Define Career Success Yourself

9 November 2016

This article is not for reading, but for colouring in.  It’s all about exploring how you define career success.

Because the way you define success in your career substantially determines the way you develop your career and the small and large actions you take.  So it is important to know what your definition is.

This colour in exercise is a great way to get clear on how you are defining career success.  Pull out your textas or crayons, pencils, highlighters or just your blue and red pens and play with the word cloud below, colouring in those words that resonate with how you currently define success in your career. 

Go on and have a play with this.  Use different colours for things of different priority (e.g. top 3 in red, next 3 in orange, next 3 in yellow).  Do it more than once.  Do it when you are feeling good about your job, do it when work is a drag, do it in the work context, do it at home, do it as an exercise with your team or with your loved ones.  Add words if you need, black out words if they offend, add flowers and symbols, give it a boarder or recreate it as a list – just play and become clear on what your definition of success is at this point in time.

Some reflection notes:

The words you have coloured in describe career success as you define it now – own this definition.  It is yours right now.  It is also contextual and is likely to change over time.  Yet right now it is this definition that is guiding what you do in this area of career.  Being conscious of this definition it is more likely you will achieve it.

When you have completed your colour in reflect on it.  Here are some questions that can push your reflection a little deeper:

·      Is this the definition of success you want to have?

·      What are the strongest elements of your definition?  What are the weakest? 

·      If you were not comparing yourself to others would this be your definition for career success?

·      How will you view this definition when you look back on it in 5 years?

·      How many words in your definition of success describe external measures and how many describe internal measures?

·      Would you happily display this definition on the wall in your workplace?

·      How different is this definition to how you would have defined career success two years ago?