How to Decide on Your Career Change

Yesterday I asked for your help in answering my very important question that will help me to build my brand new career intensive program:

What is one question you have about Career Transitioning or Career Success that ABSOLUTELY has to be inside a career program like this? 

I’m so glad I asked that because you’ve given me new things to include. And several of you had similar concerns when it comes to changing careers or building a career.

So rather than wait for the career intensive program to start, how about I address your concerns right now.

The most common question I received in response to yesterday’s email is this: 

I know that I want to change my career or start something new, but what if I don’t really know what I want to be doing instead?

It’s an important question to address, and getting clarity on this one will definitely help propel your career to the next level. Getting clarity is always an essential first step, and it starts with knowing yourself: your values, your preferences, and your potential. In other words, it starts with self-awareness.

Your values and your preferences make up the things you want in your career and life, or the careers you find desirable. These are shaped by your deeper yearnings which are made up of subconscious desires and their accompanying fears which often conflict with each other. Everybody’s yearnings fall under 6 general categories: personal, social, lifestyle, practical, moral, and social. 

For example, a social yearning could be a deep desire to be appreciated and recognized. Someone who resonates with this yearning would feel particularly dissatisfied in a work environment where their contributions are unappreciated. Their associated fear could be a fear of judgement from others, which conflicts with their yearning because it holds them back getting the attention they desire to be recognized.

I created a video that talks more about these yearnings. You can watch it HERE: 

When you think about your career goals and hopes and dreams, your consciousness is assessing your most profound subconscious yearnings. Spend the time to dig deep into your mind’s subconscious, and do so with authenticity and brutal honesty. Start by identifying the things you know about yourself - your yearnings and fears - and then unpacking it further. 

If you need a kick start to this exercise, imagine that it’s exactly one year from now and that you just had the best year of your life. Then work backwards and ask yourself what made it such a great year? What happened in your career? What changes did you make to your life? What choices did you make to get there? If you still can’t think about what you know about yourself, go ahead and ask a trusted friend or colleague for his/her honest feedback. Be prepared to give them your full permission to get really honest with you, and don’t take their responses personally.

The next step is knowing your potential, which brings us to you and your strengths. This one is important because you want to know whether or not you could get good enough to potentially reach whatever your definition of success is in the career path of your choosing. The answer to this key question will give you guidance on what you need to do to achieve that next level of your career, and it will also manage your expectations on the true distance between where you are now and reaching your definition of success. 

Now, conventional wisdom might emerge as a voice in your head and point out that simply getting good enough at a certain skill doesn’t actually guarantee success. That’s mostly wrong, because achieving that next level, that definition of success, is not about a particular skill level. A skill is only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to today’s careers that are non-traditional in nature. It’s more than just talent and hard work. 

Your true potential is made up of your pace and your level of persistence.

Your Potential = Pace X Level of Persistence

Your pace is made up of your ability to navigate ambiguity effectively, your commitment to continuous improvement, your work ethic, and, of course, your natural abilities. Your level of persistence is a multiplier of your potential. This is long-term persistence. The more years you’re willing to commit to your dream career, the farther along the road you’ll get towards that dream with each action you take. If you give up after 1 or 2 years of not breaking through, you’re unlikely to reach success. 

The good news is that with persistence, your pace gets better. So that means that instead of seeing your progress as a snapshot of where it’s at now, it’s more accurate to see it as a potential for improvement. Viewing it from that perspective will help you deal with the fear of failure and the hesitation to start down a new career path that may feel intimidating. 

More importantly, it will help you to identify and deeply connect to that which is truly possible for your professional future. This is the position of power and strength that will carry you through as you begin to execute and implement your career plans to achieve your goals.

If you haven't submitted your response yet, you can do so here: https://forms.gle/PmvHAQbsGjaKj7S9A