I received the following InMail through LinkedIn. I am very honoured to have been asked this question.
Hi Zale,
I like your enthusiasm and your way of motivating others. I need to make a decision of what to do next and I feel like I am in a career crossroad.
I am a high performance sales manager of a speciality store.
I would like to grow career wise. I can’t grow in the company I am with right now.Naturally, next step will be to become a general manager or district manager for a different company. Employers are wanting me to start as a store manager and then be promoted to a district mgr. Though I have the skills and I am a fast learner.
My other choice would be to go into fashion marketing, but seems fashion is product-sales driven, which means that marketing can be ads and pr. I may be in a disadvantage since I don’t have a formal ad training.
I need to decide this first in order to have a successful job search, don’t I?
I hope you understand that I can’t tell you what to do. Its not my place, nor do I have a hope of telling you what the right thing is.
In any advice there are many explicit and implicit assumptions that are made by both the person asking and the person giving the advice. Beware people giving advice about specific decisions. The advice is only as good as the assumptions and the word assume means making an Ass out of U and Me
What I can do, is suggest ways for you to figure out what you want.
One of the reasons you are having so much concern over the choices is that you don’t have real clear vision of where you are heading.
The bad news is choosing where you want to go, is the real hard question.
The good news is that once you have a clear vision, choices become easier.
The great news is that there is lots of help in that area.
Here is an approach to get you started.
Go to a quite place where you won’t be disturbed for at least one hour.
Bring a pad of paper with you.
This is the most important part. Push out of your mind any practical concerns. Like how its going to happen. When those thoughts come into your mind, just say – I will do that a little later. It will happen, just not right at the current moment.
When doing the exercise NEVER EVER say “I Don’t Know” – create an answer. If its doesn’t feel right, create another one, until you have something that you are satisfied with.
Step 1:
We are going to do some imagining. I want you to start imaging what your world could be like.
Close your eyes.
Imagine your self three years from today.
Imagine the people around you. Who are they. What do they look like.
Imagine what you are wearing.
Imagine where you are living.
Imagine what your home is like.
Imagine your hobbies are.
Imagine the books you will be reading.
Imagine what you are doing to maintain your health.
Imagine what kind of volunteer work you are doing.
Imagine the kind of vacations you are taking.
Imagine the kind car or transportation you will be using.
Imagine the kind of foods you will be eating.
Imagine who your friends are and the kinds of new friends you would like to expand to.
Imagine what your friends will be saying about you.
Imagine what your family will be saying about you.
Imagine what co-workers will be saying about you. It doesn’t matter what job you are doing.
Imagine how happy you could feel.
Imagine how much love will be in you.
Imagine how much satisfaction you could have.
Imagine how much money this will take to achieve all this.
Step 2:
Describe all this out loud and then write it down. Read it as you are writing it.
You will probably have to repeat the imagination part for several times. Keep going over and over it, until you have a perfect image of what it will be like.
By the way – once this is completed, you will be in the top 3% of the world. And almost everything you have written down will now happen to you.
I can promise you this will happen.
Step 3:
Now you need look at where you are today and find the gaps.
.
Write down where you are today for each thing that you imagined.
The difference between where you are today and where you want to be are the gaps.
Therefore we need to fill those gaps. Here are some questions that you will need to answer:
What will have to happen for all that you have imagined to happen?
What will you need to learn to make the gaps filled.
What new skills will you need?
Who can help you fill those gaps? If you can’t put a name down, then put a title or a description of the person. Then you will need to go and find a person like that.
What will have to change in your habits to make things like this happen?
Who will you have to remove from your life to make this happen?
Step 4:
Now look at the two choices you have been considering.
Which of the two choices fit into helping you meet the goals you set out in Step 1.
One or the other or neither will make it happen.
Which job will make it easier for you to reach your goals?
You will probably have to ask more detailed questions about the jobs to get the answers.
The most important thing – is that you choose something that will help you get what you want three years down the road. Most people don’t think far enough out and unfortunately they pay the price for this.
Don’t forget – you are currently living decisions that you made three years ago, five years ago, and ten years ago. Therefore you want to make decisions now that will get you what you want three years from now, five years from now and ten years from now.
The 66 Days To A Job Guaranteed! Program provides a daily plan to get you the job you want. Apply to the program at http://www.66DaysToAJobGuaranteed.ca.
This article is part of the free 66 Day Job Club. One of the benefits of joining the club, is that Members of the club receive a guide on how this article fits into the Job Hunt plan. Join the 66 Day Job Club here.
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