Did you make a New Year’s Resolution about goals for yourself, your family and your career? I assume that many of you reading this blog did articulate some positive things that you’d like to happen this year, even if it was expressed only in the requisite toast at midnight. If you expressed some wants that have been on your wishlist–even those that you’ve rolled over from previous years–the good news is that you’ve been thinking about making some changes.
What if a month or two has passed and no change has materialized? No formal plan of action has been strategized or executed? It’s still on your mind, and, without tangible steps taken to make those resolutions reality, you begin to worry that you’ll never break through the inertia that has set in. I’ve written about inertia before. You can overcome the things that have stopped you from “thinking about it” to “I took some steps today to doing something about it.”
Here is a useful technique to break through for a seat at the table:
Motivate Yourself With Another System. Do you know what writers do when faced with writers’ block? They write! Instead of staring at a blank page, writers bring flow and momentum by writing–even if the words will probably be edited heavily in the final product. You can craft an outline with minimal details, and understand that the process requires addition of information and ideas. You build, develop and shape your content by throwing it down.
Making a career transition doesn’t necessarily stick to a linear, formulaic timeline. So, throw it down! Instead of faulting yourself for not making rapid headway in accomplishing goals, do something that feels familiar.
Make a Folder Online/Offline, and Fill it With Information.
What information? Find the money! Track deals across every market. Identify who or what provides the funding. Conduct research and move from the general to the specific. Highlight potential opportunities and good fits. You are actually designing a research funnel of market intelligence. Conduct research with the idea that most useful information is the most niched, but make sure that your pursue information that is continually refined. Narrow the information as it relates to industry sector, geographic target and mission. If you can locate funding data, hard and soft contact information, board directors and advisors and new mission initiatives, then you’ve already captured highly actionable information that will be crucial to a targeted job-search action plan.
What Did You Accomplish? You Learned to Slay One Dragon at a Time.
Do you feel heroic after becoming a research wizard? You should credit yourself for taking action, even if it’s only one piece of the career change plan. Unlike the quests of medieval literature, there is no hero requirement to slay many dragons concurrently. One dragon at a time, please. And it will keep you motivated as you build momentum and continue to slay some very large dragons!