Seven Steps to Turn Your Work-related Dreams into Reality and Enjoy the Journey

Do you still have work-related dreams you would like to turn into reality, but are afraid to start for whatever reason? Maybe people around you have been repeating that it was too late or not the right moment, and you believed them. Maybe you are afraid to give up something you already know and are familiar with, even if it doesn't bring you satisfaction and fulfilment anymore. You could be afraid to lose your financial security if you start something new. These fears are normal but can be dissolved and conquered to step toward a brighter future. 

It is never too late to turn your desires into reality. Even if you achieve only a part of it, you will feel much better than living with the regret that you didn't even start because your fears and beliefs stopped you. This is true for any area of your life. However, in this article, I want to talk about the field of work and your work-related dreams and desires.

It is not uncommon that people start feeling disillusioned and unfulfilled in their work after 15-20 years of successful careers. It happened to me, too, in my career as a Human Resource Management consultant. For some years, I chose the solution to change my attitude and look at the bright side of my work. And there were plenty of advantages I enjoyed. However, after a few years, I decided it was time for a change. I blundered around trying different things related to my passions, because, at that time, I believed the advice to follow my passion at work. After several false paths, I decided to adopt a more strategic approach to my change process. The seven-step process originates in my self-discovery and change journey, and was refined over time based on my experience and working with clients who encountered similar challenges in their 40s or 50s.

Even if the centre of this process is the field of WORK, we cannot look at it in isolation but rather as part of the whole, that is, our lives. This step-by-step process can be applied to any area of life.

The seven steps of the change process for a fulfilling and successful work life (or any other field of your life):

1. Find out your core values and life purpose. This will give you a bigger picture of what is important to you and how you want to contribute. To feel fulfilled and satisfied with your work in the long term, it is important to see a clear relationship between work and what is important to you. 

• Your values answer the question "What is important to you?"
• Your life purpose or mission answers the question: "Why are you in this world?" or "What is your contribution to your smaller or larger community, to humanity?"

These questions sound rather philosophical, but they are important to understand yourself, your decisions, feelings, behaviours and actions. When your work is aligned with your values and purpose, or you see a clear meaning and connection between your work and life purpose, you feel like everything is aligned and all the pieces have fallen into place. You do not need continuous outside incentives because your intrinsic motivation keeps you going. It feels easier to maintain your motivation and be focused on your goals. You do not give back when you experience challenges and setbacks; you are more resilient. You can feel satisfied and fulfilled on your journey toward your goal, not only when you reach it. Even if you have done the work before, thus being aware of your values and life purpose, and only want to change jobs, it is always worth reviewing these elements and checking the jobs you apply to against them.   

2. Analyse where you are now. It is important to know exactly where you start from and what you have to change. Even if the focus is on your work, this area of life doesn't exist in isolation. It influences many other aspects of your life, for example, your finances, environment, leisure time, professional development, relationships and health and well-being.

The Wheel of Life is an excellent tool to start this analysis. Then focus on your work:

• What are the aspects of your work you are satisfied with and would like to maintain?
• What aspects of work cause dissatisfaction?
• How does your present work influence the quality of your other life areas?
• What would you like to improve? Etc.  

3. Get crystal clear on what you want. This step involves long-term visioning. You look at your entire life and create your vision for the next 5, 10 or 20 years. It is not enough to only think about work, career or business.

• First, have an overall vision for your life, then go into details related to your work.
• Harmonise your vision.
• You have to analyse the potential influences that your work-related vision has on the other areas of life.
• Your vision should also harmonise with your values and life purpose to experience fulfilment, satisfaction and joy. Based on your vision, you can establish long-term goals and set priorities.
• Then, break down the long-term goals into actionable goals.
• Your happiness is jeopardised when your work isn't harmoniously integrated with the other important areas of life, and there is a long-term unbalance between your work and other areas of life. 

