Plan your career to achieve your goals
When you have a clear purpose and destination, you need strategies and plans to get there. You need to a roadmap to guide your actions and value creation activities.
This is where career planning comes in.
We do not plan to fail. We just fail to plan.
When things are going well, we don’t think about our future. It is just too far ahead to worry about it.
We don’t think about the uncertainties of the future. Uncertainties create fear in us. It paralyzes us to do anything about it. So we don’t do anything about it.
When there’s an immediate crisis in our lives, we suddenly pay more attention to the problem. We want a quick solution.
The sudden loss of a job, for example, impacts an individual tremendously especially when this person is unprepared for it.
It is then too late to do anything when this happens.
Career planning will keep our focus on efforts to succeed in life and live out our passion.
Everything we do in our working lives must bring us closer to our goals, fueled by our passion and personal goals.
The career plan gives us the roadmap to bring us from our current state to our ultimate destination. It’s the achievement of our goals.
We need to realise that as we get older finding the next job quickly can be more challenging. At times, it could be depressing.
Having a Plan B will become more crucial.
There’s a bit of contingency planning that goes into our career plans. We may want to have alternate plans in the event that we are suddenly made redundant in our current employment.
Thinking through all possible scenarios and planning for them can certainly reduce our stress levels, thereby increasing our job or income security.
You may also want to connect with other professionals in the same profession you aspire to become.
Reach out via LinkedIn and ask them about their journey; what it is like, what skills are required; how they got there. Either call them or buy them coffee.
A spending plan gets you to your destination
When you have a destination to aim for with the help of a career plan, you now need a spending plan that will actively resource your actions.
When we embark on a camping trip, we buy the necessary supplies and equipment. We need to spend money. The only way to save money is not to go on that camping trip.
That’s not what we want to do for our careers.
A budget is generally about cutting cost.
In contrast, a spending plan gives you the control and ability to spend your limited money on things and activities that matter most. It enables you to achieve your goals. It specifically allocates resources to important activities.
Frankly, you cannot afford to save money when you are embarking on a journey to reach our goals. You must invest in yourself first in order to succeed in the future.
You need money to complete a technical course to upgrade your skills. This new skill will enable you to earn more money in the future.
Money is also required to hire a personal coach or mentor.
As the saying goes, it takes money to make money.
You can build in an element of savings into your spending plan.
The plan could require you to automatically set aside money for your retirement. Or even for your next holiday.
Part of the plan will require you to automate your finances. When your salary or pay is deposited into your bank account, you can set up a standing instruction for the immediate transfer of some monies into a separate bank account. This amount is quarantined for specific purposes. What’s left in your bank account can be spent on your daily expenses.
Adjusting your bill due dates can help you stay on top of your bills and manage your cash flow. Align your bill due dates alongside the dates when your money comes in.
The key to making a spending plan work is having enough money to allocate into different buckets of expenditure.
It really goes back to earning more money.
You can only secure more income by getting a pay increase, gaining a promotion, or working in a second job.
You have to pay more taxes, unfortunately
The privilege of living in any country is paying your fair share of taxes.
The more income you receive, the more personal income tax you pay. That’s the fact of life.
You can minimise your tax obligations through effective tax planning. It is not tax avoidance. Do get the necessary tax advice if you want to do so.
Some people just think that it is not worth the effect to work more and pay more taxes.
In some ways, it is.
But it is a good problem to have. The fact that we are paying more taxes shows that we are earning more money, creating more value for people.
Think about it positively.
If paying more taxes is holding you back in achieving your goals, then it can be a sad state of affairs. We will just be miserable for the rest of our lives, wondering if we could have a purpose-driven life.