Does Your Professional Career Match Your Goals In Life?

Have you ever woken up to go to work wishing you had won the lottery just so you never have to go back? Many people do their daily work as an ordeal, because they believe that they would not pay good enough or could do with their lives something better. These people have probably never wondered if their professional careers are actually aligned with their life goals.

Sometimes we no longer know why we started where we are currently working. Maybe we’re there for the money or just to gain experience that we can put on our résumé. However, we should think about what will happen if our work does not fit our purpose and goals.

Imagine you have an office job. A job that you got pretty easily and that you don’t have to put in a lot of effort. You also get a decent amount of money, which is the main reason you keep going. Your actual goal, however, is to start a company and be self-employed.

It is perfectly normal for you to do what seems easiest at the moment, what makes a living for you. You may also feel pressured by your surroundings, or you may just think that your job is good because it fits your education. But what about your long-term goals?

It is very frustrating to have to work on something that we are not passionate about. This can make us feel bored and unmotivated. The salary, our fears and the comfort zone, however, often chain us to jobs that we don’t really like.

We often assume that our career has to determine our professional path, which is not true at all. Our professional path is something that we have to choose consciously and, if possible, align with our own goals in life.

Focus on your dreams

You shouldn’t be going to school just to get a degree that may help you find a job and make money. This will usually lead to frustration, sadness, and dissatisfaction. Those who plan in this way usually only have the remaining working days until the next vacation in view. Instead of enjoying their work, they just think about when they will be able to live something again.

Everyone has job-related dreams and goals. We all want to work on something so passionately that we enjoy every second of it. We also want to feel free enough to give up what we are doing when we are no longer enjoying it and move on to something better. To be honest, if our dreams were aligned with our professional careers, we probably weren’t going to let fear, laziness, or comfort limit us.

So how can you start to achieve your professional goals now? Of course, it’s important to be realistic. Analyze your virtues and skills and think about what you could improve. The next step you should take is to combine what you are good at with what you want to do professionally. Does it help other people? Does it make your life easier? What is the main purpose?

How to know if you are on the right track

It is crucial to think about all of these things. However, there is one other thing you should reflect on and that is whether you are on the right track to your dreams. To answer that, you should think about the following questions:

• What goals have you achieved so far? We’re not talking about money here, we’re talking about professional goals. If you come to the conclusion that you have not had any success before, it is safe to say that your professional career and goals are not in line with each other.

• Does your work align with your values? The reason we sometimes feel unhappy, no matter how much money we make, is because our work is inconsistent with our values. In fact, our job can even go against them at times.
• Does what you do motivate you? That is a crucial question. If you don’t give yourself the chance to be productive and improve your skills and instead just act automatically, you are probably not on the right track.

The answers to these questions can help you figure out if you are actually on track to meet your professional goals. If you find that you are not on the right track, you should reconsider your situation. Maybe you just need to look at things from a different perspective. However, you may also need to resolve conflicts that stand in the way of your professional development.

The importance of aligning your professional career with your life goals

There is a clear difference between those who have a satisfactory career and those who just work. The former do it for pleasure. Their work makes them happy and they feel like they are growing in it. In a way, their job allows them to develop and improve their skills. The latter see their work as an obligation, as something that they have to endure every day.

Resignation is never a good thing. We always have to keep in mind that there are other options. One thing is certain, however: nothing will be achieved without hard work. When what we do is aligned with what we firmly believe in, we stop seeing our work in a negative light. After all, we enjoy it so much that we no longer feel it is an obligation.

So why don’t we take the time to train ourselves in what we really like and in that way work towards something that will get us out of bed even on the laziest of days? It’s about motivation and patience. If you want to be satisfied with what you are doing, we recommend that you think about your life goals first. They define the path to your dreams. Little by little you will get closer to your goal.