Overcome obstacles to achieve career goals
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could sail through life with little angst, discomfort or hardship?
Unfortunately, that’s not the way the real world works, especially if you want to achieve career fulfillment.
That doesn’t always translate to a high-paying, fast-track career, according to Tracy Timm, author of Unstoppable: Discover Your True Value, Define Your Genius Zone and
Drive Your Dream Career.
To be successful and achieve career goals, most have to overcome barriers of some kind.
Timm discovered this firsthand when she experienced a crisis of identity.
She had all the trappings of success working on the trading floor of a Wall Street firm. She had a life many would envy, but she wasn’t happy.
She had two choices: try to adjust to a career that didn’t give her the satisfaction she craved, or search for a new one. She chose the latter and left her six-figure job, taking two years off to find her dream career that would give her everything she valued, uppermost challenge and satisfaction. She created the following seven-step “Nth Degree” process, which includes:
1. Now. This starting point acknowledges your current phase of life. Wherever you are on the career continuum, “your phase of life largely dictates your current circumstances,” said Timm. “By acknowledging your current reality and set of circumstances, you begin the process of self-discovery grounded in an objective understanding of your viable possibilities.”
This step also encompasses the values, commitments and rules by which you live at that point in your life.
2 and 3, nature and nurture. Together they represent how you add value in the world, so these two elements can be thought of as the opposite sides of the same coin. “One side is value that you give and display naturally, and the other side is value that you’ve learned and developed over time,” said Timm.
4. Niche. Once you’ve uncovered all of the facts of your situation after completing the steps of now, nature and nurture, you will move to the “define” phase in which there is only one important step: niche.
In the Nth Degree framework, “the term niche refers to your genius zone,” said Timm. Think of it as your sandbox or your professional sweet spot, the author adds. “No matter what you call it, your niche represents your best and highest professional value. By starting with your life principles (now) and leveraging both your natural gifts (nature) and learned talents (nurture), you get a complete picture of your ideal career.” 5, 6, and 7, network, navigate and nourish.
While “network” has a tarnished image according to the author, in the Nth Degree methodology, you will reclaim and redefine the word “network” so that it represents the most natural and easiest way to involve career advocates and professional sponsors in your search. In the network phase, you’ll learn to grow your network to facilitate your dream by properly leveraging the power of people, Timm said. “Instead of going all in on a new job with a hope and prayer that you’ll like it, the proven strategies in navigate force you to test your career assumptions before making bigger decisions.”