Career planning should be fun

It is really easy - if ones career is not bringing joy - to view career planning with great suspicion.
How could it possibly make any difference to a drifting or stalling trainee or a plateau after CCST or partnership.

However, attitude to career planning is key here.

First and foremost career planning should be an enjoyable activity that one looks forward to doing from which one gets results that take one closer to where one would like to go.

It is vital that one maintains this attitude and realises that whilst you may be welded to your own idea of what a career in medicine should be - the scenery and systems change so fast that adaptability is fast becoming the top medical career planning skill.

People don't career plan for a number of reasons
They assume they can't change things
They feel trapped
They are exhausted and or with no time in which to do it
They think it means leaving what one has achieved behind
They feel it is financially unwise
They don't know where to start
They think it is somehow "not nice" to do so

However, well supported career planning addresses all of these concerns and encourages ways around them, attitudinal expansion and plenty of risk management. It is never ever about leaping into the blue yonder without a parachute.