Denise Brouillette

If you don't want to end up just anywhere in your career, you need to always be thinking strategically about your future.  And that means that before taking action on anything having to do with your job or your career, no matter how great it may look at the time, you should stop and ask yourself, "Where is this taking me?"  In other words, begin with the end in mind. Because if you don't start out knowing where you want to go, if you don't start out with the end in mind, you're likely to end up anyplace BUT where you'd rather be. And that's a powerless place to find yourself.

Becky's Story 

A year ago Becky and Anne were out for one of their regular evenings dinners. As they were sipping some excellent pinot gris while waiting for their meal to arrive, Becky announced that she was leaving her, oh, maybe 5th marketing job in 10 or so years, to finally launch her own marketing consulting group. "How exciting." Anne said.

A couple of months before that, Anne and  Becky had been talking about jobs and futures. It was then that Becky began thinking that it was about time to start getting serious about what was next. Because while they were discussing futures, Becky suddenly said... "Wow! I KNOW how I got here, but HOW in the world did I get here?" In other words, she could trace her steps, but she was left wondering how she let herself wander into one job after another without direction.

Good question. We've all asked ourselves just that at some point or other in our careers. We can trace the route -- yeah, we know WHAT jobs we took to get us to where we are today. But it's the "How did I get here" or "How did I let this happen?" that's the killer question.

As Becky was lamenting over her 10 years of somewhat aimless choices, she realized that she'd taken some jobs, not because they were right for where she wanted to go with her career, but because they happened to be the jobs that were in front of her at the time.

There was the job with the 4-hour commute (2 hours each way) because she liked the guy she'd be working for. There was the job that was a step down (never a good idea) because it was a big name company and she thought it would look good on her resume. Hello!! What doesn't look good on your resume is that you went from director to senior manager. How do you explain that one?

And then there were the two moves that she went for because the pay package was right. Once again, not because the jobs were taking her where she wanted to go, but because the total package was going to give her a lifestyle that seemed good at the time. And finally, at 36, she woke up to the question, "I know how I got here, but HOW did I get here?" and she set herself on the right course.

And that's when she was ready to take back her power. That's when asking herself, "Where am I going?" she was ready to let herself hear the answer. That's when she started practicing the first rule of power -- begin with the end in mind.

After some soul searching, Becky rediscovered her love for working on her own. She remembered that she had gone to business school to prepare herself to be a CEO. And now she was going to do just that…by becoming the CEO of her own consulting group.

That was last year. Today Becky has 6 people on her team and more clients than she can handle. And she's where she is because she followed the first rule of power -- begin with the end in mind. And by doing that, she put her power where it belonged -- in her hands and not in the hands of fate.

What About You? Are you beginning with your end in mind? Do you know what you want? Take some time this week to answer the question, "What do I want?" and answer as truthfully as you can.