It may well be time to freshen up your career and dig yourself out of your professional rut.
Some inward searching is the place to start – working out what you’re missing, what’s changed, why things have changed, where you’d like to be and how you’d like to feel. The answers to these questions will inform the next steps of your health check and how to start making a plan to improve things.
Journaling can help with this, regularly documenting what’s happening in a day. Patterns, thoughts, daydreams, relationships in work, stresses etc.
This self-reflection may throw up a few issues that need addressing, may give clarity on a possible change of job or give you a clear idea of what you would like to change in order to feel re-energised at work.
Consider refreshing your online presence – your professional brand and promotion will bring a new network and support your growth. Being involved in online groups, productive conversations and relevant networking events are good places to reignite a passion for what you do for a job. Ask current or past colleagues to post a recommendation on your Linkedin platform, when someone else highlights your strengths it is another good way to see what you are good at and it helps to re-energise you.
Networking events offer a super opportunity to listen to new and fresh perspectives on topics which you may know a lot about. They can really help to bring the spark back into your job. Be mindful to pick your events carefully and not spend too much time doing this in lieu of other tasks.
Taking some time to develop a new skill can be a powerful way to refocus your mind and energy. From your initial self-reflection, you may have identified things that you enjoy and dislike about your job. Learning a new skill to add additional strings to your bow is a great way to enhance your ability in your role and also give you something new to focus on as part of your working day.
Skills which are in demand more now than ever:
Communication
Leadership
Conflict resolution
Emotional intelligence
Change management
Understanding technology
Business Development
Take a proactive approach to adult self-learning.
Volunteering can be a good way to give you chance to be involved in things which may support your growth, give you experience in new areas and develop additional skills. These can all really help to give you a new sense of purpose and renewed energy.
It may be that a new job and new company may be what you need to kick start your career after a stagnant period but with that self-reflection through journaling, making some proactive changes and putting plans into place, you should be able to know whether it’s a refresh in your current job that’s needed or a complete fresh start.
Being aware and catching yourself before things get on top of you is important, so diarising a career health check once per year is a sensible idea. Career mentors can be incredibly useful too and we explore the benefits of mentoring in our next blog.