Step One: Discovery (or the 3 Career Pillars)

The first important step is to take a step out of your career persona and get back in touch with the REAL YOU, often lost beneath the many layers of resilience and protection we create during our working lives.

Career Pillar #1 is Energising Strengths - learn and "own" not just what you're great at but what also gives you the energy to approach your career with vim and vigour. Also ditch that stuff that you're good at but that secretly drains your energy.

Career Pillar #2 is Personal Values - learn about what drives you at your deepest level. Your Personal Values are your North Star that guide all the best (and worst!) decisions of your life. Working in an environment that contravenes your Personal Values is not sustainable and is very painful - take my word for it.

Career Pillar #3 is your Career Purpose - what is the reason that you get out of bed and go to work in the morning? It has to be more than your salary. And, it it's not more than that at the moment, let's find a career where you can integrate your life and career purpose to feel ultimately congruent.

Out of these 3 Career Pillars comes your Career Vision - written or pictorial or both. This is a powerful lens through which you can view your future career possibilities.

Step Two: Research & Explore

Career Possibilities are exciting at any age. In fact, I think they get MORE exciting the older you get. It's like getting a second chance. I work with my clients to generate a LONG list of career possibilities - some sensible, some entirely nonsensical - but we don't discard any at the beginning because they can give us clues to the future.

Researching career possibilities is all about talking to people who actually have these careers already. What is a typical day? Are there barriers to entry? How would my skills fit this career? What is the salary, working day, development opportunities, etc.

Some of these career possibilities may not fit your Career Vision and that's OK. Some of them may be exactly where you want to move to right now and some may be perfect for the future, something to work towards over a timeline.

Step Three: Action

I believe that you achieve much more if you set goals and create a plan of action to move you towards those goals.

I teach Michael Hyatt's "Free to Focus" system of goal setting using the SMARTER framework (goals that are Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, Timebound, Exciting and Risky).

This means that you have short, medium and long term career goals that you are working towards consistently. You also get exposed to coaching techniques to make those goals even more in reach.

You'll ask questions such as:

"How motivated am I to achieve this goal and what would increase my motivation?"

"What support do I need to achieve this goal and how can I put that in place?"

"What might get in the way of me achieving this goal and how can I get around that?"

"What's the first small and easy step I can take to move me towards this goal?"

Step Four: Make it happen

Easy! Well, it's all very well having an action plan but ... I want to make sure you can really make this happen not just have a pipe dream. So there are three areas that you also need to focus on:

1. The practical collaterol that you need to get out there and make it happen - maybe a CV, Social Media profiles, network, website, references, testimonials, etc
2. Accountability - someone or something that is keeping you accountable to achieving those goals
3. Mindset - keeping your motivation and momentum and overcoming barriers such as fear, imposter syndrome, status quo bias, etc

How to progress

If you want to make progress towards creating a career you love, there are a few ways to do so:

1. Continue to subscribe to this weekly content and try out some of the tips and ideas that appear each week
2. Join Get Clear on Your Career, starting on 6 May, to work through the process up to M with me and a group of other career-improvers
3. Hit reply to this email to find out about my 121 programmes and bespoke coaching

Or, simply book a free Discovery Call to discuss which option would work best for you.

If you would like this weekly blog sent directly to your inbox, as well as receive a copy of my “Top 3 Ways to Boost Your Career Happiness Right Now,” please click here.