"CHART your Journey" Blog Series || Chapter 1: Introduction

April 2016. I was asked to be one of the speakers in our company's Career Fair event. Part of that week-long event was a Career Talk where managers were asked to talk about a topic, share what they know about that topic and how that topic helped them to become successful in their careers. The overall goal of the Career Talk was to give inspiration to our employees and create awareness on possible career paths that they can take within the organization. Being one of the Operations Managers on site and one of the most tenured employees in the company, I was asked to give a talk about charting my journey as an employee, sharing where I started, how I became a manager, and give valuable tips/ advice to employees on how to also become successful in their careers.

While thinking of a topic for my next blog, I thought about sharing what I've discussed during that talk as I believe it can inspire more people. My entire talk back then lasted for about an hour. While I can compress everything in a single blog, I thought that it can be overwhelming and might dilute the essence of the insights I wish to share, hence I decided to make a series of blogs about this topic.

As an introduction, I started my talk with the quote I posted above from Asha Tyson. I felt great about this quote the first time I saw it and thought that it's a good starting point for this topic. This quote made me stepped back, recall and assess how my journey has been so far. It was not a smooth one indeed, but with every good and bad thing that happened in my life, I gained memorable experiences and important life lessons. This quote made me realize that each one of us has a unique journey, and everything that's happening in our lives are not mere coincidences, it's all meant to happen and at the end of the day, we will realize the real purpose of these events in our lives.

In my own definition, charting our journey simple means tracking how our lives are progressing, either in an episodal or holistic perspective. Episodal tracking focuses on a specific chapter of our life, ie. our career, our relationships, our childhood, our school days, etc. Holistic tracking, on the other hand, takes on a broader perspective, where we track our entire life's progress.

Now you might be asking, why do we need to do this? What's in it for us if we track our journey?

It's understandable that this activity can be a difficult process, especially for people who are not very attentive to what's happening in their lives, or too busy living their lives. It can be tedious for people whose life stories are like those in the telenovelas or movies, and those people who are totally aware of what's happening in their lives and remembers every piece of it. It can also be boring and nonsense for people who see their lives as such and doesn't realize that significant things are happening in their lives. This activity can also trigger a lot of emotions as a person draws their past experiences. 

But above all this, charting one's journey is a simple tool for success, applicable and most useful for achievers, or people who want to be successful in life. It's ideal for people who are self-aware and conscious about their life's worth. It works best for people who set goals in their lives, and persistent on achieving those goals. These are the essence of charting our journey.

In my next blogs, I will share with you the acronym I created (C.H.A.R.T.) which I also call "The Success Roadmap". One by one, I will be discussing what each of those letters stands for and share valuable insights under each of those topics. I'll see you in my next blogs. :)

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