The Missing Piece in Making Career-Related Decisions
Posted on August 26, 2013 by Valerie Dorn CPC, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
How to stay true to yourself, aligned with your intuition, and grounded in your heart as well as your head when making career-related decisions.
Have you ever regretted a major career-related decision? At the time, you probably truly believed that you had considered all of the possibilities, the pros and the cons, and thus had made a sound, informed decision. And yet, a few weeks or months later, you found yourself feeling unhappy, wondering where you went wrong. I, too, have had this experience. Only recently have I discovered a critical part of the decision-making process that I had been leaving out, one that would help me avoid being swept away by every seemingly amazing opportunity that comes my way. The missing piece? Listening to my head, my heart and my gut—my authentic self. To avoid regretting future decisions, I came up with a list of questions to ask myself.
In making this decision, am I or will I be…
striving or being?
forcing or flowing?
depleted or energized?
working hard to convince myself or seeing this as a no-brainer?
being forced to make a decision by an unreasonable deadline or given time for careful consideration?
Here is an example so you can see how this litmus test might work for you. Susan was presented with an opportunity to invest in a program that would teach her how to market her business. After she requested more information, she was given a 24-hour deadline to decide whether to take advantage of this “opportunity” at this early-bird price. Because of this time crunch, although it was a struggle, Susan convinced herself that this program was her ticket to launching a successful business. While something told her this wasn’t the right offer, she ignored all inner promptings. Susan took advantage of the offer and when she found herself in the program, she realized that she was striving to follow the program’s blueprint. The result was that each assignment felt forced and her energy and money were quickly being depleted. In the end, Susan finally listened to her authentic self, and dropped out, because she knew this program wasn’t for her.
As you can see, a litmus test to guide your decision-making can be a powerful tool. Having developed this list a few months ago, I have used it several times when faced with new career-related decisions. I have been amazed at how well it enables me to stay true to myself, aligned with my intuition, and grounded in my heart as well as my head. To improve your decision-making process, you can use this list. Better yet, come up with questions of your own and, over time, make additions or adjustments as needed. Keep in mind that this litmus test should and can be used with other decision-making methods such as a pros and cons list.
