What Is Success?
The fact is that everyone’s idea of success is different, so instead of just assuming you know what it means, think about what it means to you – that can be something completely different. Take a minute to consider what it is you want and what you’d call being successful; could it be that you want to make a positive impact on the world? Do you want to have a flexible working life? Do you want to master a specific skill?
Whatever it is, whether it’s something people might expect or something out of the ordinary, that’s what you should be building your career towards. Once you get clear on your own personal definition of success, you’ll have a much better idea of which paths to take as you move forward.
Play To Your Strengths
Take a good look at what you’re naturally good at – it could be problem-solving, creativity, connecting with people, and so on. Whatever it is, if you lean into that and play to your strengths, it’s going to make work feel less of a chore and more like something you’re actually good at – mainly because you are!
It’s easy to get caught up in our weaknesses and to worry about them, but when you do that, you’re forgetting about the things you’re good at, and you might be missing out on opportunities as a result. So when you’re looking for jobs, make sure you find the ones that are going to let you play to your strengths as much as possible, and you’ll be doing well.
Be Aware Of Challenges
Building a career that works for you also means being aware of things that could affect your progress, like your health, for example. Take hearing loss as one potential health issue you might need to deal with – it’s often ignored or overlooked, but it can definitely cause issues when it comes to communication and even productivity.
The key is to know when you might have challenges like this and understand how it could impact you, and that can make a massive difference in how well you’re able to move forward and build the career you want. In other words, if you’re more aware of potential issues that could easily become larger obstacles, you’ll be able to manage and adapt to them, and even ask for measures to be put in place at work to help you, and when that happens, no career growth will be out of reach.