Keep Advancing on the Career Ladder

Reaching for career perfection is a goal of every person stemming from the dreams of their youth.  Laying in bed as a young child, you dreamt of one day being a firefighter, princess, or a successful business owner.  As you proceeded through high school and the ensuing pains of growing, your mind shifted into the more practical thoughts of simply getting into college and becoming something that simply interests society rather than studying what interests you.  As you lackadaisically go towards your degree, you seem to feel this sense that your world has become so small, and your career ladder has lost several rungs.  Entering into your first job out of college, you now feel like a corporate slave rather than a person with a successful and emotionally gratifying career.  It’s now time to assess just how tall your ladder really is.

Assess Lingering Career Concerns

Simply staying put in a job that has no long term benefit for you or your family has more than negative financial recourse; it can also cause your emotional self to wear down to the point of ineffectively raising kids or even being a wife. In order to get your current career life properly assessed, you’ll need to reiterate what initially shrank your ladder in the first place.  Checking out some growing careers for the next decade will provide clarity what’s up and coming in society.

Was it some influential assistance that guided your decisions in the wrong direction in chasing your dreams, or perhaps could it have been simply the lack of available resources that prevented you from catapulting higher up the ladder? No matter the reasoning for your current unhappy state, you need to do the dreaded ‘moral inventory’ to see where your path has led you to this point, and once you find the fork you once faced, you can then choose the next road to take that may perhaps create better, more fruitful, and emotionally gratifying opportunities for you to explore.

Why Ladders Shrink

Ladders shrink over time mainly due to one’s mental state.  If you believe nothing better is out there will naturally cause your eyes to see in black and white.  In order to extend your ladder to outrageous heights and see in vivid color again, you need to change the course of your thought process towards the realization that ‘better things come to those who aggressively seek’.  Take chances that you never thought would fly before are perhaps the very same chances that could have been the springboard that was necessary in landing the job you have so eagerly sought.  Should working solo provide better possibilities, perhaps get your feet wet during times off work by undertaking pro bono freelance writing projects.

Now that your career is at an impasse, revisiting the chances you passed on in your earlier years would be my first suggested course of action, and even perhaps acting upon them.  While sitting idly by and watching years drift away from you seems like the comfort zone of choice for many people currently lodged in a career field, your ladder will continually shrink as time goes on until finally either you are sickened with depression, pass away feeling you never did what you wanted to, or perhaps not fully vested in a retirement because you still need to work.  Your ladder will only rise higher if you plant the feet firmly on the ground and look up towards the next rung, not down at the ones passed.

Dave G. provides his unique perspective on careers, writing and general economic nomenclature from time to time. You’ll find him ranting about his Cubs, writing all day and traveling the lower 48.

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Tags: career ladder

Category: Personal Branding