January 6, 2020 | by David March.
Many people have career goals and aspirations and, at times, people reach these goals and feel like that’s it? What’s next?
Still, other people have a different experience: Let’s say you’ve climbed all the way up the corporate ladder. You are experiencing that brief happiness. You finally got to be director, or president of the company. It’s good. Now you wonder, is this where I really want to be? Is all the time and energy I invested in this worth it? You may need to make a re-evaluation.
What Is the Career Journey?
The “career journey” is similar to the act of climbing a mountain. As you are climbing, you enjoy the view, the surroundings, the adventure. You get to the top. The view is great. its beautiful. You want to stay and this in itself is fulfilling. However you like the progress you are making. You see other mountains you want to climb. Better views, higher peaks.
As it relates to your career, you may ask yourself, Do you see this position as a stepping stone to a greater objective, or are you content with what the position offers?
This of course is a personal decision your happiness comes from finding personal meaning in the work you do and THE PROGRESS you are making. If, however, you get to the point where the challenge is no longer enough or you want that change of scenery. you need to reassess the situation.
It’s All About the Mindset
This is where you must cultivate the mindset for the next mountain to climb or make that career pivot and head another way. A pivot is a structured course correction designed to test a new fundamental way of working or making a living.
Practice Gratefullness
First, it is Important to be grateful. You have learned valuable lessons climbing to the top of the corporate ladder. You picked up skills and made connections you can build upon and got all the way to the top. This is “Validated Learning.” This validated learning can be applied to your next career search.
For example, you’re a teacher. You can teach in elementary school, middle school, high school or university. You spend two years at each and you find you really like elementary school.
Did you waste the last six years figuring out you liked elementary?
NO!
It was part of your journey.
You learned many skills. You made connections along the way. It’s time to validate what you learned and make a pivot. You now know you are not happy teaching High School, or Middle school; your strengths lie elsewhere. Now you know what you like, so you search for opportunities to do more of what can make you happier.
There are other scenarios we can look at, as well.
Be Open to Change
You may be in a position you thought was what you wanted and it was going well; however, you may have overstayed your welcome. You are persevering to your detriment. You are not going in the direction of your strengths or your field of study and you feel you are not being appreciated or getting the promotion as promised.
This is when you may need to make a change or pivot.
There can be some doubt or expectation as to how the career transition will go.
Writing out those expectations and doubts clearly can help you examine those feelings is key. After you do it would be a good time to seek counsel or engage in decision-making strategies that can further your cause.
What is the best approach? When should I make the change? How can I go about it? These are all good questions to ask a career coach or strategist.
Every time you have a complex issue or situation like this what I call a “pivot-or-preserve moment” or simply, should I go or Should I stay? It’s always best to break it down into small pieces. A thorough and rigorous way to bring clarity to your dilemma is using Decision Mapping.
What Is Decision Mapping?
Decision Mapping allows you to paint a picture of your pivot-or-preserve moment in a scientific and structured way. It gives entrepreneurs and people in career transition alike the power to choose wisely. It’s like putting all your lego pieces on the table and deciding how to build your empire. I have a section in my book, Vision in Action, dedicated to this process.
This process is aimed towards channeling your vision, intuition and judgement so you can take better action.
Another resource and further example on this decision mapping comes from The Mind Map Book by Tony Buzan and Barry Buzan (2009) a book on How to use radiant thinking to maximize your brain’s untapped Potential.
Decision Mapping in Action
In one example from my book a business owner was trying to decide whether she should move into an office building or continue as a home-based business. In the shape of a Venn type diagram or mind map, the title of the dilemma was in the center. Then, spokes radiating from the center detailed all the worries or determining factors to consider. Such factors were as follows:
- How would her business grow in the future if she moved?
- How Local would the building be from her current house?
- Who would be the staff in the new office?
- How much would it cost to rent the office space?
- How much time and energy would be involved in making the transition from home-based to office space?
- What would the appearance be to other clients?
The decision map had the words in bold in a circle around the central ordeal. When writing it out her answers came out of the words in bold. To indicate her value judgement on those sections in bold she would give a number from 1 to 10. This could be a positive number or a negative number for each factor and, at the end, you would add up all the numbers to give you a final result. This aided in her decision to move or stay. After all was considered, the final result was that she was going to move. Decision maps can be simple or more involved depending on the situation.
Organize Your Ideas and Prepare for Action
The purpose of this exercise is to provide organization and integration of the main ideas toward action. This should be a fun exercise. You can design your life using it, a life of your conscious choosing.
As opposed to a single graphic organizer with a central theme and spokes all related to the central theme, mind maps go in a lot deeper. You can use images, and draw lines connecting ideas to the different factors. Overall, it is more personally oriented.
Decision mapping is just one tool used in deciding what direction to take in your career path. There are many other tools that can be used to aid you in finding that happy place. Will you take the first step and make it happen? It all depends on you.
I encourage you to take action.
To take the next step, schedule a call with me at https://calendly.com/coachdavemarch
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