Instructions
Getting Started
Getting Started
How I Found My Dream
How The Process Works
Developing A Preliminary Plan
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Approximate
time needed for exercise: 2 hours
Open Ch. 1 Worksheet:
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Before you start the planning process there is one simple housekeeping duty that needs to be done that will help you save time and be more organized. Set up a file folder on your hard drive titled: MyCareerPlan. Put all exercises completed in this planning process in that file. These exercises will be labeled so that they are easily identified for later use.
When developing a career plan, as with any worthwhile plan, it must start with your career goals. Developing your career goals is one of the most important things you can do to assure yourself of a successful life. As Milton Katselas states in his book Dreams into Action,
| “To find your direction in life, to plan a successful career is one of the most important tasks in your life. To take a life, your life and steer it in a direction you would like, toward the career you want and the fulfillment of your dreams is the journey --- the only real journey. No matter how rich or famous you think you are, unless you harness your dreams and continue to grow and develop, a boring, sedentary life will set in. Similarly the person who thinks their dreams are at the bottom of the barrel, they feel apathetic and numb or think their lives have no chance --- they, too, can turn it around and change. Whether you feel you're successful, at the bottom of the barrel, or somewhere in between, it's time to shake yourself into action and onto the road of your dreams.” |
What direction do you want to take? What do you want to be doing ten years from now? What are the questions you need to ask yourself about your planned future?
Career Changes
The truth is that almost
no one makes a career choice early in their lives and follows it without
change straight through for the rest of their working life. The career
research tells us that most adults today will have made four or five career
changes in their working lifetime, because of changes in the work world
or changing directions in their lives. Most of these changes are related
and center around your strengths, passions and and opportunities.
The trick it seems, is to find a direction that involves most of your passions
or dreams. There is a career planning book out that states, "Do what
you love and the money will follow." The idea being that if you do
what you love, you will be better at it than others, and thus more successful.
So follow your dreams, get a good formal education, and success will follow.
If you wish a professional career you will need a sound education base
of a two year Associates degree, or a four year Bachelors degree.
This foundation and quality career planning should help you be a success
in most any occupation. If you already have a formal education or
your career does not demand one, you will probably need some specialized
training. But the key to starting your career planning is to harness
your dreams and make them drive your career plan.
Finding Your Dream
(Use
the worksheet for these questions)
All of us have had grand
ideas at some time in our life about what we would like to do. When
we are young it is probably driven by being famous or heroic. It
has more to do with what others think is important than what we would choose
for ourselves. What did you want to be when you were 10 years old
or less? _______________________
_____________________________________________________________________
As we grow older most of
us have modified or changed our career direction, based on what turns us
on, or something we have found success in doing. What did you want
to do when you were 15 years old? ________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
If you are older what are
your most recent career dreams? ____________________
______________________________________________________________________
Most of these decisions are
centered around what we dream we can be or would like to be. There
are many forces in our lives that affect what we want for ourselves.
What were some forces that have shaped your early life?
(positive:) _______________________________________________________________
(negative:) ______________________________________________________________
How much of your dream is your own passion and how much someone else's?
Write a few sentences about the dream that is yours. ___________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
Owning your dream is important, because when the going gets tough it may require superhuman strength to keep your dream moving forward. If the dream is your own passion and not someone else's it is possible for you to feel strong about it and persevere. When people believe strongly in something anything is possible. People have survived starvation and blizzards for days if they kept their hopes alive and believed that they had something to survive for. It is important that your dream is well thought out and deeply held.
Even though your career decision is important, there is a great deal more flexibility in developing a career than most people think. The trick is to find your dream or passion and develop a plan to make it come true. It is important to put your dream and the plan to make to come true in writing so that you can evaluate it, upgrade it, or change it when necessary. If you have a loose plan that is not written you have less chance for attaining it. If you don't have any record of where you are headed, it is guaranteed that it will take you much longer to get there if at all.
Next - How I Found My Dream