How To Create A Career Plan That Gives You The Life You Want

Your Career Plan

Feeling directionless? Stuck in a work rut?  Worried that you’re not making the most of your career?  Rather than letting this moment of frustration pass, why not get curious about it?

If you haven’t realised what these feelings of doubt and frustration mean, we’ve got the answer for you. You’ve just created a ‘fantasy career move’ – an extreme move, that you probably wouldn’t make, but which gives you lots of clues about what is most important to you career-wise.

Career Meltdown

We’re here to show you how to turn your meltdown career moment into RADICAL CHANGE. Whether you’re struggling with your commute, the pressure of your job or you just can’t do it anymore, we’re here on-hand to give you the steps you need to change your life.

Mapping Your Long-Term Career Plan

Do you feel like you’re in a place where you can’t make a radical shift? Feeling stagnant? So many women we work with feel the same. If you’re feeling the resignation with immediate effect fantasy, it’s time for you to take short-term action and begin mapping out your long-term career plan.

Combining the two, you can supercharge your career and get more of what you want from work. Get clear on your long-term plan and have a strategy in place for how you go about achieving your long-term career plan.

Use Your Ikigai

We love the Ikigai framework when it comes to thinking about our long-term career. This Japanese concept roughly translates as ‘your reason for being’.

Wondering how to use it? First of all, you’ll need to get clear on what gives you a sense of joyful purpose (the things in your life that connect you to a bigger purpose in your life/your organisation/the world), and the things which amplify your joy.

Once you’ve got this, tune into what you’re really good at. Forget being humble, this is the moment to give yourself permission to speak out on what you excel at. When we do things that we’re good at, we’re more likely to reach a flow state.  This makes us not only productive, but also happy (and without making an immense effort).

Joyful Purpose

Now, what? This is where you start thinking about the intersections of the things that give you a joyful purpose in your job and in the world, that you think your possible clients may need and are willing to pay for. This intersection is your personal and unique Ikigai.

Obviously, this can change over time but this intersections acts primarily as a ‘North Star’ for shaping the career path you’re about to go on.

For Catalyst Collective’s co-founder, Fi, her intersection was channelled on resourcing people to be their best. In the early stages of her career, she led big operation teams, worked as an HR director, coach and facilitator.

Now, as a co-founder and leading a business resourcing women to thrive and create in an inclusive world, it’s easy to see that she’d been gradually shifting into her own Ikigai intersection where her strengths, passions and gifts were channelled into what the world world wants and will pay for – her unique place of joyful purpose.

So, once you’ve figured out your Ikigai, how do you go about making a radical shift? It’s time for the short-term action plan!

Job Crafting

The concept ‘job crafting’ comes from Amy Wrzesniewski & Jane Dutton, who discovered that our jobs are made up of two things – tasks and relationships. It’s from these two elements that we craft our sense of job meaning, and the meaning we give to our work creatives positive (and negative) emotions.

Job crafting might not seem like a huge thing, but it’s about making small and impactful changes to tasks, relationships & the way you see your role. It’s up to you to drive your own job crafting to lead yourself into a life where you feel an increased sense of purpose, connection, happiness & well-being.

Clarifying What You Want To Change

So, to start off, clarify what you want to change about your job whether it’s more growth or experiencing a stronger purpose. Take the parts of your job you hate and the parts you love, as well as the things that you spend ages on and eat up the time you could use to do the things you love.

Now, let’s task craft!

Task Crafting is the idea that your job is made up of ‘task building blocks’ and that we can review and change the tasks that make up our jobs. You can remove and spend less time on the tasks and add in more time on the things you enjoy doing. There’ll be constraints but there’s probably a small amount of scope that you can tap into!

Next, we’re thinking about Relational Crafting (the people equivalent of task crafting). Tune into the relationships you have at work that bring you joy + dial up those connections. For those that don’t amplify your joy, move back and channel less of your energy there.

Last one is Cognitive Crafting. If you can’t change your job, change the way you think about it! Re-frame your mind and find a way to build a stronger connection to purpose or focus on what your job offers you.

Now, It’s Your Turn!

• Do you have a fantasy career move? What does it tell you about what you want from your career? How can you act on it now?
• How’s your Ikigai balance? What feels good to you? Does anything need attention? Think about the first step you can take to move into your own Ikigai intersection (even if it’s going for a coffee with someone).
• How can you job craft what you’re currently doing to create more joy, happiness & connection?

Want More From Us?

You can catch up with our How To Create a Career Plan That Gives You The Life You Want webinar. Plus, we have lots more resources for you!

Want to check out all of our past and upcoming webinars? Visit our Monthly How To Webinars here.

About Us

Catalyst Collective create transformational resources for working women. You can connect with Katy and Fi at Catalyst Collective here www.catalyst-collective.com and find out more about their monthly How To series of coaching webinars.  These cover  topics like beating overwhelm, living a happier life and also crafting a career plan, smashing your interview, getting more visible and networking without feeling like a fraud.

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Image by Catalyst Collective.