When people start thinking about career moves, often their first reaction is to freeze.

They’re like a cat that has surprised itself in the mirror and is trying to stay very still so it doesn’t expose itself to extreme danger.

Thinking of a career move can mean many negative things. It might feel like you’re…

🥴 Abandoning everything you’ve worked for.

😬 Creating an unwelcome new identity.

😳 Questioning the skills you bring to the table in the first place.

And so we freeze until the thought goes away, or we hide from the thought so it can’t find us.

But… the more we push it away, the stronger it becomes.

Looking at a career move can be a truly enlightening experience. And making a move can (and should) be enjoyable and fulfilling.

Here are three ways to act intentionally if your mind is starting to wander toward a new era in your career:

1️⃣ Why are you thinking this way?

Think about why you’ve had the thought of a career shift in the first place. If it’s coming from a positive space, run with that. Write about what a shift brings to the table for you, your family, your overall career, your financial outlook - all of it.

If it’s coming from a negative space, harness your thoughts. Intentionally write down exactly what’s negative about your current position and analyze it.

I don’t advise quitting a job because of the thought, “I hate my job.”

Instead, get to the root of what you “hate” about your job and go about managing that. It could very well be that you just don’t get along with a co-worker or you don’t like to do this one thing that drives you nuts.

Understanding your thinking can prevent a lot of bad decisions.

2️⃣ Look for other ways of doing what you do.

In my last position as an assistant principal of a middle school*, I wasn’t doing what I had been trained to do or was passionate about doing. My passion for educational leadership was in helping students learn in the classroom by thinking critically, teacher development and evaluation and social justice. I had earned two master’s degrees and a doctorate to hone my skills in these areas.

Instead, my day-to-day consisted of breaking up fights, giving kids detentions for throwing carrots at each other and preparing for and executing state testing.

Had I been inspired to do so, I could have subtracted the parts of my job that I didn’t like - the mind-numbing student discipline and state testing, and doubled-down on the teacher development, teacher evaluation, critical thinking, and equity.

I wasn’t required to do education in a school building. I could have done it elsewhere.

Subtracting the parts of your job that you don’t like and adding to or augmenting the parts that you do, can reinvigorate a person’s career in so many different ways.

You just have to allow yourself to think differently about what you’re doing.

3️⃣ Put together a plan

You can put together a plan to envision what it would look like to change or update your career.

There is nothing less effective for creating the future of your dreams than saying, “this would be really cool,” and doing nothing to get you to the cool part. You have to set goals and take action toward something in order to reach it.

This goal could be to find a new job within a year, or it could even be, “make a decision about the next step in six months.”

Whatever it is, you have to create a plan of attack to figure this out. Otherwise, you’ll just keep on thinking about it - and thinking without direction usually only leads to trouble.

👉 Whether you’re having thoughts of earning a promotion or changing directions altogether, these three strategies can help you get started. Putting together a plan, thinking of other ways to do the work that you love and understanding whether the thoughts are coming from a positive or negative place, are paramount to success when thinking about a career upgrade.

After reading this, let me know your thoughts about what it all means to you. Where would you start?

*Most people stop me right there and say, “you needed to think this hard about leaving that job?” 😀

🔥 My good friend Bernie Borges has a “Midlife Career Reboot Workbook,” that you can grab below:

MIDLIFE CAREER REBOOT WORKBOOK - BERNIE BORGES

I encourage you to check it out as well!