Getting Unstuck: One Action that Can Change Your Career

This is the time of year when people make plans they hope to carry out over the next 12 months. Most people have some sort of health/fitness goal, career goal or relationship goal. They want to lose weight, change careers and have better relationships. For various reasons, many people will also fail to reach their goals. From a career change standpoint, I find that people get stalled before they get started because they don’t know where or how to begin a career change. They’re ready to move their career in a new direction but haven’t defined that new direction. People say they want to be happy, satisfied and fulfilled in their jobs but haven’t clarified what that means. It could mean that they’re making more money, have a shorter commute, have a flexible schedule, or are working in a new field. Without having some clarity around what you want, the idea of making a career change will feel overwhelming. Many people will stop here because it seems too hard to reach their goal of a new career.

If you’re thinking about a career change, you know there are so many directions you can go.  You can stay put and seek out opportunities in your current company. You can look for a new position in another company. Or, you can change careers completely. As you consider the possibilities, you may decide that staying put while enhancing your current career situation is the way to go. Or, you may ultimately decide to create options for yourself to pursuing further education, enhance your visibility through project work or volunteering, or by actively cultivating a professional network.

If you just follow any path without giving thought to where the path will lead you, because it’s open to you or it appears right in the moment, you can really derail your career.  It’s at this point that gaining clarity about your career direction should be the focus.

How do you decide which path is the best one to take?

The best way to launch a job search or career change is to take a step back and give some careful thought to what you want to have in your career. This can be done through a formal career assessment process with a career counselor. Completing career assessments such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), skills and values inventories can give you insight into what you want in a career. You can do visioning exercises that will create visual images of what success and happiness mean to you. You can volunteer or take classes to meet people, learn new skills and explore industries. Whatever approach you take, do something proactive. What you learn about yourself and the possibilities will be the foundation of career exploration and planning.

If you’re stalled in your career transition, read my article, “The Job Seeker’s Dilemma: Is it Time to Change Career Direction” (http://www.futures-in-motion.com/article-detail.php?DocumentId=77). In the article, I outline more steps you can take to start or get unstuck in your career transition. I call it the Fast Track Your Career process. You can also download the free Fast Track Your Career audio program (http://tinyurl.com/lh7bps) which provides more detail and suggestions for how to change careers applying the Fast Track Your Career process.

Understanding what you want in your career and learning how to get there are so important when you’re changing careers. Without the foundation of clarity, you’ll continue to be frustrated about lack of progress in your job search. Take the first step toward having a career you love.

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Markell Steele is a career counselor, owner of Futures in Motion, Inc. and author of Fast Track Your Career: Three Steps for Finding Work You Love. She helps frustrated job seekers find career direction so they can get the job they want in less time with less stress. Follow her on twitter to get daily job search and career transition tips- http://twitter.com/futuresinmotion

Find more career and job search articles at http://www.futures-in-motion.com/article_archive.php. Contact Markell at http://www.futures-in-motion.com/contact_us.php.

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