HOW TO GET CLEAR ON YOUR CAREER VISION
During my consultation calls, I always ask the question, “What’s next?” Some have a clear vision of what they want their next step to be in their career but many don’t. They might say, “I love helping people” or “I’m really organized and would like to do something around that”. But the vision of what they want out of their career is muddled. And if you don’t have a clear vision, how will you ever know what you need to do to get what you want?
Oof, I know that is heavy and I get that figuring out what you want to do can be hard. Maybe you have even tried multiple assessments or sampled various careers but have never found something that felt right and this constant seeking is only going to leave you unfulfilled and burnt out.
The process of learning and exploring what to do with your life is a journey. As humans, we are constantly evolving and changing so it makes sense that our vision will change as well. And that is completely normal.
While there is no one formula to help you find the perfect career vision, there are steps that you can take to help you get closer to that vision.
Make A List of Your Strengths and Skills
Ask yourself, what are you good at? What do you enjoy doing?
Start by brain-dumping all of your strengths and skills, then rank them from what you are best at and enjoy doing most to the least. It’ll help separate what you love from what you simply can do.
By evaluating your strengths, it can help identify certain characteristics that you may want to have in your next career. Say you are really good at organizing and meeting deadlines. This might mean that project management could be a good path for you.
Get Clear on Your Values
Being clear on your values will help you determine if a career or company is right for you. Without aligning your values with what you do, you are more likely to get yourself into situations that are not right. Take time to list out all the values (both personal and professional) that are important to you such as balance, family, integrity, stability, and curiosity (to just name a few).
Once you have listed all of your values, determine which ones are critical. Those that you 100% need in your next career. Let these values guide your decision.
For example, if curiosity and learning are two of your values, maybe that means that you need a career where you have opportunities to learn and grow at your own pace. Where you can explore different functions as you provide value to a company.
Envision Your Ideal Day, Work Environment, and Overall Life
I love the practice of visualization. I think that if you let it, it can show critical pieces of what is important to you that will direct your path on what to do.
For example, I use visualization with my coaching clients to help visualize what they want their lives to be. We look at what they want at the end of their life to determine key pieces such as legacy, money, family, travel, and so on. By establishing those items we can then work our way backward to find a career that supports their life goals.
Where your strengths, vision, and values overlap, this is where you hit your stride. Your work will be challenging but fulfilling because it is rooted in who you are and what is important to you.
Not sure what your next career move is and want help figuring that out? Take my “What’s your next career move quiz” to help figure out what your next step might be.