Just as the battery in your car may need a jump start from time to time, each of us might need a jumpstart in our careers to aid our ability to move forward.
The first time someone needs support is when just starting out. We know many who would be very happy to receive an offer to work in the industry, gain valuable experience, and jumpstart their careers. If you are hiring, you may view the first round of candidates at floridaconstructionconnection.com/interns/. This is an outreach we are doing at FLCC, spear-headed by Randy Thomas, our Director of Career Coaching. There is no cost for our service to the intern or employer who helps the candidates. We personally engage with each student to offer insight into some of the challenges they may face in the workplace. Each individual who qualifies (by having little or no work experience in the industry), completes a DiSC workplace profile, receives assistance with their resume, has a teleconference or face-to-face meeting with me, and receives additional guidance along the way as requested. The employer terms are written on our website.
Those of you who are already established in Construction Management might find that your career and your motivation has had its ups and downs. When you are down or stagnant in your career and you need a jump start, what can you do?
Studies have suggested you ought to first evaluate your life as a whole. One’s motivation and the degree of career success has been proven not to be achieved by a continuous strive to enhance one’s title or pay scale. Abraham Maslow in 1954 concluded that the desire to become the most that one can is achieved through self-actualization. Self -actualization is the realization or fulfillment of one’s talents and potentialities, especially considered as a drive or need present in everyone.
Source: https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html
That is why you should reach out to a career coach, mentor or someone else who can be a sounding board for you and knows your challenges, fears, current resources and emotional state when your commitment and motivation to be the best you can is diminished. Over the years, due to changes in the industry, many people have lost their jobs, relationships, or developed health issues before asking for help when they know their motivation has diminished and need a jumpstart. Most often the diminishment is shown through an inability to communicate effectively in the workplace, followed by behavior to hide or reduce ineffectiveness, and then denial until a spectacularly negative conclusion. The underlying cause often turns out to be an imbalance in their lives. Very rarely is jumpstarting your career a simple process, and never is it merely about one’s career. Rather, it always involves the full spectrum of your life. Typically, it takes time, a structured program, and accountability to follow the program, before the trajectory of your career is stabilized and trending upwards again. Just as with any program, the first step is to admit you have a problem.
As you can see from the self-actualization pyramid, there are many factors that play into the ability for your desires for your career, and what will actually play out. The Very Wellminded blog did a good job in explaining 9 characteristics of self-actualized people.
My husband and I have worked on specific areas of our lives, such as finances, family, and friendships they arose, and each time made improvements. Yet it wasn’t until our business and life coaches had us look at everything as a whole from a life plan did our desires for business start to align with what was actually playing out. Recognizing the steps to shore up each area in our life is what helped both of us to work towards our individual self-actualization.
The Very Wellminded article begins by saying, “In psychology, self-actualization is achieved when you’re able to reach your full- potential. Being truly self-actualized is considered the exception rather than the rule since most people are working to meet more pressing needs.”
Each of us is on a journey in life. That doesn’t mean you are on a journey to self-actualization.
Your foundation is bound to be shaken. Your career might also, although with self-actualization in your life you will be able to focus forward.
Do you need a jumpstart to achieve your career goals?
Suzanne Breistol
