Have you ever looked at your career and thought, “I don’t want to keep doing this…but I have no idea what I want to do?” That’s a common question I hear from many successful professionals. In this post I’ll walk you through a simple three-step process that can help you identify what’s next that fits how you were designed and provides more purpose and meaning.
Early Career
Finding purpose can be more difficult early in your career. Finding a solid first job is hard enough without trying to add that to the list.
Sometimes purpose is easy to see. If you work at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the mission is front and center every day.
Other times, you must dig a little deeper.
For me, it happened several years into my career as a Fixed Income trader. During a Farm Credit trip to Minnesota, I toured farms and met farming families whose livelihoods depended on access to capital. For the first time, I clearly understood that the markets we made every day played a role in helping provide food for the American people.
That realization changed how I viewed my work.
Mid Career
If you are mid-career and genuinely enjoy what you do, the answer is often simpler than you think. Find a place where you can do similar work in the most meaningful environment possible while still providing well for yourself and your family.
Late Career
But what if you sense it’s time for something different, especially if you are later in your career?
How do you determine what you’re best suited to do next?
Here are Three Steps to discover your next chapter:
1. Develop Greater Self-Awareness
The better you understand yourself, the better decisions you will make.
Ask yourself:
- How was I designed to operate at my best?
- What motivates me at my core?
- What values are non-negotiable for me?
- What type of work consistently gives me energy and fulfillment?
- When do my greatest strengths begin to become my greatest weaknesses?
Understanding your personality, values, motivators and natural wiring provides important clues about where you are most likely to thrive.
2. Seek Outside Input
Self-awareness is powerful, but it is incomplete without feedback from others.
Ask trusted people who know you well:
- When do you see me at my best?
- What strengths do I consistently bring to the table?
- Where do I tend to struggle or get in my own way?
- What work seems to bring out the best version of me?
Seek input from supervisors, peers, direct reports, mentors, coaches and trusted friends.
Review past 360 assessments if you have them. Look for recurring themes. Pay special attention to feedback that both resonates and surprises you.
If you are a person of faith, prayer can also be an important part of this process.
3. Clarify Your Mission and Vision
Once you better understand who you are and how others experience you, put it into words.
Create or update:
Your Mission Statement — What do you want to contribute every day?
Your Vision Statement — Who do you want to become over time?
These statements are not carved in stone. They evolve as you do.
Use what you’ve learned from the first two steps to create a picture of the work you feel called to do and the person you aspire to become.
Then begin looking for organizations, roles and opportunities that need someone with your unique combination of strengths, experiences and passions.
(If you’d like a copy of the PDF I use with coaching clients to develop personal mission and vision statements, feel free to contact me and I’ll send it to you.)
One Final Thought
Even your dream job won’t be enjoyable 100% of the time.
There will still be frustrations, difficult people, administrative tasks and challenging days.
But if you can spend 70% of your time doing work you genuinely enjoy, using your strengths to contribute to something meaningful, you’re moving in the right direction.
I went through this process myself nearly ten years ago and have enjoyed the benefits ever since. Those closest to me say I am much more present and content. I can feel it.
So, if you’re wrestling with what’s next, don’t start by looking for a job. Start by understanding yourself. The clearer you become about who you are, how you’re wired and what you’re called to contribute, the easier it becomes to recognize the right opportunity when it comes along.
