How is your professional life going?

I think this is a good question to make to yourself from time to time. When you are in a company working in that busy routine or with tight deadlines for your projects, it’s more than common to just do things in automatic mode and don’t have time to evaluate critically how professionally satisfied you are or how well you are performing. However, people who are always moving forward with their career make a time dedicated to evaluating themselves and rearrange the route if needed.

Professional happiness is tightly linked with personal happiness. I’ve seen some gurus in the business world saying that if you are doing what you love (or what you enjoy doing every day) you will never be “working” again. What they mean is that when you are satisfied with what you do, the feeling of hard labour, the heavy part of waking up to go to work does not exist. Actually, this routine of going to work becomes a pleasant activity, similar to the weekends spent with family and friends. If you are having good times at work, you will possibly have friends there as well, not only co-workers.

I take this part very seriously and I generally put some goals in my year planning, like I mentioned in an article I wrote by the end of last year. I learned once with one of my managers, who became my friend as well, that this evaluation should be done continuously throughout the year. It’s definitely much easier to evaluate small pieces of your working life than to take only an overall view by the end of the year. If you have done this consistently over the whole period, when you plan the next year, you’ll have already clear goals to include, and even better, you know how important they are for your career and how to achieve them.

Depending on the field you work, the professional life may have various nuances, but some of them are quite common to every person and job. You have the general duties given to you; you may have specific tasks that are temporary; there are relationships with colleagues and superiors; there are the time constraints; and as always, the company may expect that you do something more than your job description. Taking a closer look to each of these aspects, you may be able to see what can be improved and which parts can just continue as is.

This article is actually an invitation to rethink your professional life and career.

I’ve seen people working for years in the same company and sometimes even in the same position. Later, when they leave the company, they start complaining that this or that was not satisfying and they recognize that they should have done something else before. Why waiting for this time if you can constantly check your route and put your ship in the right direction?

Imagine if a sailor waited for years of sailing to then check which harbour they will arrive. He will probably be lost in one of the vast oceans and luckily end up somewhere which will definitely not be his destination.

With your professional life is quite similar. If you don’t choose your destination and route, someone will probably do it for you, even if you don’t acknowledge it.

Take the responsibility of making your career something as fulfilling as a holiday trip. It’s just up to you.

You may need to reshape some relationships at work, or perhaps include some courses for improving in an area where you are not performing that well. You could also ask for feedbacks and find what people are expecting from you and where you could give more than you’re currently doing. Maybe you are not satisfied at all with your current job or career and maybe this is the time to make a big change.

Life is dynamic and you have to be aware of all the changes happening around you. You will probably be changing as well, which makes this re-evaluation and re-routing even more important.

Well, good luck!