How to stop others from defining your future

Are you defining your future? Or are you letting everyone else define your future? Often people put their future in the hands of their employer or the economy and wake up feeling resentful when it doesn’t work out.

Start defining your future by being proactive

If you assume your current job or employer holds your future, you can be sadly mistaken. When you take the helm of your career and your life, you begin defining your future.

Often people find themselves scrambling when their job ends or their company closes. Yet there were signs long before the end if the person had been paying attention.

As a proactive career professional, you want to be ready for opportunities and not let them sneak up on you.

• What would you do if someone asked for your resume tomorrow for the perfect next step in your career?
• Would you be ready to email it to them from your phone?
• Or would you have to apologize and tell them you have an old one and you can send it as soon as you find it.

Is your LinkedIn profile ready?

If a hiring manager looking for a Product Manager, Project Manager, Vice President of Business Development, Director of Marketing, or Director of Operations searched for the keywords in your field, would they find you on LinkedIn?

Are you making sure you are visible and not buried? Are you actively using LinkedIn? Just having a LinkedIn profile is not enough to make sure you are found even if it is a fantastic profile.

Are you constantly learning?

When I was working with a young graduate today, her wisdom that we captured on her LinkedIn profile told me she gets it.

I truly believe in lifelong learning. Technology continually adapts and to know what the next thing is, you have to keep studying to build understanding of how emerging technologies will change the horizon.

Can you say that? Whether it is technology or some other field are you constantly learning to move forward in your field?

By making sure you are ready, you will be defining your future and not letting someone else be in charge of your destiny.

Image courtesy of freedooom at FreeDigitalPhotos.net