On a career crossroad

Often times throughout their careers people find themselves on a career crossroad. They may have finally decided to pursue their dream, but something unexpected occurs and prevents them from moving forward. Or a great opportunity comes up which as promising as it is for the future as limiting it is for today. Or maybe pursuing a dream career, they find themselves burnt out and question their work family balance. Yes, everybody comes to a career crossroad, and often times makes decision on a direction based on either high excitement or exhaustion. However, crossroads are not pure opportunity, but career changing check points. That's why no matter how easy a decision on a direction might seem it's worth spending some quality time on examining it.

What is your career purpose?
What do you want to achieve? Where do you want to be in 5 years? What work would make you so happy and excited that you would wake every Monday to Friday with a smile on your face? Your career purpose is your career guiding light. When you know where you want to go and what career development you are pursuing, you can check the options in front of you through the lenses of your overall professional goal. Once you do that you will know what is best for you. And if you are still not aware of your career purpose it's worth discovering it. Otherwise you might find yourself in a lost, in missing valuable opportunities and overall in wasting your own time.

What are your priorities right now?
Where are you now in your life? What is happening that matters most to you right now? Is your career your number one priority? Or is it your family? Health? Education? If pursuing your career purpose is your number one priority no matter what, then you skip this part. If something else is getting your attention, energy and emotions then you need to go back to the crossroad and reevaluate your options in light of your current priorities. You might discover that the most exciting career options suits best your current priorities which would make this direction even more exciting to you. However, you might also realize that the most exciting options would prevent you from focusing on your priorities. Then the questions to ask yourself are: Are you willing to reprioritize? What sacrifices you will be making? How will they impact you? What about the other directions on the crossroad? How do they relate to your priorities?

What are your feelings?
Now look at what feelings each option evokes in you? What are your strongest emotions? Where they come from? What is it in this direction that gets you feel excited/angry/fulfilled/miserable? How can you address this feelings? Is there something else beneath the surface other than a career option? Try to get to the bottom of your feelings. Making a career decision based on emotions is not a smart move. As logical as it sounds to you today, tomorrow you may discover that you made the step with blurred mind.

How do you see yourself in 2 years walking on the chosen road?
And finally, once you made up your mind, give yourself the present of dreaming. Allow yourself to envision your life and career on the chosen direction. What do you see? How do you feel in your career? What else happens in your life with this career choice? Where are you 2 years from now? Who are you? How do you feel about this image of your future self?

What is your career crossroad story?