By: R. Esi ASANTE (PhD)
Luck or rather providence is the result of readiness or preparedness meeting opportunity, as the Roman philosopher Seneca once said. This phrase caught my attention when a colleague mentioned it to me.
It nurtures the idea that success is probable when one is prepared and ready to take hold of opportunities as they come. This calls for being proactive, prudent and prepared for the future.
My alma mater had the slogan “Make hay while the Sun Shines”. This proverb relates to a verse in the Bible (Proverbs 10:5), that says that “he who gathers in summer is a wise son, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame”. This verse emphasizes the importance of being diligent and proactive.
It means that there is time for everything (Ecclesiastes chapter 3) and success can be achieved if and only when we do things at the right time. This articles delves into personal career development and grooming focusing on how preparation can meet opportunity for success.
Personal Career Development
The literature is full of articles and blogs on personal career development and so this is not a new topic. To serve as a reminder, personal career development is a process of advancing one’s career by learning, upskilling and progressing towards a desired future goal.
It involves setting goals, planning to achieve those goals, acquiring skills and strategically progressing in a career path. This may seem easy, but requires adequate and deliberate planning.
Career development according to researchers, involves a lifelong, goal-oriented process of planning one’s future, aimed at enhancing skills sets and development. It is a lifelong process because it does not take a day or a year.
It is a continuous effort of learning, growing, adapting and being resilience. Sometimes it can take years and you may think that nothing is coming out of it but just one day, the effort will pay off when an opportunity rears its head.
The Process
The process is goal-oriented because you have to set before you a vision. Where there is no vision, the people perish (Proverbs 29:18). You must be able to identify your career ambitions and plan to get there.
Myles Munroe, a prominent Christian leader, emphasized that vision is a key to effective, focused living, a source of hope, and a visual manifestation of destiny.
He believed that vision unlocks potentials and sets people free from limitations. Just like faith which is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1), vision according to Munroe, is a clear conception of what is not yet a reality but can exist and a strong image of a preferable future.
Career development is also a process of strategic planning. This involves making informed decisions about what you want to become in the future.
At this point, it is important to evaluate yourself to know your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats depending on your interests and begin to work on them.
Take advantage of the opportunities and strengths, build on them and master them. Work also on the weaknesses and threats by regularly evaluating and assessing yourself to identify gaps that need to be filled by education, training, learning, mentoring or sheer experience.
This is a journey to develop your skills and it is important to set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound) career goals.
Another career development process is networking. This is when you build a strong professional network to fall on when the need arises.
You can learn from the relationships you build, get help and find support in time of need, gain insight and explore opportunities. Relationships and networking are like currencies that can buy you any opportunity for free.
It gives you the opportunity to rely on others integrity and experience to get a leverage into the career you dream of. From the networking, you can be exposed to experienced people in your desired field who can advise, guide you and provide you with mentorship, helping you to avoid mistakes they made in life.
Continuous learning and the ability to take initiatives are also processes towards career development. Learning never ends and as human beings, continuous learning is what make us survive our environments.
There are changes everywhere and in every industry, so it is important to stay up to date with industry trends and it is refreshing to know that almost all professions now offer continuous professional development (CPD) to keep their licenses and certificates relevant.
Keep learning and learning even those things that do not look relevant to your career now, they may come in handy someday.
Remember, when preparation meets opportunity, success is achieved. To take initiative means that you seek out new opportunities to expand your skills, experiences and capabilities.
Sometimes, it is necessary to volunteer to offer certain services and take on certain roles even without immediate reward. When done well, these initiatives can open bigger doors and opportunities that will blow your mind. Money is not everything. To grow in your career, your need to sacrifice
Some other ideas on how to personally develop your career includes effective communication, reading books and getting a hobby.
Communicating effectively, depends on active listening and managing your emotions. It is important to work on your communication skills by taking a class or getting someone to coach you to overcome public speaking and being articulate in making your point and your voice heard.
Reading helps you to get things into your subconscious mind and you can learn a lot from reading, especially motivation, inspirational and religious books. Reading has the tendency of improving you and helping you to grasp things that no one will teach you even at school or on the job.
Finding and enjoying a creative hobby in your spare time, can greatly enhance your personal development. Using your creativity puts you in a better position to be creative at work and in your career thus if it is writing, sewing, art and craft, singing, designing and decoration, anything you enjoy doing as a hobby, go ahead and do it. Research has proven that creativity help you be more sensitive to the world around you.
Personal Grooming
First impressions create lasting perceptions about people. Thus a good appearance, such as dressing well, holding yourself up well and speaking well, can convey lasting impressions about you to others.
Personal grooming has to do with caring for one’s physical presence and nurturing habits that augment self-esteem, confidence, and overall well-being, eventually resulting in the development of a positive self-image and professional success.
A well-groomed presence can denote professionalism and respect from others. Taking care of one’s appearance also enhances self-esteem, confidence leading to a more positive self-image.
It can lead to building trust and credibility which is likely to make others believe your judgment and expertise. Even as you develop your personal career path, it is important to groom yourself, waiting for opportunities that will come your way.
Take-away:
Career development requires adequate preparation, which involves acquiring skills, knowledge and experiences that will enable you to take advantage of future opportunities that come your way.
It is also important to be confident to seize opportunities by being proactive. It requires that you be alert and actively pursue opportunities when they appear.
The saying goes that sometimes, opportunities come but once. Imaging your opportunity comes but once and you are not ready for it when it arrives, your miss out on it forever.
So it is important to be ready all the time, prepared. The story is told about ten virgins, five foolish ones and five wise ones (Matthew 25:1-13).
While the wise virgins were prepared for the arrival of the bridegroom anticipating some delays by carrying extra oil in their lamps, the foolish ones failed to prepare and while the bridegroom delayed, their lamps went off because they did not prepare to carry extra oil.
Preparation is key if you want to take advantage of opportunities that present themselves at random. Preparing also involves calling upon the Lord, coming to God in relationship, praying, seeking the Lord with all your heart, to guide you.
The stories of Joseph and David in the Bible, are vivid examples of when preparation meets opportunity.
While Joseph was still in the prison, forgotten by the cupbearer, he prepared himself and when the opportunity presented itself, he was elevated from a prisoner to a prime minister (Genesis 41:1-46). This was after he interpreted Pharaoh’s dream and provided a splendid strategy to handle the issue of the famine.
In the case of David, he was in the wilderness taking care of his father’s sheep and whilst there preparing himself and when the opportunity came, he was elevated from a shepherd to a King in waiting. It is important to use every opportunity to learn, learn and learn. David rules over the animals in the field and that was how he was able, by the help of God, to defeat Goliath.
Success surely occurs mostly when opportunity meets preparation and those who prepare and are ready will reap the benefits.
Be prepared in life, in career, in business and even be prepared to meet God after your time on earth is over. Preparation is key. Make hay while the sun shines mean that you take advantage of the chance to do something while conditions are good.
