In the business world, people talk about leaders endowed with the “vision thing.” These are people who can envision the future for their industry and their company in concrete terms, and explain it in ways that encourage others to buy in to that vision, and focus their efforts around it as well.

Job seekers would do well to follow this example, and spend some time envisioning a clear picture of their career as it will be. With a clear endgame in mind, you can track backwards to those steps you should be taking now, and to recognize the logical next steps when they present themselves.

Do you have a vision for your career? Are you using it to inform your choices now? And will it stand up to the tests of time and experience?

If you don’t, spend some time with your future. Think it through. Let it be real for you, and you’ll see more clearly what you should be doing now, and where it might take you next.