13 Strategies to Build A Successful Career in Life

How to get success in life and career - Having a successful career opens your way to unlimited happiness and this is also a way to say we were able to build up an empire through our knowledge and hard work.

Building a successful career requires hard work and working our way up the ladder within our profession.

There are different ways that we can go about building a successful career, but it's important to think about the various strategies we can put in place to make the most of the opportunities that come our way.

Being successful in our career can provide us with a feeling of accomplishment and security, while also improving the overall quality of our life, as well as our family’s.

In order to build a successful career, we have to plan first. It’s not a onetime thing that we do in our school and college and then leave it, and move onward towards our job and career. In fact, Planning must be done on a daily basis, no matter "What platform we are at”; and at "What position".

Before structuring a successful career for ourself, the utmost thing is to evaluate ourself and have a clear focused mind; stating “What’s our Goal in life?” or “Which career path do we want to choose?”

A positive methodology towards our goal will make our life better in all phases, as it offers us a feeling of sanctuary and triumph.

Here are 13-strategies that can help us to build a successful career in life.

1. Know our values

The place to start building career success is with ourself. First, zero in on our values. Values are the core principles that run our life.

The more our career aligns with and honors our values, the deeper the sense of satisfaction we will derive from what we do.

2. Play to our strengths

Second, find our strengths. It's easier and a lot more fun to play to our strengths than to compensate for weaknesses.

A great resource for identifying our strengths is Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath where we buy the book and then take an on-line assessment which generates a report of our top 5 strengths. Then see how we can start playing to our strengths!

3. Live our passions

Some of people are able to live their passions every day. For others, tapping into passions is more challenging. Passions are often buried by belief systems and judgments that convince us that what we love is not worthy of or capable of sustaining us in a career.

If that is our situation, think back to those childhood passions and see what it would take to introduce more of those things into our life right now.

4. Use our favorite skill sets

What are we good at doing? A great resource is the 7 Success Stories exercise in Richard Nelson Bolles’ seminal work, What Color Is our Parachute?

Think of the times that we have been successful and then zero in on the specific steps that we took to get there. These will tell us our best skills. Now pick our favorite skills and see how we can apply them in our career.

5. Figure out how much money we need to make

For anyone entering the job market or thinking about a career switch, take a long hard look at our finances. Do a budget.

Decide on what kind of lifestyle is really important to us. Then think about how much money we need to make to support ourself in that lifestyle.

6. Have a right plan

Once we have answered all of the foregoing questions, do some research into different career scenarios that combine our values, strengths, passions and favorite skills sets and provide us with the money that we need to make.

Imagine ourself in those careers. What will we be doing all day? Whom will we be working with? What do we want to accomplish? Then go out and find out more about these areas.

Make a long-range plan for our career search and set quarterly, monthly and weekly smart goals.

7. Go the extra mile

We do not get ahead in life by accident. Sure, we may come into a fortunate situation and take advantage for years at a time. But relying on good luck shouldn't a strategy to rely on.

We get ahead in life by pushing through the ordinary to be above average, and not accepting status quo. We will never be extraordinary without doing something extra.

For any person, the “extra” is given as a birthright. But natural talent only goes so far, with enough talent we can become a good professional athlete. But to be a great athlete, we need to have something more: an intense competitive need to succeed.

8. Broaden our skills

Update our knowledge and skills. Seek improvement of our know-how. Attend seminars, conferences, read books or even enroll for an online course.

With the daily advancement of technology and innovation across all professional fields, it's vital that we keep abreast of trends running the modern world industries. This applies to middle level and even most senior professions.

9. Networking

Be ready to participate in social functions. Be open to new acquaintances.

Meet some new people and deal with them respectfully and enthusiastically. Be an active listener; we will surely learn something new.

Networking is free, most of the time. It’s full of like-minded individuals, and if we go to the right events, it’s full of people that we can work with or learn from in some way.

Most of these social networking events provide a laid back atmosphere to chat with similar people, and these informal chats often lead to many opportunities and potential ways we can work together.

What’s better is that face-to-face networking events create lasting impressions in the minds of people we meet. Ultimately, it’s not about whom we know, but rather who knows us and the value we bring.

10. Know our merits

Know our strengths and weaknesses. However knowing our strengths doesn't mean that we should not work on our strengths alone; working on our weaknesses ensures that we create a better self and improving our strength takes us even to greater heights in our career.

Good knowledge of our strengths also enables us to have a clear focus in our career as we are fully aware on the path we need to take in our profession.

11. Accept challenges

Through challenges, we will reach areas of our personality we have never discovered before. It's a good idea to step away from our comfort zone to explore new horizons.

If we settle into a routine and play it safe all the time, we will never get ahead in our career. If we always do what we’ve always done, we’ll never get past where we’ve already been.

12. Stay flexible

There are probably a number of different areas that we could see ourself working in.

Experiment and see what we like best! Volunteer at a local non-profit. Join a committee. Take a class.

Do we need additional skills? Take a course or go for another degree.

Do we need another job or two before we are ready for our ideal job? That’s okay since we are moving in the right direction!

13. Be good to ourself

Building a career can be tricky so be good to ourself. Create a nourishment menu of fun, free things to do that make we feel great.

Keep a success journal documenting all the things that we do well. If negative self-talk is holding we back, come up with a mantra or affirmation that can remind us of ourself at our best. Make these practices a habit throughout our life!

Someone who doesn’t like to network can seriously affect his chances of not securing a great job and progressing it but being made to deal with problems like financial security, defaulted student loans, falling credit scores and others which can make it immensely difficult for him to make up for in the latter years of his life.

Our career depends on our social skills much more than it does on our technical skills, make the most out of this advice to have an immensely successful career and a happy life.

Building a successful career in life takes time, effort, patience, courage and commitment. If we are up to the task, we will definitely achieve it.