Take a long term view

Long term perspective is the amount of time you take into consideration when determining present actions. If you want your career to develop well you have to take a long term view and act in line with that approach.

START WITH THE END IN MIND: Have a long term goal. Hard work helps but making the right choices is crucial. For example if your aim is to be a senior executive in a financial services firm in the next 5 years, spending the next 3 years in the fashion industry might not necessarily help you develop the top end skills you need.

BE PREPARED TO SACRIFICE: Bear the good ‘pain’. For example foregoing buying that new item so that you can take that professional magazine subscription instead? Or skipping your favourite movie and for a mind-enriching conversation?. These ‘sacrifices’ increase your value and improve your future opportunities

THINK THROUGH CONSEQUENCES: Before you implement decisions. You won’t be able to determine the impact of every decision but neither should you just do things anyhow. Ask yourself; what will happen if I don’t take that action? How can I minimise any potential negative consequences? Why is the decision the best course of action?

THINK AND WORK STRATEGICALLY: Focus only on high priority and high value activities and spend sufficient time on them. Practice forward thinking and pursue what’s consistent with your values and what you are trying to achieve. Don’t just do what comes to mind or what you feel like doing in the moment but things that will move you forward.

PRACTICE SELF DISCIPLINE: This is getting yourself to take action regardless of without you feel like doing it or not. Tough call but without behaving in a disciplined way, you are likely to derail. So have a plan that has specific targets, take stock regularly so that you can improve and without fail do something daily to support your goals.

Now take action : Write down you want to achieve in the next 3 years.