Article I wrote:
Your career is filled with choices. Some of them will empower you, and others will hold you back.
Wherever you are now in your career, you have arrived there by choice. Maybe your choice was something you chose outright. Or, you chose not to choose, which was also a choice. Either way, if you are unhappy in your career, you must realize that your choices have contributed to your unhappiness.
Of course, no-one intentionally makes bad choices. Every time you were about to make a choice about a new job or project, you probably thought it was the best choice at the time. You weighed your options and believed that you were doing the right thing. But then, the result was not what you expected. When you learn to start questioning choices that are bad for you before you make them, that’s when you can make choice that are more beneficial for your career in the future.
So How Do You Make Different Choices In Your Career? Follow These Important 2 Steps Below.
1. Take Responsibility For Your Choices
Setbacks in your career usually do not arise not by accident, but as a result of the choices you’ve made.
For example:
- You choose to complete a project on your own. This choice holds you back because you are alienating others, rather than building a supportive network. Not only have you lost valuable allies, you have also needlessly caused yourself to work harder.
- You choose to send e-mails when you are angry. This choice holds you back because co-workers remember your rash decisions, thus straining your relationships with them.
- You choose to work excessively long hours. This choice holds you back because your hectic schedule drains your energy, clouds your perspective, and casts a shadow over your relationships. It creates an unbalanced life.
- You choose to coast through your career. This choice holds you back because your lack of passion will surely lead to lack of focus and direction.
It’s always easier to blame someone else for mishaps in your career. But when you can honestly look at the part you’ve played, and take responsibility for your piece, that’s when your choices can change going forward. No one is saying things haven’t happened to you. I am saying that if you focus outward instead of inward, your career will stay the same.
2. Decide To Make Different Choices
Today is a brand new day, and although you cannot change your past choices, you can change your future ones.
Ask yourself the following. What choices am I making today? What choices am I continuing to make even though I know they are not good for me? Do I know in my gut that it’s time to make different choices, but I still hesitate?
Now, ask yourself these questions. What will I do differently going forward? For example, will I take deep breaths before sending emails? Will I be more inquisitive during job interviews? Will I work less hours so I can be more productive with my time?
Can making this decision transform your career that easily? Yes, because it’s a place to start, and when you start doing things differently, that’s when you get different results.
Thank you for introducing a great topic in this article. I'm a career coach in Atlanta and find that it can help to frame the search for a meaningful and fulfilling career as an experiment. When we realize that, like scientists, we have to test various hypotheses to find out what's true and what's not, it can remind us that our decisions in the past, even if they were mistakes, helped us learn what is true for us and where we want to go in the future. Sometimes we have to try something out to know it doesn't work for us.
The important thing is to pay attention to what's happening and change course as needed (which, as you point out, requires us to realize we have choices and take responsibility for making them). If we're unhappy and unfulfilled, then it's time to test another hypothesis. As you said, today is a brand new day, and it's never too late to change our direction.
Posted by: Meredith Walters | May 13, 2013 at 01:29 PM