The best way to achieve your goals and grow your career is to minimize pressure on yourself. You don’t want to become overwhelmed.
It’s critical to realize that you won’t achieve your career goals overnight. You have to build your career daily, monthly, and yearly.
“A man’s reach should exceed his grasp.”
Robert Browning, an English poet and playwright
Chip away at your career goals little by little. It’s essential to develop a flexible plan about it as well.
Creating the right professional skills can help you fend off potential career downturns and aim high with your career.
How to successfully grow your career
Achieving your career goals is all about balance. It would help if you aimed high, but not too high.
If you’re looking for ways to take your career to the next level, these 10 tips can help you successfully grow your career and reach your goals.
1. Study successful people
You can learn a lot about your career from reading about successful people. When you study them, you get yourself into the right mindset to learn how they achieved the same goals you have set for yourself.
Successful people read things that will increase their wealth by reading books on topics such as personal finance, investments, influence, body language, and self-improvement.
Set a goal to read books by successful people.
When you study successful people, you learn from their successes and mistakes.
You avoid having to learn everything by yourself. You get inspired to think about what success means to you and your career.
2. Talk to your boss about your career vision
If you are interested in a new promotion or challenging assignment, ask your boss for it. Your boss may not know you are a rock-star employee. It’s your job to talk to your boss about your career vision.
Take some time to prepare materials that back up your case for a promotion, and then schedule time with your boss to present them.
If you don’t know if you have earned a shot at the next level, talk with your boss about what you need to do to make it happen.
Check-in with your boss to ensure your good work doesn’t go unnoticed.
Your career is your responsibility, not the responsibility of your manager.
3. Exercise regularly
Most adults don’t exercise for at least 30 minutes a day. Don’t be one of those people. Exercise impacts your brain as much as it does your body.
Exercise is vital for memory capacity and concentration.
Research shows that regular exercise can help stimulate the release of a chemical called brain-derived neurotrophic factor that helps rewire memory circuits.
The bottom line is that exercise helps improve how your brain functions.
If you had to choose between sleep and exercise, pick exercise because exercise for 30 minutes a day significantly impacts your health. If you are averaging 7 hours of sleep every night, pick exercise. Your career will thank you.
4. Start a hobby
Your brain needs activity to function correctly. To grow your career, you need to be a well-round person. Stay active with sports, hiking, yoga, arts and crafts. Find a hobby that helps you escape from the everyday grind of work.
I find my hobby outside of work helps me with work. Often you can learn something outside of work that applies to work. It doesn’t have to be.
The goal of a hobby is to refresh your mind and think about things differently.
A hobby helps you avoid burnout, relieve stress in your life, and promote happiness. It is also good for your physical health and gives you a confidence boost.
Hobbies provide you with an opportunity to enhance your life beyond work.
5. Learn to unplug
Unplugging has become more critical as the lines blur between work life and home life. It would be best to have time away from work to unwind and recharge your batteries.
If you are constantly checking emails and your smartphone, you won’t turn your brain off, and you will soon start down the path of overworking.
To achieve your career goals, you need to devote 100% of your energy to them.
When you are not working, you need to unplug and relax.
When you are working, you need to be fully present. Your work performance will improve when you learn how to unplug from work.
To make this happen, make sure you don’t have technology in your bedroom or time block, no use of electronics.
You could also turn off email and social media notifications on your smartphone. If these tips don’t work, you could track how much time you spend online every day, or you could go on a detox.
6. Attend a conference
Pick an event you are interested in that will provide you with network opportunities. A conference is about learning from your fellow conference attendees as much as it is about learning from the speakers.
They will help you along your career journey. You’ll never know when they can help you find your next job.
Choose a conference where you’ll be able to meet new people and help you do your job better.
People who take the time to attend conferences improve their career prospects.
Attending a conference can help you increase your career network, increase understanding of your industry, uncover new learning opportunities, and reinforce your existing knowledge.
7. Find a mentor
It takes a village to become an executive. To grow your career, it’s essential to have much support as possible. It would be best if you had support beyond your colleagues at work.
Cultivate a relationship with a mentor that can help you get through the bad times and help you celebrate your successes. Mentorship is a relationship where a more experienced or knowledgeable person guides a less experienced or less knowledgeable person.
Mentors help their protégés solve problems.
A mentor can advise and provide recommendations on approaching situations at work. They will also challenge you to think about different stages of your career.
Mentoring pays off as much for mentors as it does for mentees.
8. Establish successful career habits
Habits are critical to your career success. Changing minor habits can make a huge difference in your career. It’s important to replace bad habits with good ones. For example, update your resume every six months instead of waiting until you apply for a job.
Updating your resume and LinkedIn profile with your achievements helps you keep track of everything you have accomplished at your company.
It enables you to take a step back and see how much you have learned and grown. It can also motivate you since you’ll be reminded of the skill gaps you still need to address.
Creating better habits can go a long way in helping you achieve your career goals.
Devoting less time to social media and focusing more time on your career can help you.
Update your LinkedIn profile and make sure you are connected with everyone you know on LinkedIn. The little things can go a long way.
9. Stay current
Stay up to date with your industry and the world.
Read blogs and subscribe to newsletters to keep current with the news impacting you and your career.
Email newsletters are an excellent way for news, trends, and tips to come to us. You can quickly digest a lot of information with newsletters such as SmartBrief that aggregates top content from across the web.
Build a network of trusted colleagues and friends who are successful in their careers. Don’t go alone to address your career.
Take advantage of your network to keep current with trends and news impacting your career.
10. Break up your goals
To accomplish your big goals, it’s essential to break them up into more manageable mini-goals that are less overwhelming.
For example, if you want to be a C-suite executive in 10 years, break it up by saying you want to be a director in three years and a vice president in six years.
Your mini goals will help you find your career path.
It helps you make your long-term goals a reality. When you break down your goals by month and year, they are more realistic and can help you build momentum that is the key to success.
When you accomplish a mini goal like earning a certification, you build your skills and become a more well-rounded employee. These mini-goals add up over time and then allow you to accomplish bigger goals.
Also, mini-goals give you the flexibility to pivot throughout your career. Careers are no longer linear; non-linear careers are becoming the new normal.
Bringing it all together on how to grow your career
It’s essential to establish your career mission and pursue it with everything you have. Be ready to learn, communicate well, and create your career goals. To help you successfully grow your career, follow these 10 tips.
Study successful people, talk to your boss about your career vision, exercise regularly, start a hobby, and learn to unplug.
Also, attend a conference, find a mentor, establish successful career habits, stay current, and break up your goals.
If you can do these things, you’ll improve your career this year. Don’t forget to take risks and keep your eyes on your long-term career goals. You can meet your career goals if you are consistent, committed, and don’t put too much pressure on yourself.