When it comes to work, you always need to make sure that you’re happy. Because we spent a lot of our lives working. While some are naturally ambitious and will always have big goals that they’re looking to achieve, others might feel lost. And that’s natural. Because the whole idea of carving out a career for yourself that you might love, is tough. There’s a lot of pressure and you won’t always know what decisions to make for the best. But, if you try to ignore this, it will just hang over you. Because it doesn’t really go away. After all, you spent most of your time at work, so don’t you want a career that you love? And if you ambitious, then it’s also time for you to start getting closer to those big, grandiose goals of yours.

To do this, you need to be intentional. You need to know exactly what it is that you want to achieve in your career, and you need goals. And not only that, but you need to know what you need to do to then achieve those goals. This can take a lot of thought, planning, and time. But that’s okay - because the dream career is never just going to land in your lap. It’s not an instant, overnight thing. To make this happen, it’s going to take work. And if you have no idea what you need to do to dream bigger and create a career you love, these ideas should inspire you.

1. Understand What You Want

To start with, you need to be aware of what you want. What you want to do with your life. What the ultimate lifestyle looks like to you. What you’re passionate about. What you love to do. And fixate on that for a moment. Because this can help you to work out what you really want for your life and the career that can give you that.

2. Think About The Everyday

But don’t let yourself get wrapped up in a dream that’s not realistic. Or just a fantasy. Think about your everyday life and how you want to spend your time. If you want to live your life to the fullest, then detail what your days look like. Are you traveling? Writing? Designing? Teaching? In meetings? What are you doing with your time? This can often help you figure out the best kind of career for you.

3. Consider Your Options

When you combine both of the above points, you should have options. It will be easy for you to see what kind of job might be suited for you. Even if it’s something that is so far away from what you do now, own it. See what kind of roles might be then available and commit to a career choice that might be perfect for you.

4. Believe In Yourself

From here, you’re going to need t start believing in yourself. Because if you want to go after your dream, you need to have confidence in yourself and believe that you can do this. If you doubt yourself, you may not push yourself to get to where you want to be. So you have to back yourself and be your number one cheerleader! When you can do this, you can achieve anything.

5. Do Your Research

And next, you’re going to want to do your research. What does that career involve? What experience do you need? What training? Really start to think about that career choice and how you might be able to get yourself into the industry and started off in a brand new role.

6. Create A Plan

Then, you need to get a plan together. It’s just how it has t be. If you want to make changes - no matter how or small they might be, you need to map it out. So develop a career plan for yourself and your dreams. And it needs to be practical. It should work out how you’re going to reach your gal and what you need to do to be able to get there.

7. Set Those Steps

But then, you need to take a step. You need to know what actionable steps you can take to get closer to your dream, or to just start out in that field. Know what the first step is and just leap. Don’t be afraid. Just get started with the first step and see what happens. Because it’s starting and showing up that matters.

8. Ask Questions

One of the best things you can do here, is learn. Educate yourself and read, but also ask questions. Speak to people more senior than you or smarter than you. Take it all in and be inquisitive. Try to learn as much as you can so that you’re able to really flourish in your career and get closer to your growth goals.

9. Intern

And maybe you even need to intern? If you know that you want to move into a career that is competitive or that you need experience in, it could be that you need to find an internship and just learn. Prove yourself. Absorb everything. Pay your dues. If you get to here you want to be income year or five years or ten years, it’s always going to be worth it - no matter where you are in your career right now.

10. Plan That Promotion

The next thing that you’re going to want to do here is work out how you’re going to get the promotion you want. And as you may be thinking that it’s going to be hard to get promoted - because it is. But it’s not impossible. Again, you just need to put the work in here. You need to identify how you’re going to get yourself ready for that next position.

11. Get A Mentor

But then also, the next thing you need to do here, is to get a mentor for yourself. Because if you know that you struggle to stay motivated, and you want to be held accountable, then finding a mentor can work out perfectly for you. So find someone that you can learn from and that’s going to help you to keep your career dreams alive.

12. Do Your Own Thing

Or maybe you don’t want to climb the corporate career ladder and this is why you feel stuck? Maybe you want to launch your own business or do your own thing in another way? Then go for it. Start out on the side. Work in your evenings and on the weekend to get something started. Put the hours in and see what you can make. It’s different and out of your comfort zone. But creativity doesn’t happen in your comfort zone. So step out!

13. Market Yourself

And if you do want to do something for yourself, then you need to get comfortable with marketing and putting yourself out there. Sell yourself. Get yourself invested in marketing and understand it. Get social. Advertise. Just love what you’re doing and sell it. After all, if you have a true passion for what you’re creating, it won’t feel like you’re selling - just sharing.

14. Know The Ultimate

But then you also need to know what that big dream, what that successful company really looks like. With this vision, you can then make work happen. Do you want to create a wildly successful brand? Do you want a big office space with snazzy custom designed steel light poles around an employee pool? Do you want to be a Fortune 500 business? Know what the ideal looks like, and keep this in mind as you’re going through the tough times as it’s going to help you to keep going.

15. Put The Work In

And finally, when you know where you’re going, and you’re pretty sure on what the journey looks like, then it’s time to do the work. Yes, you might be scared to do this and your goals might be intimidating, but just start. Find that mentor, write that blog post, stay late at work, volunteer. Do what you need to do to get the ball rolling. Because when the plan is set in motion, things get really exciting, really fast!

And there you have it. When you’re still in the dreaming phase, it can really feel as if you’re going to be in that dream forever. And that you’re actually going to struggle to really make something happen with your career. But when you sit down and get practical, and really think about what you want to achieve, anything is possible. Because it’s the action that counts. It’s deciding that you want to make a change and that you’re willing to work for it that matters. It doesn’t matter what you want to d with your career, or whether you want to do your own things, if you create a plan and put the work in, you’ll have a big future ahead.