How To Leverage Today for An Amazing Tomorrow

Posted on April 01, 2016 by Maria Katrien Heslin, One of Thousands of Career Coaches on Noomii.

Like my little chihuahua Sadie, have you found yourself behind a desk in a workplace that made you wonder why in the world you were there? And wondering what in the world to do next?

Maybe you’re in a job you’ve outgrown. Or one where the culture is too stifling creatively. Or where you’ve accomplished what you needed to, but you’re not quite ready to make a leap because your skills aren’t as sharp as they should be for your next step. Or you’re still wondering what type of job or career would be better for you.

If you’re one of the few and the fortunate, you have a job you love, and you knew you wanted this job all your life. If that IS you, stop reading now and bask in your bliss!

On the other hand, if you’re like most of us, it takes awhile to find your professional place to be. Then keep reading because you’re definitely not alone. Whether you love, like or hate your current work, you can leverage it into big, future success pretty easily.

Identifying what you love to do and actually getting paid to do it is ideal. Some might see that situation as a luxury, some as a necessity, and the closer you get to achieving it the happier you may be. Either way, relish the journey because each stop can bring its own education, enjoyment and long-term benefits.

My own winding professional path has included everything from selling shoes and being a server at several restaurants in my teens to running my own marketing communications business, freelance writing, working in the corporate arena and serving as deputy mayor in the world’s greatest college town (really, I’m not biased!).

The positions I’ve held throughout my career(s) have been diverse and fortunately, largely satisfying. They’ve fulfilled different aspects of my personality and enhanced dozens of skills.

The variety of that journey actually paved the way for me to lovvvve what I do now: teaching at Indiana University and coaching individuals along their career and success paths.

The key is getting the most out of one’s work experiences and making a mental note of them so that the practice gained, mistakes made, success attained or lessons learned can be integrated into our future work. By consciously doing so, we add and hone more and more skills that make us invaluable to whatever we pursue.

For example, in my own experience some time ago, I was charged with planning and executing a direct mail campaign. Not something I wanted to do for the rest of my life, and not something that initially thrilled me. And managing such an effort may sound simple enough, but look at all the steps involved.

Until that time, my role in such projects had been just to design such mailers, but this time I was responsible for: identifying who was going to receive the pieces; conceiving the mailers in a way that met overall project goals; selling stakeholders on my concepts; writing, laying out and designing the mailers; and finding out what the requirements were from the post office in terms of quantity, postage, bundling by zip code and allowable dimensions.

I also had to work with others to ensure the mailers conveyed the intended messages with the right images, colors, layouts, and fonts and that they furthered the goals of the other elements of the larger marketing campaign.

Finally, I had to identify how much money we should spend; find a printer who could keep us within budget; get the pieces to the printer in the right electronic format; figure out how we were going to create mailing labels; identify who was going to label the pieces once they were ready for me to pick up from the printer; and determine by what date and time they had to be delivered to the post office and postmarked in order to meet our deadlines.

Phew!

Now, the individual tasks weren’t horribly challenging, but look at all the skills that project required: time management, creativity, sales, communications, strategy, organization, project management, budgeting, process layout, marketing, writing, design, negotiation, decision making and leadership. (And as it turned out, the campaign kicked major bootay!).

At the time, I doubt I was terribly aware of just how many of these skills were busily being sharpened nor how very much they’d help me out down the road as transferable skills, but over time I took from that experience – and many more like it – the confidence that I was able to handle multiple aspects of almost any given project.

If you’re in a work situation that doesn’t seem to be the finest fit for you or one that isn’t your ultimate calling, try to resist being bored, bummed or my personal favorite, bitter. Instead, I invite you to consider how you might make the most of your experience. Doing so will make you happier and actually help prepare you to make a switch or gain a promotion much faster.

What projects can you tackle to broaden your skill set or fine-tune specific strengths? Can you lead a team? A project? Add a new twist to an old approach? Can you boost teamwork? Find a way to save the company money? Deliver better client value?

Making the most of the present moment is pretty zen, and when fully embraced, can reap loads of benefits. Savor your journey and maximize its opportunities for your amazing future success.