A warm welcome into my 5th instalment of the A to Z of career success series where we have now moved onto the letter E.

Exploring 
 
Sometimes in your career, you need to look backward before you can move forwards with confidence. Exploring the events, milestones, and experiences you have enjoyed and found satisfying in your career provides important navigational data to ensure you have a fulfilling career.

The things you have enjoyed and found satisfying are waymarkers pointing you in the direction of an enjoyable career.

Action
 
Consider the following questions:

• Identify the three most enjoyable events of your life

• What did you find enjoyable about these events? What did you gain or learn?

• Identify the three most satisfying achievements of your life

• What did you find most satisfying? What skills and qualities did you use?

• Considering your responses, what does this suggest to you about your future career? 

 
Enthusiasm 
 
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm
Ralph Waldo Emerson

We’ve all heard the advice to bring our enthusiasm to work. Having a good attitude towards what we are doing. We also know that organisations recruit for enthusiasm and attitude knowing that while skills can be trained enthusiasm is harder to attain if not already present. We also know that enthusiasm can be temporary and short-lived.

So, what is real enthusiasm, and how can we stay enthusiastic about our career?
Enthusiastic people have a keen interest in the task in hand or are excited about a given project.
Enthusiasm means that you believe deeply in what you are doing and also what the organisation stands for.


Action
 

• Recognise that most jobs have some elements that are less fun and more challenging to carry out but these can still be done with enthusiasm

• Look at your current role and organisation and connect with the bigger picture of what you are doing

• If you are still finding it difficult to be enthusiastic about your job or career consider the other options that would be a better fit for you

 
Expectations

Earlier in my career, I attended a colleagues’ leaving party. At the event, the person expressed in their leaving speech that they had loved their job. However, and I will never forget this, a dissenting voice heckled from the back that ‘you weren’t meant to enjoy your job!’ Hilarity all around.
 
This is a common refrain, even now. Maybe more so now?
 
But what happens if we begin our careers with the expectation that it will be hard, unpleasant and unsatisfactory?
 
Since our expectations tend to control how things turn out for us indirectly, this is probably ill-advised.
 
But what can we do about it?

 
Action
 

• Aim to create realistic but aspirational expectations for your career. Strike a balance between optimism and realism.

• Regularly review what you want from your career, it’s ok for your aspirations to change.

• Remember, if you are not enjoying your career it makes sense to at least look at the other options you might love!

 
Emotional Intelligence

Daniel Goleman defined Emotional Intelligence as “being able to motivate oneself and persist in the face of frustrations: to control impulse and delay gratification; to regulate one’s moods and keep distress from swamping the ability to think; to empathise and to hope”.
The subject is deep; however, emotional intelligence does play a huge part in achieving career success. Research suggests that emotional intelligence is something that one can improve upon over time.

 
Action

Here is a simple action you can take right now.

Practice responding rather than reacting.
Reacting is an unconscious process where we experience an emotional trigger and react in autopilot.
Responding, on the other hand, is a conscious process that involves noticing how you feel, then deciding how you want to behave.
For example, you might be angry at a co-worker, but rather than automatically react (possibly in an unprofessional way) you choose to tune in to your anger, and despite the unpleasant feelings you decide to respond later in the day in a more professional manner.


I hope you find these tips helpful and wish you happiness and good health always. Drop me a note and let me know how you are getting on. Please also forward this email to anybody that you think might be interested in the content.

Kind Regards

Mark

Mark Crossfield
Bravo Coaching