Ewon Adenomon: 3 Ways To Take Charge Of Your Career

Do you have career goals that you want to achieve?

Does your friend or co-worker pressure you to do things you don’t think are the best decisions for your career?

Do you sometimes feel you are constantly struggling to take charge of your life or career or even relationship?

The struggle is no joke and it is real, but these tips will guide you to overcome those challenges.

Follow your intuition
One of the greatest innovators of our time, Steve Jobs, once said, “Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition, they somehow already know what we want to become,everything else is secondary.” That quote changed my life. I was brought up to always suppress my intuition and go with other people’s opinions – people like my parents, aunts and uncles.
But it got to a point where I realized that following other people’s idea of what I should do with my life was not the way forward. Instead of following what other people think is right for career, follow your instincts. No one knows you better than you!

I think of intuition as your inner guidance that leads you on what do to about every situation that you are in. The question is, do you always listen?

For example, for a project, you may have an amazing idea you may want to present to a group of co-workers; your co-workers look down on it and try to discourage you from carrying out your idea. Imagine if Steve Jobs had let someone talk him out of his great idea?

Imagine if Oprah had allowed someone from discouraging her to star her talk show and she gave up? The world would have lost all the changes and benefits that both people have impacted us with.

Sometimes people are limited by their own small thinking so they want others around them to think small like them. Or they could simply be jealous because they know that it will improve your life, who knows? People are evil like that.

So next time someone wants to talk you out of your career goals, think twice before letting them.

Learn to say ‘No’
Sometimes you may feel the need to do things your way, in order to succeed. If people stress for you to change your methods, learn to say no. You are the one who is in charge of your own decisions. You may be wrong sometimes but guess what? You will learn from your mistakes. That’s the beauty of life, we always learn new things everyday.

I am not asking you to just dive into any decision; there may be times when those advice from people could help you. Before you do that, ask yourself questions like: how will this choice affect my career? or, what are the the consequences? etc.

If you can answer those questions honestly and it you know that it is best for you and your career, then you can take charge.

Be confident
Taking charge of your career is not for the weak-at-heart. You have to be believe in yourself, believe in your skills. You have to know what you are capable of, know what you can bring to the table, and don’t just do it, but do it well. While doing it, become the best at it.

Here is one of my favorite quotes: “There is no passion to be found playing small in settling for a life that is less than the one that you are capable of living.” -Nelson Mandela.

Photo Credit: Dreamstime | Stephen Coburn