You’re stuck in a career rut. How can you use decision-making skills to get out of it?

1 Assess your situation

The first step to getting unstuck in your career is to understand why you feel stuck and what you want to change. Ask yourself questions such as what dissatisfies or frustrates you in your current job, what skills, values, and interests do you enjoy using or pursuing in your work, what goals, challenges, and opportunities do you want to have in your career, and how do you measure success and progress? Be honest with yourself and write down your answers. Additionally, review them regularly to stay on track.

3 Evaluate your choices

The third step is to weigh the pros and cons of each option and decide which one is best for you. To assist, you can use a SWOT analysis to analyze the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of each option. Additionally, a decision matrix can help you rank each option based on various criteria such as feasibility, impact, cost, or risk. Moreover, it is important to consider your intuition or gut feeling when making a decision. Be rational and emotional when selecting an option; write down your decision and the reasons behind it.

4 Plan your action

The fourth step is to craft a realistic and achievable plan to implement your decision and reach your desired outcome. Utilizing SMART goals, action steps, and resources can be beneficial in order to guide your actions, track progress, and complete tasks. Additionally, being proactive and flexible are important when writing down your plan and reviewing it regularly.

5 Execute your plan

The fifth step is to execute your plan and take action to make your decision a reality. To help you, it is important to have self-discipline, self-motivation, and self-evaluation. Self-discipline is the ability to control your impulses, emotions, and behaviors and stick to your plan. Self-motivation is the drive to pursue your goals and overcome obstacles and challenges. Self-evaluation is the process of monitoring and reflecting on your actions and results and making adjustments if needed. Be persistent, adaptable, and document your achievements and feedback.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?