How do you aquire career motivation? What should you do to boost your ambitions to advance in your profession? And how to stay motivated over a long period of time?

• Accept that no one but you has the ultimate responsibility for your career development planning

• You need qualifications, skills and talents

• You need credentials

• You need support from other people; your family and friends, your leisure fellows, your colleges and other people within your profession. Lets take a closer look at the people who can motivate you to get your career moving:

The people who love you can give you motivation

How does it feel to come home after a long and hard working day and be received like a King? You are met in the door by your spouse, your kids or closest friends whose eyes light up when they see you? They probably make you feel that the effort you have made during your working day was worth it, that this effort makes other people happy and you will probably feel encouraged to endeavour even more to make them even happier, because you see that they make you happy. Your closest personal relationship network is your base, the main purpose why you have a job or a profession. There's probably no better reason why you're working than for the happiness and security of the people who live together with you in your own 'nest'.

Your network of leisure peers can motivate you

Everybody needs leisure time, something outside the job and outside the home too. You need to socialize with acquaintances from time to time for sharing interest and hobbies or even partying with. These people and the activities you perform together have little or nothing to do with your job or profession. To enjoy hobbies like bridge or casino gambling, biking or riding, fishing or football together with people that have similar interest to you, motivates you to advance in your career because such activities satisfy a need that you have and that your career environment can't. If you don't take care of your entire person you will not feel well and your profession planning and advancement will also suffer. Therefore, having something outside your home and job that can take care of the parts of your personality that your home and job are not able to, is necessary for staying motivated in your job and profession.

Get motivation from your Professional mastermind group

You've probably been at various seminars and meetings inside as well as outside your work place. During the years you've been working you've also probably aquired lots of professional contacts like former coworkers and supervisors, college professors and other academic professionals, career counselors and other people like yourself, with the same background and education. This is your mastermind group and represents an invaluable resource for your profession advancement; professionals you can network with, discussing many topics that can be beneficial for everyone. Just by knowing that you have this resource-pool available is a significant motivating factor for you own career planning and development. Remember, each of us has something the other may need.

Your mentor equals your motivator

A personal mentor is probably the most career motivating person you can have. If you are able to get yourself a clever and trustworthy mentor don't hesitate, find one now. A mentor is a person who gives you advise regarding your profession issues. He or she coaches you and gives you support in your profession planning and development. He also introduces you to the people who can help you in building your career and assures that your profession is developing in the right direction. He helps you make a career plan, compares your progress with the plan, analyzes deviations of the plan and suggests actions to remain on track like participate in certain training and other profession development activities.

To summarize: To aquire and stay motivated about your career planning and development, you need awareness of your own responsibility, qualifications and credentials but most of all you need support from other people. Thus relationship building - not only in your work place and within your profession but outside that realm - is crucial for succeeding in your career.