got rent, they've got other things.
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Let's face it.
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I hate these people who give advice—"Just jump off the cliff.
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Jump into whatever you want to do."
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That's dangerous and stupid because—yeah, they might work out
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in the long run, but you could also throwing yourselves to the sharks.
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So really take an honest look.
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Write down all the things that you've got to take care of.
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Get really specific.
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Here's my budget I've got to cover on a month-to-month basis
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because you don't want to end up on the street, but then again,
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maybe one of the options is, get roommates,
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but there's always alternatives, but if you don't actually take the time
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to look at those things and write them out and really focus on them,
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you're never going to know.
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Maybe you can do it.
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It's never going to be the right time.
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It's like having kids.
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It's never the right time.
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You never have enough money and time, but you'll make time
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for the things you believe in.
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Be sure to try this activity for yourself and consider the results.
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Are they in line with your personal needs and obligations?
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Do they provide the focus you need to move forward,
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and certainly, consider your family as well.
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If you have people that rely on you, have an honest conversation with them.
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You may discover that they are as passionate about your dreams
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and seeing you succeed as you are.
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