This summer I finally had the time to read Brian Tracy’s The Psychology of Selling while hanging by the pool on France’s Atlantic coast. The book was easy to read and had some interesting points, even though most of the content is just good common sense.

One part of this book stood out for me, in comparison to the rest of the content and that was the power of making a list of goals. Everybody that makes lists on a daily basis knows that they are a powerful tool to increase productivity and that marking a to-do as “done” or check them with a “✓”-mark, triggers the brain’s reward system and makes you want to get more things done in order to get that cerebral reward.

If you are not working with lists today, I urgently recommend you to do so. All types of are good and efficient; list on paper, post-its, the to-do list application on your phone or a web-based application.

I pondered on this matter but from another perspective, on people’s careers. As a seasoned recruitment specialist, one of the questions I always ask in interviews with candidates is how they see their future career development in the next 3 to 5 years. You would be amazed at the number of candidates that I have met that do not have a career plan or know in which direction they would like to go.

It could be a great idea to put down on paper a clear and well-defined career path with deadlines so that you, as a professional in your field, always can grow and develop yourself. This makes it clear that if your current employer does not offer you the possibility to pursue this career roadmap, it’s maybe time to find another that will!