How to Develop a Healthy, Long-Term Professional Perspective
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One secret to a meaningful and successful career is broadening your views and optimizing your long-run outlook
Most people have within themselves the ability to adjust their perspective, particularly if their professional path is unsatisfying. Whether you are a company leader or just beginning to climb the corporate ladder, considering things from a different, more-expansive viewpoint can significantly aid progress.
Here are five suggestions for developing an ambitious, goal-oriented perspective to supercharge your professional future.
1. Keep the big picture in mind
Clarity of vision is highly correlated with professional success. Understanding what you want to achieve now and in the long term is the first step toward building a strategic career plan. And a clearly articulated vision begins with an honest assessment of your strengths and limitations.
Having faith in a career vision based on a realistic “self-reckoning” will sustain you through challenging times. Use your values to guide decision-making, keeping in mind the implications of actions on your professional future. Maintaining a goals-oriented perspective will help you mentally minimize minor frustrations in service to long-range objectives.
This applies not only to your professional performance but also to work relationships. Try to surround yourself with positive role models, and work on being one yourself. Maintaining a (usually) positive mindset requires the ability to keep events and circumstances in their proper place within the grand scheme of things.
2. But begin with smaller goals
At the same time, it is essential to prioritize some short-term wins. Charting professional progress against ambitious but realistic leadership goals is an excellent place to start. Goal attainment is the quickest way to gain confidence and receive validation for your choices.
Productivity and scheduling software can help with staying on track and committed to both short- and longer-term objectives. Numerous schools of thought exist about the best methods of habit development and goal tracking; one interesting approach is building a "goal-getting system" to “automate” the achievement process.
Whatever tool or process you adopt needs the foundation of long-range vision coupled with eminently achievable short-term goals.
3. Always search for the silver lining
Part of cultivating a healthy perspective is developing an appreciation that some things are simply out of your control. When events go sideways, it’s natural to dwell on the negatives—humans are wired to experience losses more acutely than wins. Being able to find the good in disappointing or even devastating circumstances—or balance the negativity with other positive things in your life—is a sign of an emotionally healthy, secure person.
No one planned on a pandemic derailing most of 2020, but many individuals managed it by pivoting their businesses or otherwise finding creative solutions to remain working. Having a long-term perspective allows you to admit to being overwhelmed in the moment because the moment will pass—eventually.
4. Learn the art of the rebound
Putting things in perspective is the key to mounting an effective comeback in the wake of a professional catastrophe. After setting aside time for reflection and self-assessment, you will be better prepared to take the next steps if you think in terms of long-term plans. Most business leaders suffer setbacks; the truly successful ones know how to make a smooth transition to Plan B, C, or D.
With the right perspective, the lessons learned from a seemingly apparent failure can lead you to success.
5. Reach out to peers and experts
Sometimes, the best way to broaden your perspective is by viewing your situation through someone else’s eyes. Seek out mentors or trusted sources of wisdom in your field and be open to what they have to say. You may be too close to your challenges to see them clearly.
Another way to reinvigorate your thinking is by joining a "mastermind group." These peer-networking clubs of non-competitive individuals have gained popularity as a way for people to connect and share ideas in a facilitated (online, for now) setting. You will likely meet professionals who have faced similar challenges and persevered. Also, membership in a group with shared goals can hold you to a level of accountability that could be missing in your life.
Opening up your professional and personal worlds to a more diverse group of people broadens your perspective in career-boosting ways.
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