3 essentials to manage your career with purpose

I’ve been invited to talk to a group of women in IT about how to manage your career with purpose. With only 10 minutes for my talk (followed by Q&A), it was hard to pick just 3 things to focus on.

Here’s what I decided are the 3 essentials to manage your career with purpose. See if you agree with me.

Mindset

When I talk about mindset, I’m talking about having an inner strength and confidence. Resilience. That ability to pick yourself up and brush yourself down when things go wrong.

It’s the ability to ignore your inner critic and instead ramp up the volume of your inner mentor and listen to her instead.

It’s knowing to say YES to stuff that scares you; putting yourself in your DIScomfort zone.

It’s knowing how to reframe those negative thoughts and turn them into positive beliefs.

Investment

It’s not just the financial investment that you need to make in coaching or training (though of course I’d be happy to talk to you about that).

Investment is about having the self-belief to invest in yourself. Often it’s about making the time to do the training or to read the personal development books or seek out a mentor.

It’s the investment required to actively seek out opportunities to get involved in new opportunities at work or meet new clients or to go networking.

Investment could be as simple as taking 20 minutes to watch a TED talk at lunch time.

Self-care

Mindset and investment aren’t worth a penny if you don’t invest in your own self-care.

Self-care is about taking care of yourself so that you don’t experience overwhelm, get stressed or worse burn out.

It’s not just looking after your physical wellness (what you eat, what you drink, or how much sleep you get), it’s also your mental and emotional wellness.

It’s important to set boundaries so that you’re not constantly ‘on’ call. Don’t be constantly checking your email and responding to client requests late at night. Learn how to say no. In fact start with No.

Be careful that you’re not super busy on stuff that the business doesn’t value which will mean you’re going to get overlooked for promotion.

3 essentials to manage your career with purpose

Now you know what I think are the three essentials to manage your career success with confidence and purpose: investment, mindset and self-care. Do you agree I picked the right ones for my talk? 

p.s. if you’re thinking, that sounds great and it’s exactly what I need to focus on but I have no idea where to start, you’ll love my Career Confidence programmes. The VIP version is for you if you prefer the personal attention you’ll get from weekly accountability, group calls and a private online community. Alternatively there’s an online version that you can do any time, anywhere. 12 modules covering everything you need from values to interview skills, personal brand to LinkedIn. Find out more here.