An argument that holds water or just a bad analogy?

You may have struggled with your career in the past but have you ever thought about your relationship with work? Old-school career planning enters our thinking at specific times in our working lives or around specific events: when we leave school or college, when we are looking for a new job, if we are made redundant or when we start to think about retirement. The traditional career planning approach is like the office fire extinguisher: always there, most of the time ignored but in an emergency we all rush for it.

Your relationship with work is a new way to think about your career and, like most relationships, in order to be successful it needs regular thought and attention. This ongoing dialogue around your relationship with work has more in common with the office water cooler than the fire extinguisher: it's still there all the time but it's used everyday and you always feel better after a huddle around it.

Okay, so the water cooler and the fire extinguisher serve a different purpose but shouldn't you have access to something that serves a better purpose for your career too? Think about your relationship with work and how it could become a positive, ongoing dialogue. Something that can be with you for as long as you need it to be as a source of confidence, information and insight. Something that belongs to you alone that can be explored and understood to define and move you closer to personal success.

If your relationship with work sounds like an interesting subject, start by looking more closely at your values, talents and goals (this post might be useful here, Looking back, around and ahead). Alternatively, for more bad analogies keep visiting this blog!