Last week on Instagram we chatted about finding clarity in your life and asked you what you were focusing on right now. A lot of you mentioned career was at the top of your list right now and that’s perfect because that’s what we are trying to help you advance in! But for those of you that had said you hadn’t quite found the clarity in your career that you wanted, here is a list of things you can do right now to help you get focused on what matters to you most and also how you’re going to go after them.
1. Adjust your goals
Making a change or trying to advance your career is going to take some time. But if you don’t know what you are working towards, reaching the level of success you want will be a much harder task. Take a day to write down everything you want. Don’t just write down what you want for your career but for all areas of your life. Everything is intertwined and having clarity in your personal life can give you clarity for how and what you are going to accomplish in your career. Your career could be on the fast track but if your personal life is sub par, it will take a toll on your career.
We don’t live our life in silos. You are a whole person every day in every space you’re in.
2. Reverse engineer it
Now that you have a list of what you want to accomplish and what success looks like to you, you need to make a plan on how you’re going to get there. Let’s say your goal is to turn your side hustle into your main hustle. What is required for you to be able to do that? Is it to have x number of clients a month so you can make the income you need to cover all your bills? Maybe you have the clients but you just need to streamline the process and automate some of the other things so you can focus on growth and providing more value.
Whatever it may be that you need, start from your end goal and work your way backwards to today. Finalize what that path looks like from how you are going to get from here to there and within the timeline you want.
3. Put it on the calendar
You’ve got the plan, you’ve got the steps you need to do to get there. Now it’s time to execute it.
Let’s go back to the previous example. You’re trying to make your side hustle your main hustle. Put your steps into your calendar and block out the time you’re going to need to execute them. Let’s say you’re using Instagram to market your business, block out a few hours every day to create your content. engage with your audience, and do outreach to grow. Once it’s in your calendar you’re more likely to do it. It’s no longer a long to-do list, it’s a plan you’re ready to implement.
4. Check back in
In a few weeks check back in on that plan and timeline. How are you doing? Do you need to make any adjustments? Has something unexpected gotten in the way and now it’s going to take a bit more time to get where you want to go? Or maybe, you actually have been making great progress and are ahead of schedule! Go ahead and move up that timeline!
The first step here was the most important. You have to know where you’re going if you’re ever going to get there. Spend as much time as you need to really narrow down that list and be honest with yourself. Is there something on that list that you don’t really want but everyone is telling you you should? Scrap it. Don’t put something on the list you don’t actually want. Also, is there something you’ve left off the list because you think it is too far out of reach? Tell fear to f-off. You can accomplish anything you want if you’re willing to put in the work and I know that you are. Put it on the list, reverse engineer it to see the path, take it one step at a time.
Any goal can seem way too big to take on when you look just at the end. Break it into bite size pieces and celebrate the small victories. A step forward is still a step forward no matter how big.
Let us know on Instagram @thetecheffect what your biggest goals are! We also want to hear about those small wins!