Knowing who you are to this point of your career, your values, and your purpose going forward allows you to now build a holistic action plan for your career. Earlier in your CareerTruth work you selected Professional and Personal Prioritized Goals. You will now create detailed action plans to meet your goals over the next year. In a later milestone exercise, you will have the opportunity to look further out to bigger long-term goals tied to your vision.
You should have no more than two professional prioritized goals with detailed action plans for each that you are actively working on within the next year. CareerTruth will provide suggested activities for you to create meaningful action plans with objectives and timelines for the goals you choose. You will also be able to write your own action plans in CareerTruth to be completed as you see fit. These plans are not just to fill out the template to feel good about “checking the box”. You have decided to Own your Career. Own your Purpose. Achieve Mastery, Seek Freedom, and Leave a Legacy. This work you are doing is not just for you to be your best, but for you to be free to make the decisions to meet your purpose for the good of the others in your life today and in the future. CareerTruth is here to help you remember this and keep going.
In your professional goals we have focused on Mastery. Next you will select up to two Personal Prioritized Goals related to your work – such as financial reward, flexibility in work schedule or location, how much risk or security I need, level of impact, and elements of mission and cultural alignment required. Then you will have the option to select up to two Personal Priorities of your life away from work – such as time with your family, friends, or community, your physical, mental or spiritual health, and activities or travel for pleasure.
Like your Professional Prioritized goals, CareerTruth will provide you suggested activities for you to create meaningful action plans with objectives and timelines for the goals you choose. You will also be able to write your own action plans in CareerTruth to be completed to your need. You have decided to Own your Purpose. You must have actions for the primary personal outcomes of this season of your life to make sure you are making choices that create positive work – life flow.
By having both Professional and Personal Goals in the same place, you can begin to see the three Career Arcs at play in your life and understand the choices you are making. You can see why you need to Own versus Being Owned. This is your life and work is an important component that needs to flow well, not an equal to be balanced. In any season of your career, your goals will change. You will need to understand the opportunity costs or sacrifices you may need to make in order to move forward well in Mastery, Freedom, and Legacy.
In the early portion of career, most people have less restraints and can use their time differently than when they are in the middle of their career measuring time to meet the obligations they have created. As people move to the later seasons of their career, they need to add value while feeling the freedom and mastery built over years of productive outcomes. During every season of being single, married, in a long-term relationship, taking care of children, taking care of parents, or other personal changes that come with the march of time, CareerTruth wants to help you be aware of the big choices and provide a place for planning and accountability to continuously grow, and a community to support your needs.
Not only will you receive prompts of accountability to complete your actions to meet goals with timelines, CareerTruth will provide Quarterly and Annual opportunities to review your plans and update the activities. In addition, when making your action plans to meet your prioritized goals, you will assign the goal to a Board of Advisor to support your growth on a specific goal, which will be a driver of your relationship with your Board of Advisors.
Your career plan is evergreen and CareerTruth is here to support you through every season no matter the job, company, location, or major life change. CareerTruth is yours, always.
As any talent graduates from school in early career, you can make choices that are very different than someone who is 10 plus years into their career, has a mortgage, and has two children within a few years of college. While the younger talent who has been traveling extensively for work may be entering a season of her career that is very different than the Senior Executive who is considering her next move after her company was recently acquired, they both need a plan to properly Own their Career, continuous development and a community to support them. In any season of your career, you must spend the time to update your inventories, ensure you are committed to a purpose, and then prioritize the right professional and personal goals for you to maximize your career life.