Managing your career on a planned basis is the best way of ensuring that you earn what you deserve, and get exposed to exciting and lucrative business opportunities.

There’s a study that is often referred to in the self-help / psychology books - that of a Harvard group of students in the 1960s. The study established which students had specific written goals for their lives and careers, and which didn’t. When a followup was carried out 20 years later, the group that had clear goals had massively outperformed those who had no clear goals while they were at university.

You need to do the same for your career. Take hours, days or even weeks on this, but do sit down, and think carefully about what goals you would like to achieve during your working career - and then commit these thoughts to paper. Then - put plans in place to achieve these goals. Monitor these plans every month and every quarter, and very soon you’ll start moving towards some of those lofty goals. Remember - nobody can do this but you - as you are the only one who knows what your ambitions and desires are.

If you’re hating your current career- change it if the reason for your unhappiness is due to the type of work you’re doing. Sticking in a career that no longer has any attraction means that you will never excel at what you do, and that means mediocre pay increaes, and even puts you at risk of losing your job.

If you need to get another qualification - take the opportunities afforded by earning an online university degree. You can quietly focus on building new skills, and opening up new career opportunities while in the job you currently do not enjoy. By developing an alternative, you will feel far happier inside, as that trapped feeling will no longer haunt you …