Imagine lying around watching your favorite movie, and someone asks, “What is your career vision?” Most of us would not have an answer. Most individuals are vague when it comes to their career vision.  Sometimes a person reaches a certain point in their career when they are no longer sure just what they want to do.  With COVID, new technologies and remote work, the changing landscape of careers has made it more difficult to see where your career may go.

These changes are leading to career-related confusion because everyone is questioning their career choices and progress in life. All these factors result in anxiety, frustration, and low productivity.  By developing a career vision, you will ensure that you are heading in the right direction and can check to see how you are progressing.

How To Create Your Career Vision

Make The Choice

Brainstorm all the different ideas you have for your career.  Where do you see yourself going with your career? How far do you want to move up the corporate ladder? Do you see yourself going out on your own? What do you love about your career? These questions will help you focus and bring some clarity to your vision. Start by choosing one path or idea and see where you want to take it. Consider your life and career options as you make a choice.

Read

Once you’ve determined the choice, you need to conduct research to learn about the topic by going through videos, listening to podcasts, communicating with the field’s professionals, and joining webinars. With this research, your thought process and perspective will shift while helping increase your confidence, and your career vision will become clearer.  This will allow you to see potential opportunities and pathways to enhance your career.

Plan

Take some time to put a plan together to achieve your career goals. This will be your career roadmap. Remember that there may be detours or changes along the way and you need to question and think how they will benefit – or undermine – your overall vision. Sometimes you may need to make a mistake or misstep to find your eventual path.

Importance Of Having A Career Vision

Add Meaning To Your Work

Having a clear career vision will help you understand the “why” of your current career and where it may progress to. You will be able to understand your work tasks, and you will start taking them as challenges, resulting in greater clarity in your career vision.  Having knowledge about the “why” will help you see the bigger picture leading you to experience career fulfillment.

Become Motivated

There are times in our careers when we get frustrated and don’t feel like working. It happens when we have nothing to look forward to. Even more, it leads to procrastination that hinders productivity and performance at the current job. On the contrary, having a career vision will help you overcome these tiring aspects and will promote an effortless career flow. It will create a roadmap that helps you understand your vision, and you will eventually look forward to every milestone with confidence.

Improve Your Focus

Getting distracted from exploring new and exciting opportunities is common.  When something does not get our unwavering attention, pending tasks will only lead to more stress. Having a career vision will lessen this mental and emotional frustration. In addition, it will ensure that you stay focused on tasks and projects that align with your career goals.

Make Efficient Career Decisions

When you have access to a clear career roadmap, you will be able to make value-based career decisions. Decision-making is an essential part of our daily life, but it can drain your energy.  Having a clearly developed career vision, however, will facilitate quick and effective decision-making, minimizing your energy drain.

A career vision is invaluable in helping you make certain decisions that will further your career progression!

Author(s)

  • Mark Danaher

    Career, Life and Leadership Coach, Virtual Speaker and Trainer

    Careers by Design LLC

    Mark Danaher is a career/life/leadership coach and certified career counselor who helps leaders elevate their careers and life to one they will love.  He helps his clients make the best of tough situations so they can be their best professionally and personally.   Mark uses coaching along with his extensive career development knowledge and expertise to offer his clients a uniquely holistic approach to making career and life pivots.  He helps his clients manage burnout, stress, and anxiety, integrate balance into their lives so they can make a meaningful change in their lives. He uses a holistic narrative career approach to help people tell their stories and learn from their careers and life.  Mark completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Connecticut in Economics and History and went on to earn his Masters at the University of Connecticut in Counseling Psychology.   Mark was the President of the National Career Development Association in 2014-2015 and continues to volunteer for the organization.   He is certified as a Certified Professional Coach, Certified Career Counselor, Holistic Narrative Career Professional, Retirement Options Coach, 2 Young to Retire Coach, Job, and Career Development Coach, Job and Career Transition Coach, and a Certified Career Service Provider.  Mark is a Master Trainer for the Facilitating Career Development Certificate and School Career Development Advisor certificate is actively coaching training, and teaching throughout the year.  He is now a Master Practioner of the Energy Leadership Index which is a great assessment to understand how you use your energy in your everyday life and under stress.  It gives you a great insight into how you can improve your everyday interactions and connections with colleagues, employees, family, and beyond.