The other day, I asked my client to describe one of the earliest projects she could recall -- take, for instance, middle school I offered. She laughed and said she couldn't think back that far. I remained quiet as she recalled an earlier time in her life. Within a minute or so, she began recounting with fondness a specific project, how she went a bout it, and its eventual successful outcome.
We then turned our conversation to the career transition project she found herself in the midst of now, and how she could apply the skills she already possesses to make this project as successful as any other she'd done previously at work, at home, or in the community. She seemed surprised -- she'd not thought of it that way...a project is a project, after all.
Have you considered managing your career transition project as yet another important project to plan, organize, and execute? As with any project that you've embarked upon, what is the way you go about it? What's your style? What works for you? What is your specific goal -- have you written it down somewhere, or is it rumbling around in your head? What resources in the way of people, data and things do you need to assemble to support project success? What's the first action step, next step and the one after that? What gets top priority? What's your time line? How will you measure progress? What's your definition of project success? What's your strategy when things go awry? What's your backup plan -JIC -- just in case?
While it is of immense value to tap into all of the career resources available to you -- free and/or not-so-free, it is equally important to tap into what you already know to be true about yourself and how you go about doing things in management of life's projects, including career-related ones -- just because you're you and you know you, hopefully better than anyone else. As a good friend in HR once said, you can lead a horse to water...
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