How to actually set the practical actions, stick to them and finally, do what it takes for your successful career transition.
I am convinced that you can do almost anything for your successful career transition if you are willing to clarify your career goals and then make the investment to achieve them.
Making your career move, after figuring out what is your next career goal, is not complicated in terms of actions needed. But it is not easy as you need to invest your time and effort, and be willing to do the work.
Your clarity is the foundation for stepping into the ‘HOW’ strategy and process to reach your aims and desired transition.
After, it is your commitment and also the anticipation of what it takes to succeed that gives you the staying power. It will enable you to have clear intentions and do the needed actions for a successful transition.
How to make your actions fit your career transition goal and how to stick to them and actually do it?
Make sure you ever have your clear career goal, and mission behind it, in mind when you engage in any actions and tasks.
Keeping your goal in front of you will help make sure that your actions are meaningful, that you don’t waste to much time, and that the steps you set up to do will lead to achieving your goal.
It starts with knowing your goal, but it is not enough.
You also need a clear road map outlining the most effective steps you should, you could, and you will take. Define your required tasks and then jump into action.
And then the moment to do the set actions arrives.
You wake up and know exactly what you need to do. You picture yourself how all your ideas fit into concise actions. You walk towards your desk, turn on your computer, and then… ten minutes later, you are laughing at a youtube video and checking your social media feed.
You had your best intentions and believed you have set up an excellent plan for you. Yet somehow those aspirations did not translate into actions.
In an ideal world, big aspirations and road map equate to working towards them.
But being productive and engaging in highly effective actions doesn’t just happen. And nearly everything you want (great relationships, meaningful work, a particular lifestyle) can be traced back to actions. Not time. Build your small empowering habits and take actions over and over again, to reach your consistency.
And for a successful career transition, which is accompanied by emotional stress and usually with new actions you never needed to do before, this can be even more true. And possibly holding you back to succeed in it.
Best practices and steps you can (and should) take for setting up a consistent, productive action taking for a successful career transition.
Career transition is innately stressful, usually awakens your fears, and it may be one of the most challenging things any of us go through.
Here are a few basic steps we sometimes tend to forget, but each alone leads to more engagement and productivity daily.
Set up your environment for work
Activities for career transition are usually done from home, so you have to make it easier for yourself to get started. At home, the distraction level can be especially high.
Think about how you can set up your work area with only the things you need, if possible, as a separate space. And use your ‘work computer’, with minimal applications, and only open the tools you need to focus on your action and task at hand.
Listen to your biological clock and energize yourself
Focus on your working hours when your upbeat is higher, and you can concentrate best.
As just as there are times during the day when you feel more energetic, there are also limits to the amount you can work.
All of us can find our time pattern for the most productive use of the day time.
Be it working in the morning hours and then taking a more extended break, or sleeping in long and then working late night hours, or working in short bursts throughout the day, with shorter rests in between.
Getting your needed actions and tasks done has a lot to do with knowing when you have the highest energy levels. And giving yourself permission to give yourself time away from the desk, be it for taking a walk, having a healthy snack, or taking a power nap.
Getting your actions done is also not about squeezing every single task in every day. It is more about focusing on priority actions you defined in your road map to push you towards your desired goals.
Which lead me to the:
Use the ‘less is more’ principle
A lot of us like creating to-do lists. I was one of those for long. It made me feel so good when I made a checkmark beside the task done. Until I realized then, not all of the tasks got completed. And that left me stressed and feeling not very productive after all.
Mainly because I was most comfortable doing the easiest actions (in terms of mental effort and being the least challenging) first or even getting distracted after a while from the list. When I got around to the actions that were the most important ones, I would run out of time and energy.
To be honest, I still create my to-do list. But each morning, I clearly identify my priorities and the actions I firmly believe are crucial to lead to achieving my goal. I set one as my top priority and commit to start with that action.
I ever ask myself this one question: What action taken and thing achieved would lead me to a feeling of a successful day? It gets me super focused. And yes, giving myself a ‘day off’ and the permission to focus on myself and my family is also sometimes the answer.
When you focus your energy on high-impact actions, you can achieve your goals at a much more impressive velocity.
How do you know what the best and most important actions to take for a successful career transition are?
In career transition and job hunt, you can plan your actions. Some of them are also proven to be more efficient and lead you to your successful career transition. There are job hunt strategies and methods known that everyone should include in the execution campaign and actions.
But even more importantly, an individualized execution plan that is connected and based on your defined next goal and targeted audience is what you should focus on building. So you identify and prioritize the possible most high-impact actions.
They should (and must) be:
-connected to and predictive of your transition goal – and to get the genuine commitment to do them, you should believe that if you do them diligently, you are most likely to achieve your new career goal
-entirely in your control and possible to do regularly (within a tactical timeline), which leads to turning them into habits and processes
From here on, daily intentions and targets are essential to help you consistently take these high-impact actions and make significant progress towards your career transition goal.
And if there is a day your plan doesn’t work out the way you have imagined, give yourself some slack. I have also finished this article one day later than intended. Just reflect on it and be honest about why it had happened.
Also, reflecting on your previous day enables you to identify more clearly the most valuable actions and strategies you want (should) do. And it gives you the staying power to do it the next day.
I see it often that people know what they want to achieve in the future, but fail to make meaningful progress as they do not have the clarity on what actions they should be taking today. And do them.
Stick to your career transition goal and succeed
Procrastination, distractions, and even just laziness many times seem to get in the way of what we want.
Clarity and everyday progress with your actions is my phrase.
Choose your career goals and actions carefully, remind yourself over and over again on them, and take the daily progress approach.
Be intentional. The transition will feel less intimidating and more manageable.
Prepare yourself as much as possible to succeed. You need to strategize and create opportunities.
Focus on accessible, efficient steps, and take consistent actions over time.
Success, also in transition times, is more about endurance and sustainability, and is not so much about the big win in one day, than about the continual practice.
Build your support and accountability system. You do not have to walk alone, and you should not have to walk alone in transition times. Everyone needs people around, just make sure you reach out to the right ones.
And invest in your goals. Only those who invest themselves and their resources are genuinely committed. Your initial investment will be your time and energy. Then you will squeeze in new learnings.
Only those who are committed are willing to change themselves to uphold their decision and needed actions. You are no longer just thinking.
You begin doing.