Suppose you could dream your ideal career into being. How closely would it resemble where you’re at? Consider where you are now, is that where you want to be? If not, do you know what needs to change?
Let’s dive into how you can move forward from here in your career! You can watch the video HERE if you’d like the summarized version!
- Maybe you are “on” all of the time, and you’d really like to have some time to disconnect.
- It could be that you feel you have more potential, that you have much more to contribute, but you don’t know how to make that happen.
- I might be that your career and life are competing for your time, and the things that are most important to you are losing out.
You are used to juggling it ALL. You are known for keeping all of the balls in the air and getting immense satisfaction from doing that. Until one day, you can’t any longer, and the balls start dropping. Until you really don’t know what happened, but you feel weighed down, and momentum isn’t anywhere in sight.
It doesn’t matter what level you are in your career. Senior management may seem like they’ve got it all going on, but you aren’t immune to this either. Just because you have the perks doesn’t mean that you have the satisfaction.
Wherever you are right now, if you’d like to move forward from where you are, two critical things need to happen.
One, you need to have clarity on where you’d like to go. One of my favorite phrases is, “You can’t hit a bull’s eye without a target.” How can you know what you need to do to get out of where you are if you don’t even know where you’re heading? If you want to make progress, you have to start diving into what progress means to you.
To get clarity on where you want to go, start looking for the gaps. Are your career and life out of harmony? Where is your job out of sync? Start identifying the facts. Because what happens is that you tell yourself that you aren’t making “any progress” in your career or that you’re “not happy” in your career, which is ambiguous and makes the problem bigger.
By identifying the specific areas that aren’t in alignment for you, you chunk the issue down into more manageable pieces. It’s not EVERYTHING that needs to change, but what is it specifically that needs to change? Then you can start doing something about it.
Take some time to examine the areas that are out of harmony and ponder what you want them to be. Be curious. Brainstorm. Is it creating a career plan or path? Is it advancing to a specific position? Is it upleveling skillsets? And maybe, it’s the soft skills. Creating more confidence, enforcing boundaries, saying no, or speaking up for yourself. Once you’ve identified the specific areas, you can map out a plan to achieve it.
Two, to move forward, look to the past because it’s leaving you valuable clues. Being focused on the past isn’t healthy, but a visit now and then can be just the trick, and that’s what I’m advocating now. It’s ok to visit the past, don’t unpack and live there.
What were some of the most challenging situations in your career in the recent past? Again, be specific because when you are vague, you make the problem bigger.
- Is there anxiety because you know that your career and your family are not getting your best because of the high competing demands of both?
- Do you constantly feel stressed because there are not enough hours in the day to get it all done?
- Is there a feeling of heaviness because on some level, you know you aren’t doing what you want to be doing; it’s just not as important as it once was, but feel you have to stay.
All of these situations and many others have an “emotional charge” to them, and that’s an indicator of where you need to dig. These feelings and emotions are coming up to serve you. It’s a sign that you are meant to learn something and unburden yourself from the feelings weighing you down.
This isn’t always easy work. Looking into emotionally charged situations can be messy, but it is a clarifying process and worth it in the long run. As a master practitioner of NLP, I advise my career clients that these emotions come up for a reason. They are a sign that we are meant to do something different. It is also important to note that they come up only when we have the resources to deal with them.
So look at these situations. Examine them. What could you do differently? What advice would you give to your best friend? From your lips to your own ears, it works for you too.
If any of what I described seems daunting, it’s probably because you’ve not done something like this before. It seems big and overwhelming. It doesn’t have to be.
Are you ready to move forward?
I want you to know that you have everything you need inside of you to do this work. You have the ability; you have the internal resources.
I also want you to know that I would be delighted to help you if that’s what you need. I work to support and advance busy women leaders just like you to have the satisfaction and success they deserve. These women want more, but without feeling like they have to sacrifice themselves and what is important to them in the process.
The Career Clarity Accelerator is a community of like-minded professional women who want to get support and also support each other to succeed. They know it’s important to have the time to think to get unstuck and move forward because they’ve never taken that time before and know it’s part of the problem. They also know the relief that clarity and focus brings, to map out your next steps, and have a plan. They know the momentum that comes with having accountability and wicked smart women to brainstorm with.
If this sounds like it would support you, let’s have a conversation and see if it’s a fit. I would be delighted to learn more about you and share some insights to move you forward, even if I’m not the one to help you do it. No obligations. Just grab some time on my calendar at www.ClarityWithDebbie.com.
Meanwhile, here’s wishing you the clarity you deserve in your career and life!
