Professional Growth - to create an impact

Professional growth is the growth in the profession that we chose to pursue.

Our profession may be as varied as private or public service, self-employment, professional services, creative pursuits, entrepreneurship and so on.

Many a time, we chose our profession based on external factors like:

  1. It enables me to provide for my essential survival needs.
  2. It enables me to have adequate income to feel secure on a sustainable basis.
  3. It enables me to have higher income to improve my lifestyle.
  4. It enables me to appear respectable in my family and social circles.

While I am fully sensitive to the need to choose our profession based on the above factors, growth may be a struggle if, in the process, we ignore internal factors like:

  1. Do I really enjoy what I am doing right now?
  2. Do I have the right skills to be effective in this profession?
  3. Do I have to compromise on principles to be effective in this profession?
  4. Do I make meaningful contribution to my stakeholders?
Stakeholders are those who are impacted by our contribution.  They may be people - customers, colleagues, investors, lenders, regulators, society and so on.  They may also be plants, trees, animals, birds, insects, natural resources, environment and so on.

Professional growth can be spontaneous and effortless if we first address the above internal factors.

So, how do we go about identifying the right profession for us:

  1. Let's list down all those activities that we truly enjoy performing, i.e., those activities that we are so totally involved that we completely lose track of time.  It may be singing, playing a musical instrument, playing some sport, solving difficult puzzles, inventing or repairing equipment, writing articles, stories, poems, computer programs, delivering lectures, making friends and influencing them and so on.
  2. From the above list of activities that we enjoy performing, let's shortlist those activities that we are really good at.  We may be enjoying singing or playing a musical instrument or playing football but are we really good at any of them?
  3. From the above shortlist of activities that we are really good at, let's further shortlist those activities wherein we don’t have to compromise with the principles to be effective.
  4. From the above shortlist, let's further shortlist those activities wherein we can create significant impact to our stakeholders.

Any one of those activities in the final shortlist may be the right profession for us.

Though I have elaborated the conscious process of choosing the right profession, this may easily be realized when we are sensitive to ourselves and sensitive to others around us.

By choosing and pursuing the right profession, our lives, and the lives of our stakeholders, may be filled with joy and enriching experiences.

Comments

  1. Guru20 December 2020 at 12:12

    Crystal clear explanation on Professional Growth - to create an impact.

    ReplyDelete

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