5 Tips for Achieving Your Career, Your Way!

Achieving success requires more than luck, more than hard work – it requires a plan. The
fastest way to take control of your career and steer yourself to destinations of your choice is to treat your career as a business and treat yourself as a competitive product, using the
same strategic planning steps that businesses use to position themselves competitively.

1. Review your assets and liabilities, determine your differentiators, and obtain
customer feedback. Define yourself as a competitive product, challenge yourself by facing any weaknesses, and commit yourself to systematic improvement and upgrades. Identify those things that you do better than other people and seek to understand the perception others have of you.

2. Identify and evaluate your competitors. Competition is a fact of life. You need to compete for what you want. Competition and what you can learn from it should be viewed positively and embraced. Strive to be your best by understanding yourself and your competitors.

3. Determine your goals and create your strategic plan. Goals reflect what you want to accomplish to improve yourself. They will lead you to a greater sense of commitment and motivation as you pursue your aspirations. Like using a roadmap to arrive at a destination, having a clear strategic plan in place helps ensure you achieve your aspirations efficiently and quickly.

4. Implement your strategic plan and check your progress. Strategic plans, like ideas, are effective only if you implement them. Having and implementing a personal strategic plan requires that you review and demonstrate progress. Make immediate corrections to unproductive or unsuccessful plans as soon as they become apparent. Do not procrastinate!

5. Stay focused and be sure to celebrate and reward achievements. Tenacity, courage and commitment are essential to achieving your career aspirations. Focus on the positive, but be prepared to overcome obstacles. Most important, give yourself encouragement and rewards that will help provide motivation and pleasure as you continue achieving your goals.

You truly can manage your career, your way. You can put yourself in the driver’s seat, steering yourself toward destinations of your choice. Take control and be proactive! Never doubt that your dreams are worthy of your best efforts. It’s hard work and you’re worth the investment!

Source: Lisa Quast (http://www.careerwomanic.com/)