Welcome to Life skills in mini-series. Today we will talk about How to assess your career options?

Looking back at your career, did you really take time planning for it? Most people would just grab whatever opportunity was given to them and not really pause and think about how they will progress in the future.

Often, we make our decisions based on the opportunities being provided, rather than having a clear career path that takes us to the place that we have purpose, meaning and fulfillment in life.

How do we get ourselves out of the pattern of a stressful career choice and really start creating a career that we want and look forward to?

The first step is to describe your current work situation. What is your current occupation today and how long have you been doing it?

Can you list down five positive things about your current occupation and what are the things about your current occupation that you would like to change or not change at all?

It’s common for people not to start looking at their current state. They tend to only look at the negative side of their situation and compare themselves with other people.

Never allow yourself to compare with others, if you start doing that, then you will not see that you are progressing in life. Instead of comparing with others, see how you have progress from last year.

When you are done reflecting, what are the things you can do to improve or change about your current occupation. Write down all those things in a piece of paper to get a clear picture of what it looks like.

Most people would just leave those thoughts in their minds, instead of doing that, write it down so you can utilize that space in your mind for creative thinking. Get those papers out and start taking notes.

Also consider, that there are situations when you can’t change anything about your environment or there might be things that you don’t like.

What else can you do to deal with the problems or anxieties that these things cause you? List down everything and see what you can come up.

Don’t filter your thoughts, let it imagine, visualize and write down what comes to mind. Remember to let go of any limiting beliefs you have with this activity. You are given permission to be creative.

Have you started writing down alternative options you have in your current occupation that you might like to consider as your career?

Now let’s remember that occupation is your profession like a civil engineer, your career is a construction manager. List down 3-5 possible alternative options in your profession that you might like to consider.

Realistically, how long do you think it would take you to get a job in one of those new options? If it will take longer time, what are the other options you have for the meantime while you make your situation better.

Explore the options you have listed. You might want to look at different jobs not listed and try to do a short term, temporary or trial basis which might be better than your current occupation

or maybe a great stepping stone towards one of the options you have identified. List all the possibilities that you can think of in your notes.

Now, there are some situations that you need a different perspective from other people. Think of a person that you think would be of value to you and write down how they might be helpful.

If you have already sought views from others, write down the outcome so you can see how it can help you.

If you have any relevant information that you feel may be of help to the decisions you need to make, write them down too. The more ideas you can think of, the better options you have when you make the decision.

That’s it for life skills mini-series. I offer a coaching program for individuals who are highly accomplished and are constantly reading and learning

and want to make a big impact in their career space but a bit intimidated by the next step. If this sounds like you, get in touch with me.