Planning for your future can be a justifiable source of stress. The challenges of reaching your career goals can seem to mount when you try and think ahead to where you want to be. It is important to set career goals and then try to reach them, but it is also important to reduce the amount of stress you feel in the pursuit of those goals. If you stress yourself out too much, then you are liable to put your career goals to the side and settle for jobs that you do not enjoy.
6 Ways To Avoid Career Planning Stress
1) Stay Focused
The rest of your life is a long time, and trying to make career plans in detail that far in advance can be overwhelming. It is important to know how to reach your career goals and to have career goals in mind, but you need to stay focused on one goal at a time if you want to get there without increasing your level of stress. As you reach each goal, allow yourself to be satisfied with the accomplishment as opposed to being frustrated with the rest of the career path you have yet to follow.
For Example – You have two career goals – satisfaction and stability. First you should focus on job satisfaction and as soon as you are completely satisfied with whatever job you are doing, you should focus on stability.
2) Get Good Information
One of the things that causes career planning stress is reaching a goal and then realizing that you do not have the proper educational background to achieve your next goal. As you make your career plans, you should get comprehensive information on everything you need to do to make it to the next milestone on your career path. The more details you fill in during your career planning, the better you will feel about the goals you are trying to achieve.
3) Be Realistic
If you are not willing to put in the work, then you will not reap the rewards. Sometimes people set career goals that they find they do not want to achieve after doing the research. If you want to reduce stress while planning your career, then be realistic in the goals you set for yourself and be prepared to put in the work to achieve those goals.
For Example – If your career goal is to be the CEO of your company, but you are not willing to get the educational background, then you will probably not be able to achieve that goal.
4) Get Good Advice
The worst thing you can do is set career goals without getting advice from experienced people who have either achieved the goals you are trying to achieve, or know how to get there. Seek out people who can give good advice and incorporate that advice into your career path planning.
5) Be Patient
A lack of patience in any endeavor causes plenty of stress. Your career will span decades and it could take you years to move from one step to the next. You need to learn to be patient and enjoy each experience in order to reduce career planning stress.
For example – You work in a good company as a sales representative and your goal is to be a sales analyst. You should work in that company until an opportunity rises to become a sales analyst. You should not change jobs every year hoping to do a quick career in some other company.
6) Be Proud
One of the things that people who experience career planning stress do is forget to reward themselves when they reach a milestone career goal. If one of your goals was to become a sales manager, and you reach that goal, then reward yourself with a nice dinner with your significant other. Instead of treating each milestone as an insignificant stepping stone, you should treat it like the accomplishment that it is.
Feel free to share your tips in the comments below – how do you avoid career planning stress?
