What is a Career Vision & Why you May need One
Let’s talk about your career Vision. Do you have one? Do you know what it means or how it may help you? Do you know what impact it may have on you and your career planning? Have you thought about your future or the steps you may need to take to get there? Have you thought about what you want personally in your life now that you are in midlife and how you can weave your career into your personal planning at this stage of the game?
All of these questions should be part of your non-negotiables at this stage of your life. Perhaps you did this when you were younger and are still on track or perhaps you need to adjust your career vision or more likely you have not worked on this for yourself ever. Whatever the case may be, creating a holistic career vision at this stage will help you start to get unstuck, move you forward and start thinking about all of the desires and interests you want midlife.
So - What is a Career Vision?
A vision for your career is about understanding and creating your definition of what defines success at a specific point in the future. This could be in a year or 5 years or 10 or retirement - it’s about figuring out how you want your professional life to look like, choosing a date and envisioning a future scenario of what you want to be doing at that time.
Your title or salary or amount of vacation weeks etc will be intentionally vague but it should be very specific about how it makes you feel, what you're unwilling to compromise on, and the steps or roadmap to get there. Your Career Vision is a combination of personal and professional, especially at midlife. So approach this holistically by combining your personal and professional life together in order to be super clear on how you envision your life in the future and how you are going to get there.
Career Visioning is not like goal setting - in visioning you are exploring what roles will help you create the life and career that you want in the future. How this role will get you to where you want to be both in your personal life and financially in your professional life.
Steps to create Your Career Vision - get present!
Grab your journal, a cup of tea or wine, light a candle, kick the kids/partner/dog/cat out of the room, get cozy and take a deep breath:
Start by imagining your future and what you want for yourself and or family - what do I want?
Imagine yourself already there, really feel it - what does it feel like - write that down; who are you with; where are you; what does your life look like?
Are you doing the same work? Are you doing something new? Have you moved up the ladder? Have you moved down for more freedom and time? Are you contracting? Are you working part time? What is it that you see for yourself? Spend some time here and really dig in to what you want and what makes most sense to you and your family. Finances play a key part in this vision and needs to be realistic so envision a holistic scenario that is balanced and realistic
Essentially you are playing a wee trick on your clever brain by creating something that feels essentially real - your brain cannot tell that it isn't
You are creating your amazing future right now, in the present tense - you are declaring to the universe that you are in control, you are making your growth happen - your brain will believe it and you will move towards this clear vision
Once you are clear on the above, think about when you want this to happen. Is it next year, in 5 years or 10? You are going to pick a specific date in your future. Write this down.
Next - you are going to craft your Career Vision Statement. This is a simple sentence written in the present tense like it has already happened - like a memory of your future. For example:
“It's September 15th, 2028th and I have worked incredibly hard to get here. I'm very proud of all the hard work and planning I have done over the last 4 years to get me where I am today, which is moving from my full time position to consulting with my company part time.”
Career Vision Questions to ask yourself
As you are crafting your vision and are imagining yourself in the future think about these questions to help you see yourself and situation more clearly:
What would my new morning routine look like?
How will I feel when I wake up and at the end of the day?
What would be different for me in my personal life and work life?
What plans or projects will light me up?
What kind of events or trips would be on my calendar?
Will I be in a leadership role and how will I show up?
Will I be in school? Will I be learning new skills? Will I be retired?
Career Visioning can help you get unstuck
There is more to getting unstuck than just doing a Career Vision including mindset work, but it is a great place to get you moving in the right direction. Your vision will help you clarify what is important for you in the future and begin to move you closer to this goal.
Listen to that amazing gut of yours - your intuition. Reflect on the following questions to get a read on your feelings:
I have just created my Career Vision - when I read it over thinking of the date I marked, is this vision getting me closer to where I want to be or further away? Now take a moment and listen to your gut when you ask yourself that question. How did it make you feel? Did it feel true? Attainable? Reasonable? Exciting?
If the vision rings true and you feel excited, hopeful, motivated, giddy - ask yourself what are the next steps to get you there? How will I move toward my vision? You have just flipped your mindset to seeing and believing in what you want, defining it and now you have momentum to move towards it! Hurray!
Use your Career Vision every day
Congratulations - how do you feel? Lighter and more hopeful? I sure hope so. You can create these career visions on different scales as well from future oriented to micro in nature like planning for a work weekend away.
Your Career Vision simply put is your definition of what you think your success will be at a specific point in the future. What’s my vision for job succession? What’s my retirement plan? What’s my vision for the next step in my career? What’s my vision for starting my own company or consultancy?
Your career vision transforms your life and the way you see yourself in the future and puts it into a very different light. Go back to this tool over and over again. Review this Future Career Vision annually, tweak it. Get in the practice of having an abundant mindset and continue to dream and craft the future you want and see for yourself.
As always feel free to reach out if you want to talk about your career and life!