Some Free Career Guidance

Career guidance seems to be everywhere. But who do you trust? I don't know who to listen to for career guidance and after hours and hours of reading all of the different articles and tests and advice, I finally realized something. The only career guidance I need is the career guidance I can give myself. Here are some of my self-realized career guidance and I'm sure you'll see a way for it to help you as well.

Think in goals. This is the most important piece of career guidance I realized. When I found myself setting goals, I started reaching them, and I started to be happier. Understanding that goal achievement feels good anyway, you get the added bonus of knowing that your career is heading in the right direction. Should you be realistic about your goals? I say no. Well, not completely. I think that if you set realistic AND ambitious goals, one will lead to the other. Your career will take off for sure.

Once you've identified your goals, you need to understand exactly what you need to reach that goal. This is a bit of career guidance I got from my mom. She used to say "it doesn't matter where you want to go if you don't have a way of getting there." She was a bit brilliant with career guidance, huh? Find out what you need to meet your goals. Whether it's more education, certification, a line of equity. Then make achieving that tool your first goal.

Finally, make sure you set yourself a definite time frame with deadlines. All goals can be reached in a matter of time. If you know what you need to reach your goal, you'll also learn how long you should work to achieve it. What happens if you don't reach your goals in the right amount of time? This is the best kind of setback you can have. It gives you an opportunity to re-assess. Did you pick the wrong goal? Did you get the right tools to achieve it? Do you really want a different goal more? All of these questions are ok, as are the answers. This is not a race.

The only career guidance you really need is to understand these three terms: goals, tools and timeframes. If you work at these three frameworks, you'll have the career you want and you wouldn't need career guidance or advice from anyone else!