Did you notice that the first four letters of "career" is "care"? This fortuitous fact captures a truism that is central to career management.

Indeed, a career requires continuous and diligent care in order to grow and flourish. If a person doesn't care about his or her career, then it's possible that said career doesn't exist. Or if it does exist, it might be deteriorating rapidly and might require intensive remedial care.

The point is that your career is your own. Nobody can care about your career more than you do. The only limit to your career growth is your self-motivation and, specifically, your courage in stepping outside of your comfort zone -- on a regular basis.

But why leave one's comfort zone and daily routine, you may ask. After all, you got to where you are today by working hard.

Don't you deserve some comfort and slack? Don't your deserve some relaxing time? And where's that remote control, by the way?

Yes. Yes. And under the couch.

However, the world is no longer the same. Things are moving fast. Trends are furiously emerging that will radically change the competitive landscape. Everybody, without exception, will have to get better and better -- and fast.

But to keep improving, you have to care about your career.

What does "caring" mean exactly? How do you know if you care about your career?

In the professional development context, to "care" means to consciously acquire real empowerment. (Notice that the last four words can be captured by the acronym C.A.R.E.)

That is, if you truly cared about your career, you would plan and act so as to continually increase your knowledge, which is the key to self-empowerment. You would also acquire new skills continually, so as to be able to contribute more value to your employer.

In return, your employer will give you more opportunities to expand your career and acquire new skills that will increase your market value.

Brian Tracy, the famous motivational speaker and author, once wrote that "in America, you work eight hours a day to survive. Every extra hour per day that you spend sharpening your skills and increasing your knowledge, is a direct investment in yourself and your economic growth."

It's also important to note that caring here doesn't refer to a vague emotional connection to your career, but hard, tangible, concrete actions leading to results.

For example, a good test to know how much you care about your career is to ask yourself, "What did I do last week to improve my career or increase my professional value?"

Don't worry if the answer is "nothing."

After all, we grew up in a relatively stabler economy where we assumed that the employer would provide us with career development resources.  We also assumed, correctly or not, that the employer would let us know if we ever needed new skills or new work methods.

In short, for many people, professional development was initiated by the employer.

Today, companies are far too busy focusing on their profitability and survival in a global economy to care about the career health of every employee.

This means career development is mostly up to you.

The good news is that there is so much knowledge out there to empower you and help you develop your career. All it takes is a bit of caring and a lot of discipline. In the long run, your entire life will be better and happier, if you develop the daily habit of acquiring new knowledge and new skills that make you more valuable as a professional or manager.