Stuck in Your Career? — 3 Simple Steps to Get You Unstuck
We’ve all been there.
There are times where we don’t know what the next step should be or where to go in our career.
Unfortunately, it can be a very confusing time and it robs us of many opportunities and mental wellness.
And most of the time the reasons are:
- We are overthinking the outcome
Usually, we overthink what our next step to take is because we may feel it will be a negative outcome. This feeling often is based on fear and inaccurate data that paralyzes us often leading to no action which makes our situation worse since it keeps us stagnant and ruminating on the possibilities.
2. The Stories We Tell Ourselves or Labels We Create For Ourselves (I am X and can’t see beyond that)
We tell ourselves many invalid stories about our current situation — “it may work out. It may be worse if I leave or do this” — that we stop ourselves from moving forward.
We also get married to the idea of “who we are” or the way we describe ourselves (labels). We become stringent in seeing ourselves in any other than what the labels are — “I am a marketing specialist.” Instead of allowing ourselves to explore or upskill to other opportunities — “ I know marketing very well, where else can I apply and expand with this knowledge?”
3. The FOOPO (fear of other people’s opinion)
This one is a biggie. This one is the biggest shackles we often carry and allow to weigh us down.
When we start our career path, we often have other people’s expectations (especially family expectations) on our shoulders which dictate what path we take.
And this is even truer for 1st-generation minority careerists who not only have their family expectations to meet but their communities too. Often we are the outliers who break the generational ceilings of poverty, the first to go to college, or the only ones in the workplace with our race or ethnic background which automatically makes us the spokesperson for the community.
We have to represent and shatter all and EVERY stereotype & racist ideology thrown at us with a smile and “good grace” (this is where the toxic code-switching and assimilation penetrates its deathly grip and doesn’t let us breathe- more on this in another article).
It also often creates the highest level of imposter syndrome — where we never feel like we are not enough or that we are not doing enough. Not only must we be good at what we do, but we must also be the most qualified, the most educated, the most ___ fill in the blank___.
The thought — “let’s not give them any reasons why to believe otherwise” is exhausting, and doesn’t allow us to utilize our energy in any other way.
4. Didn’t have a clear plan in the first place
Sometimes our plans are flawed, don’t have enough information or mentorship to know how to create a career plan. This creates a level of confusion because our necessary steps are not clear. Clear steps provide us a path of where to go next.
5. We don’t know what we like and EVERYTHING becomes a possibility
This one is another biggie.
Since we were young, we’ve been told what to do, how to do it, where to do it, and when. Usually, it was rare that we were given the agency to think about what we like. When we did we were either told it was “not good enough” or “it wasn’t going to make enough.”
Therefore we don’t learn how to determine or make strategic decisions based on what we like or want for ourselves. Therefore, everything becomes a possibility or a maybe, causing paralysis analysis. When our body is in paralysis analysis it feels overwhelmed and can’t make a decision.
So what are the three simple steps to combat all this?
1. Find out what is your perfect day.
Your perfect day allows you to visualize what makes you happy and joyful. It allows you to know what you like and what to lean on to determine what your next step or opportunity should be.
2. Find out what is your Ikigai.
This is an ancient Japanese process in which we find out what is our purpose in life, what makes us tick, keeps us motivated, and excited. Our reason for being.
3. Write out your obituary.
Our obituary will make us focus and align our next steps with our values, which is a very important aspect of career planning. By determining our values, we determine what is important to us and let go of the FOOPO & “all is a possibility” stage.
Good luck on getting unstuck, and happy trailing to your next endeavor!
And if you don’t mind would definitely love to hear what you uncover in doing all three or 1, 2, or 3. Comment below!
