Figuring Out The Right Career Transition For You

Are you unhappy with your job and searching for something new, but you’re not quite sure what the right path is? If so, you’re in good company. As we change and grow throughout our lives, we inevitably go through career transitions that allow us to move into new roles, positions, and industries that are better suited to our values. And it can be incredibly frustrating when you want a change, but aren’t yet sure what you’d rather be doing.

To figure out the right career transition for you, we recommend journaling. To begin, write down what your perfect day at the office would look like. What exactly are you working on, who are you working with, and where are you working? For example, maybe you’re collaborating on a high-level marketing campaign, surrounded by intelligent professionals, in a beautiful office downtown. From there, look at how closely your dream workday resembles your current one. If they are very far apart, look for ways you can move them closer together, by either transitioning into a new role, company, or industry.

This is such an important exercise because people too often feel like their job is just their job – not something they get to enjoy. But the reality is that it’s possible to love your work, and it starts with envisioning what your ideal career would look like. Then, have the courage to go after that dream and do what you love. You really do deserve it.
 

How to Overcome Chronic Career Unhappiness

When you are unhappy and unfulfilled in your career, it tends to put a domino effect in motion. After all, because so much of your day is spent at work, a miserable experience can have a pretty damaging effect on your overall mood and quality of life. To “fix” your chronic career unhappiness and thus improve your life in general, your first step is to figure out why your work is making you miserable. Once you have that crucial piece of the puzzle, planning for a transition that will create your ideal career and work environment becomes significantly easier.

To figure out the source of your unhappiness at work, we recommend getting in touch with your core values, or those things in life that are most important to your overall happiness and well-being. This is important because, for many people, stress occurs when their lives aren’t in alignment with their values. For example, let’s say you genuinely value integrity, but your role at work forces you to act without it on a routine basis. Because your job doesn’t match your values, you’re going to run into difficulties sooner rather than later. In clarifying your values, you get the opportunity to understand where the stress is coming from. That way, you can also choose to do something productive about it.

Here’s how to get started:

1. Identify your top five values. Google “core values” and choose your top five from that list. For example, integrity, openness, family, respect, humor, happiness, financial security, etc. From there, define what each of your core values means to you. For example, if you value communication, does that mean you find it important to listen more than you talk or to speak your mind when you have an opinion?
    
2. Evaluate how your life matches your values. Over the next week, keep track of the times you did and did not honor your values. How did each of those circumstances make you feel? What happens inside when you aren’t able to be true to one of your values? Are you honoring your values more or less often than you thought?
    
3. Make a change. Once you have an idea of how often you’re honoring your values, make a list of the changes you’ll need to make in order to honor them more often. For example, let’s say you honor family, but are at the office every day from 8 am to 8 pm. In that case, you may decide that you want to ask for a more flexible schedule, or look for a new company that values a work / life balance.