4. Plan. Based on the present situation analysis and your goals and priorities, develop a long-term plan with the main milestones to achieve and the required resources. It is a huge mistake to omit planning because we live in turbulent times of permanent change. Exactly because of these characteristics of the present times, it is important to have a plan, a roadmap to guide your steps. You do not need to plan everything in detail for the next year or more.

• Define your milestones or intermediary goals and think about the resources you might need on your journey. How much time do you need to make those resources available? When do you need them? For example, if you need a new qualification, you must build this time into your process. You might need a plan to acquire certain resources.
• Then, look at the first milestone. What resources do you need? How are you going to get the resources you do not have? What actions do you have to take? Make a more detailed plan for the first milestone or intermediary goal.
• Plan in detail for the first month.
• Review your activities and results every week and make adjustments to next week's plan, if necessary.
• Once a month, also review the circumstances and environment, and decide if you need to make changes or adjustments in your plan.
• Your plan is not set in stone, and you must review and adapt it regularly.
• Having a plan gives you clarity on what you need and what actions you must take, reducing uncertainty and stress, thus contributing to your mental well-being. It also helps you achieve your goal and experience satisfaction and fulfilment. 

5. Unblock yourself. We all have beliefs, thought patterns, attitudes, fears, habits, etc., that act as inner blocks and stop us from taking action or accomplishing our goals. When you design your vision and set your goals, it is very important to look at these mindset elements and habits and start working on them. You might have already heard that naughty voice in your head, trying to stop you from dreaming big in your vision.

I like to start the change process with gratitude. When you start practising gratitude, you change your attitude toward life, feel more satisfied with it and develop a more positive outlook on life and the world. It becomes easier to make the necessary changes from this position of gratitude.

The next step is to uncover and release limiting beliefs and replace them with positive, empowering ones. Some of your fears will dissipate because they were fuelled by limiting beliefs. Working on your beliefs makes changing your attitudes, habits and behaviours easier. This is a process that actually never stops. As you progress toward your long-term goal, you'll be confronted with limiting beliefs and fears you did not discover from the start.

There is a large number of techniques and tools to help you in this field. You can read books, watch videos online, attend training courses or work with a coach to get personalised support. Whatever method you choose, you can achieve success if you implement what you have learnt.

You do not have to wait for the next steps until you clear your limiting beliefs, dissolve all your fears and change your mindset. Taking action and acknowledging results will help you reinforce your new beliefs and attitude. On the other hand, taking action will also bring up new fears and limiting beliefs.

Unblocking yourself by discovering and clearing your inner blocks is a step that goes in parallel with all the other steps. This is never-ending work you have to do with yourself and for yourself to achieve your goals.

6. Take action. Start taking action from the very first day you set your goal. This will give you momentum and some small early results you can use to reinforce your mindset and I-can-do attitude and celebrate progress, which will increase your level of joy and satisfaction.

Start according to your plan, but stay flexible and ready to quickly respond when the environment changes or new opportunities come your way.

Improve your productivity and your planning based on your results. Use different techniques and tools to increase your focus and productivity. This personal and professional growth is also a basis for increased happiness at work.

7. Evaluate, analyse and celebrate your results. Analyse regularly your actions and their results. Check them against your plan. This helps you correct the mistakes and learn from them. Learn from other people's feedback. It is very important to implement the learnings so that you do not repeat the same mistakes. Make the necessary corrections in your action plan. Use the results to reinforce your new beliefs and attitudes. Each analysis is an opportunity to learn and grow, improve your skills and celebrate your progress toward the goal, but also your growth.

The process is not linear. The last three steps run in parallel, and there will be several reiterations. You cannot wait for the action until you clear all your inner blocks. You start taking action and dealing with your inner blocks while taking action. The more inner blocks you clear, the more powerful and effective your actions will be. You acknowledge every small result to recognise and celebrate your progress and reinforce your new, positive beliefs. Some of your inner blocks will be revealed while you analyse the partial results. Each evaluation and analysis will lead you back to the planning step, to review your plan, add more details for the short term and make adjustments, if needed.