Are you one of the many American workers that simply aren’t satisfied with their jobs? Are you thinking about stepping out on faith and making a complete career change? If you’re in the position of hating your current job, but not knowing when it’s time to make a change—we’re here to guide you.
It’s so easy to get caught up in being comfortable with your current situation, however, that’s a huge mistake that many people make, especially if they’re remaining unhappy. Not having a specific and detailed next step can be a bit stressful when you’re trying to figure out which direction to go in your career. Here is a 5-step guide to figuring out the next step in your career.
Figuring Out the Next Step in Your Career
Step 1: Plan out your day
Before you begin the big-picture brainstorming, start with a much more simple level of thinking. Ask yourself how your days would look if you had 100% control over them. Some key questions to consider include:
- How would you structure your day?
- What would you do for work each day?
- Where would you be doing your work?
- Who would you be doing your work for?
At times, when you’re burned out you have to find different solutions and ways of thinking to pick you back up and get you back into the mood of planning out your ideal day of work.
Step 2: Prioritize the things that make you happy
We all have certain things that makes us happy. What if we found ways to prioritize those things to make sure we actually stay happy? The feeling of being burned out sometimes makes us forget what it means to be happy in your career. If you find yourself feeling this way, use this time to prioritize the things that truly make you happy. This will allow you to be more in tune with the things in your life that are both satisfying, and contribute to your overall well being because when you feel good, you perform even better!
Step 3: Be mindful of what you dislike
There will be so many lessons you learn along your career journey of the things you do and don’t like about your day-to-day, so being mindful of what you don’t like about certain jobs will help guide you along your way of figuring out your next career path. In addition to this, try to be a bit mindful and optimistic in finding some good in each “bad” situation. This will aide you in seeing a clearer picture of not only what you want, but making the job transition a bit more bearable.
Step 4: Focus on the present moment
How many times do you find yourself worrying about things you simply cannot control? Instead, being present in the moment and understanding this new transition isn’t a permanent and forever change will allow you to appreciate where you are right now. This will help you in achieving more realistic goals in a more realistic time frame along with being able to effectively more forward in your career.
Step 5: Create a workable plan
As you begin to put together your plan as to how you will figure out the next steps in your career, make sure you treat it like a business plan—workable and realistic. Think about all of the necessary steps and requirements it takes to repackage yourself and what you’ll need to do to get there. Utilize a timeline to better help you stay organized and on top of making sure you get things done. Consider the following questions:
- How will I market myself to get to where I want to go?
- What are my financial considerations and how do I plan on meeting them?
- What are some obstacles I may face along the journey and how do I plan on overcoming them?
This 5-step guide will be useful along your journey of figuring out when the best time to make the next step in your career will be. If you found this 5-step guide helpful, let us know in the comments below!
