Choose your own life and career
“Life and happiness lie in your hands” is a very popular statement; however, a part of your life and happiness is your career and opportunity. Thus, maybe we need to add another statement to our daily life, “job and opportunity lie in your hands.” When you were younger, innocent and had no life experiences, you might set a goal or have a dream to become someone or do some job. When you get older, such thought or imagination may fade away or even be gone because the older you get, the more experiences you have in terms of education, society, and career. Moreover, things around you also keep changing and are different from what they used to be. Then, you realize that you have to be able to choose how to live your life and what direction you have to take to reach your dream or goal that you have set. There actually are many important components that you need to make sure that one day you will become successful. You may gather suggestions from gurus or those with experiences in relevant fields. It is your responsibility to study such suggestions to put them into practice because job and opportunity lie in your hands. A simple strategy that determines a direction for your career consists of the five questions as follows:
(1) where do I want to go?: this is to set your career’s goal and direction by clearly establishing your visions and direction;
(2) where am I now?: this is to analyze your position at the present and to identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT analysis) in order to get you ready for your career;
(3) how do I get there?: this is the starting point from which you will begin your journey in the career market where you have to compete with hundreds of applicants. At this stage, you have to decide what position you will apply for and at what company. It is the time for you to get ready just like before starting a war where you need to make a plan and be well prepared;
(4) what do I have to change to get there?: after setting your career goal and being aware of yourself, your strengths and weaknesses as well as how to do your job, you have to find out again what you have to change or what strategy you need to get you to where you want to go; and
(5) how do I measure whether I have got there or not?: the final step is to evaluate yourself to find out whether you have got the job and opportunity in your hands as you wished or not. You may evaluate if your income is enough to cover your expenses or not or whether you are happy with your career. Nobody can tell you so as clearly as you do because “life and happiness lie in your hands.”