Do you consider yourself the protagonist of your career or do you think your professional life is just getting carried away with time?
We know that this can be a difficult reflection to make, but the fact is that we live in an increasingly competitive world in which the best job opportunities are won by those who know where they want to go.
But if you feel like you haven’t taken on this prominent role in your career and still need to understand the direction you want to take it, don’t worry. In this article, you’ll find out what you need to do to lead a successful professional journey.
What does it mean to be a career protagonist?
Before knowing the steps that will take you to take control of your career, it is important to understand better what it means to be a protagonist.
The word “protagonist” has Greek origins (protagonistes), which is the junction of the words protos , which means “first”, and agonistès , which means “actor” or “fighter”. In other words, he is the main actor or fighter in a narrative, and everything revolves around him.
When we talk about career protagonism, we refer to a professional who dictates the rules about it. He takes responsibility for his own development, for his decisions, for his mistakes and uses them all to achieve his goals.
Be the protagonist of your career with these 4 steps
Becoming the main character of your professional journey is a process that requires dedication, but it is also very worthwhile.
See which way to get there.
1 – Seek self-knowledge
To be considered the main character of your story, you need to know yourself and understand who you want to be professionally.
In case you still don’t know very well, the only way to find out is to explore the possibilities. Read more, take courses, like a graduate degree , and try to understand if your current job really satisfies you. Anyway, exhaust the possibilities that are within your reach to find who you are when it comes to work.
The important thing here is that you recognize what you are capable of, what you need to improve and what you enjoy doing. Only then will you develop the self-confidence you need to accept the opportunities that will come your way.
2 – Develop self-responsibility
The protagonist knows that the story revolves around him and, therefore, takes responsibility for himself. The same applies to his career.
And we’re not talking about beating yourself up over things that go wrong here. Self-responsibility is about not making excuses, blaming other people, or bad luck.
In this case, self-responsibility means recognizing that you, and only you, are in control of your destiny and the choices you make.
Therefore, it is up to you to decide when to take a course or specialization, to look for a new job if you realize that you are stagnant or to look for ways to earn a higher salary if the company does not want to give you a raise.
Remember: no one will make your career decisions for you.
3 – Maintain resilience
The word resilience has been used a lot in recent years, especially when it comes to work. However, being resilient is not working too hard, for example. None of this will help you to be the protagonist of your career.
To take the spotlight on your professional journey, you will need resilience in the sense of being focused to achieve all the goals you set. You must face the moments of adversity, overcome problems and learn from these situations with great serenity and competence.
And what can help you to be more resilient?
Exercising resilience is a daily exercise that requires self-knowledge, strengthening bonds, focusing on the solution rather than the problem and flexibility. This is how resilience will help you to lead a successful career.
4 – Seek continuous development
If in fiction a protagonist grows through experience, in the history of his career it is no different.
To be a safe professional and aware of your potential, it is essential that you are always developing.
The first thing to do is have a career plan and know where you want to go. Thus, you will know what are the technical and behavioral skills that you will need to develop throughout your career to achieve this goal.
After that, you will choose the means to get there through specialization, extension courses, research, mentoring, readings, etc. The important thing is to know that knowledge is one of the main factors for you to believe in yourself.
