Typically, they are hoping for a straight answer like "You should quit your job" or "You need to go back to school and get more qualifications if you want to be promoted".
You and I know life isn't always so simple.
Even if those are the right answers, you still need to come to them in your own time and through your own decision making process. Only then do you truly own the career choices that you make.
Perhaps you feel that your best career choices are restricted because of some limitation or other. Age. 3rd grade skills. Lousy grades. English isn't your native tongue. You can't write well. You're IT illiterate. There's a global recession and everyone says you should hang on to your job.
If this is how you feel, I have good news for you.
You Have More Career Choices Than You Think
The secret to making the best career choices lies with you. YOU can change things. There are things you can do to improve your situation. If your weakness is your skills or knowledge, there are books and seminars, websites, webinars and coaches that can help.
What about those things you cannot control, like your age or the economy? There are still things you can do to turn what looks like a liabiity into an asset.
The key is to expand your mind. A principle of quantum physics says this: what you focus on expands. What does this mean in the context of making career decisions? Here's how I see it: Expand your thinking until your thoughts are bigger than your opposition. Use your imagination to visualize the possibilities and potential in your situation.
Finding The Gift
Truly successful people do not let setbacks hamper them. Instead, they seek the opportunity or the "gift" in the setback.
John McGrath, author of You Inc. and CEO of award-winning real estate agency McGrath Estate Agents, has made it a life habit to look for the "gift" in a difficult situation. When faced with a challenge, he asks himself, "Where's the gift in this?"
This is more than mind manipulation. When you consciously and consistently set your mind on the good, you create a new habit that will change your attitude and your paradigms: how you view life and situations; how you look at others and at yourself. It can make you a more forgiving, tolerant and resilient person.
Shift your focus from "fault" finding to "gift" finding; it may be one of the best career choices you could make.
Try this technique the next time you meet with a situation you don't like.
Failure takes you to your lesson, whatever that may be, and maybe it takes you to some degree of success.
Career choice guidance is not limited to someone advising you to change careers or change jobs. It is much more.
As you move along your career journey, you are called to make choices daily about your attitudes, your deeds, your goals and your vision.
The impact of your decision making may not seem obvious now; the ripple effect of how we think and act is often apparent only much later, from the quality of the final outcome.
This ancient wisdom is found in every self-help book, but that does not detract from its value. Much failure arises not from lack of knowledge but from lack of implementation.
In this maxim, you will notice that the two halves of the equation contain doing words. Action is a guaranteed way of separating the wheat from the chaff. As Yoda says, "Do or do not. There is no try." You can't choose Attitude and skip Action, or choose Action and skip Attitude. You need Right Attitude and Right Action to achieve success.
Let's see how this works.
Is Your Attitude Holding You Back From Succeeding?
If you study people who are successful and influential, you will find that they share certain attitudes, certain patterns of thinking and acting in the way they approach work and life. They are usually hardworking, persevering, self-disciplined, positive-thinking, creative and hungry for success.
At some point in their life journey, they may have had to undertake risk based decision making that involved sacrifice and pain. Some of these decisions turned out (usually on hindsight) to be their best career choices.
What about you?
Do an honest audit of your qualities.
An attitude problem could easily become a stumbling block to success. For instance, some of us think the world/the government owes us a living. We are quick to play the blame game when life does not go our way. This is called an entitlement mentality and can make us blind to opportunities for improvement.
Watch this video by Chicken Soup For The Soul co-author Jack Canfield as he talks about career choice and how to create for yourself a positive mindset, one that believes "I can do this!"
Is Inertia A Problem?
The second part of the equation is about doing. Success comes when you want something (e.g. career satisfaction) so fervently that you are
willing to do whatever it takes
to get there. (Caveat: Just so long as what you need to do is within legal and moral boundaries!)
This could mean putting up with some short-term inconvenience and discomfort. It could also mean admitting that you are confused and need career choice guidance from someone who is able and willing to help, like a career advisor.
How willing are you to do what it takes?
Get Off The Fear Treadmill!
I know what it's like to be so terrified of trying something new that you would rather keep on doing the same thing because it's familiar and known, even if it is hurting you.
I'm going to share with you the best way I've discovered for conquering fear-induced paralysis. (Note: Because I am emotional by nature, I chose to tap into my strongest emotions about how others perceive me, and I used that awareness to help me make my best career choices. Your trigger may be different.)
How To Be A Conversation Stopper
Picture this.
You get together with your mates for your annual catch-up session. At some point, talk turns to the job situation and/or the recession. One particular friend always says the same thing.
"My current job isn't the best career choice. I hate my work and my colleagues, but what can I do? I've got a wife. The kids are at school. I can't afford to do anything risky. What if I lose my job and can't get another?"
And on and on. He's been saying the same thing for the past five years, but he hasn't done anything about improving his career situation.
What might be a reasonable response to his complaint?
"But isn't that what you said last year? So what are you doing about it?"
Hands Up, All Who Are Guilty
Now here's the powerful bit.
Put yourself in his shoes for a minute. "What, me?" you say. Yet most of us are guilty of making excuses and putting off things that we need to address.
How does it feel to be making the same old excuses for your continued inaction?
How do you suppose your friends and family and co-workers feel about the negative vibes you are putting out every day?
The Better Way: Choose To Act
Can you see where I'm going with this? There's got to be a better way to deal with situations that are frustrating you. And there is.
It's called choosing to take action. Don't wait for someone to point out that you are repeating last year's script. Make an effort to change your situation if it's creating unhealthy stress in your life and draining your energy. Throw out what doesn't work (this includes what used to work for you but doesn't work anymore). Write a new career story. Your courage might inspire a fellow battler to take control of her situation and make the best career choices for her.
Your Action Challenge
In your career journey, are you taking steps that move you towards your life and career goals - or away from them?
What ONE thing can you do today that would give you the energy and momentum you need to move closer to your ideal career or ideal job?
