When I last spoke about career development with a professional coach in career service I was asked what I wanted to achieve in 5 years, 10 years, and where I see myself by the time I’m 50. Ever since I’ve been struggling with these questions. I have plans that span out to as far as say 5 years from now, but I can’t really picture the 50-year-old me, let alone plan strategically where I would be working then. The last week I was specifically stressed. Work was too much and achieving my career goals looked like a complicated task and as a never-ending fight. Imagining the older and successful me never seemed so inaccessible. And then I thought: wait a minute, it does not make an sense whatsoever that I am this stressed at present about a future that is yet so far removed. So I sat down and decided to revise my career plans. However, instead of focusing on what I would want to do X years from now, I thought about something different.
In my new framework I defined life principles and goals. Principles meaning guiding rules that help me make decisions. Goals are life-style-oriented ambitions, ways in which I would like to live. So instead of trying to think of positions to which I would like to be promoted or organisations that I would like to be working for, I set the guiding framework for myself to make the right decisions along the way.
The principles I set for my decision-making:
- Be good to others.
- Let things go.
- Look for two-way relationships.
- Be transparent about what I think.
- Health and mental health come first.
The goals I would like to achieve:
- Be in a position to work to the best of my abilities, towards social causes, stress-free.
I want to work and I like to work. I would like to keep my work to high standards. I would like to work on projects solving societal challenges. I would like to create an environment for myself in which I can do all these things without an immense amount of stress.
- Financial independence through building passive income streams.
The question as to how I do all the above stress free made think a lot, but I realised that most of my worries are directly or indirectly related to my present or future source of income and ability to afford a type of life I imagine for myself and my future family. Up until now my thinking process was as follows:
I make an error in my PhD –> I get told off by my supervisors –> I will get a lower mark on my PhD –> I will not be able to compete for well-paid positions or a permanent job –> I will never be able to buy a house –> all is wrong.
As much as this is of course an exaggeration, I came to the realisation that having a secure financial background would relieve a lot of my stress. Having passive income streams and savings that lead to my financial independence mean that if everything goes south I still have a house to live in and money to get by.
- Be able to work on projects that I care about and enjoy. No need to explain this one further.
- Be able to say no.
I would like to have the luxury to make pro-active choices as to what and when I would like to be working on. I would like to be able to say no when I have too much on my plate.
Using this framework I stopped trying to figure out what I would do 25 years from now. The question became irrelevant. I can use my well-defined principles to make decisions in the present that lead to creating an environment in which I would like to live in the future.
How do you set your life principles and career goals?
Travelling Psychologist 
This right here makes such sense!!
I do like goals; however, they have often left me unsatisfied and feeling like I failed.
Yet, what you’ve just outlined makes way more sense, actually has room to grow and feels more doable!
Thank you so much for sharing!!
LikeLike