74. Make Confident Career Decisions with these Steps

Feeling stuck at a career crossroads? You're not alone. Whether you're overwhelmed by too many options or unsure of your next move, decision-making can be tough. 

In this episode, I share the decision-making process I use with my clients to help them find clarity and make the best choices for their careers.

Key points from this episode:

• Not making a decision is a decision that keeps you stuck.
• Delaying decisions delays your career progress.
• Take control and make informed choices to move forward.
• Assess your options and find the common thread between your interests. 

Tune in for practical tips to navigate your career path with confidence!

Connect with the host:

Website: https://marijaduka.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marija-duka/ 

Instagram: @marija.duka

Email: hello@marijaduka.com

Transcript

Navigating Career Crossroads With Confidence

Speaker 1 0:06

Welcome to the Career Confidence Podcast , the podcast for driven lawyers wanting to step out of the traditional path and build fulfilling and purposeful careers . I'm your host , maria Dukar , legal counsel and career coach , helping you navigate your career with intention and confidence . In this podcast , we don't shy away from having real conversations about topics that matter to us . Driven AF go-getters From manifesting your dream career , negotiating the salary you deserve , creating your personal brand , knowing when it's time to pivot . We cover these topics and so much more . You ready , let's dive into today's episode . Hey , hey , welcome to another episode of the Career Confidence Podcast . Now , if you're currently in a season of your life where you are at a crossroads in terms of making that next decision for your career , then you are in the right place , my friend , because this episode is for you .

Speaker 1 1:13

When someone is at a crossroads in their career , it is often met with an indecisiveness , right Like you either have too many options in front of you and you're struggling to make a decision which way to go , or you might have limited options or not know what that next opportunity looks like , which then stifles you to also make a decision on what that next path should look like for you . So I hosted a workshop earlier this year all around mapping out your next career move , and a lot of the questions that the attendees asked actually revolved a lot around decision-making and what is the best way to make a decision and what is the best way to make a decision . So I'm going to go through the process that I use when I'm coaching my clients in terms of helping them to make the best decision for themselves , in hopes that this will also help you if you are in a season where you are struggling to make a decision . Now first , I want to start off this episode by saying that not making a decision is a decision , right ? So if you are struggling to make the decision and you get overwhelmed to the point where you just give up and not make the decision at all , this leads you to delaying the next part of your career . It delays that progress that you want to make and it keeps you feeling stuck . The reason why not making a decision is a decision is because you're essentially saying , okay , this is all too hard , I don't know what is the right decision for me and therefore I'm just going to hand over my decision-making power and not do anything about it at all . You're pretty much saying that I am accepting staying in this position that I'm in Now . This sounds harsh , but it's true and I want you to hear it so that sometimes , like when you hear something like this , it might jolt you in a positive way to then go okay , I really do need to now take the steps to make a decision .

Speaker 1 3:36

The reason why so many people struggle with making decisions is because it comes from a place of fear as to not knowing what's on the other side of that decision . We focus so much on whether this is the right decision , the best decision , or what if it leads to the worst case scenario . We focus too much on it being this big , scary thing and focusing on the fear side of it that we forget that . Oh , hang on a second . What if this decision leads to these incredible other opportunities that I could not have even thought for for myself ? So I'll walk you through a couple of the attendees of this workshop that I ran earlier this year's questions and the way that I'll walk you through how I answered them to support you in terms of .

Speaker 1 4:30

So one of the attendees he has a successful career in law , but he also does his own thing , so he has his own business and has opportunities coming to him in that way . He's someone that is multi-passionate , has so many ideas , gets really excited by all of these opportunities . So for him , he was struggling to make the decision in terms of what to focus on right now . And so what I said to him ? I said , firstly , take off the pressure from making the decision . And you're probably going to think , okay , maria , now you're not making any sense because you're just telling us how important it is to make a decision . Now you're not making any sense because you're just telling us how important it is to make a decision and now you're saying take the pressure off . Well , just hear me out . So , firstly , take that pressure off from making the decision .

Speaker 1 5:25

What I want you to do is take a step back . If you're someone that is like this attendee , that's multi-passionate , has so many ideas , when you take a step back and brain dump all of your ideas and different pathways that you're considering , so literally open up a Google doc . Or if you're someone that likes writing in a journal or notebook , open up a notebook and write down all the different ideas you're thinking about . Write down all the different ideas you're thinking about , and then I want you to explore where each of these options will lead you to . So , literally , take yourself out of your current situation and zoom into each of these options , pathways , ideas . Put yourself in the shoes of okay , if I was to pursue this , where will this take me ? What opportunities would arise from this ? And do this for each idea project , business idea , whatever it is . Do it one at a time . So focus on one and then move on to the next one . So map it all out , get all on paper and then walk yourself through what it would look like if you were to pursue that option . Then I want you to have a think about okay , now that I've assessed all of these different options for myself , what is the common thread between all of these different ideas I have , all of these different options I have . Is there a common thread that is attracting me to these different ideas ? Because that could be the deciding factor for you . It could be that , okay , it is actually this one thing that brings all of these ideas together . So , really , what I need to be focusing in on is expanding in this one area . So , for example , if all of these options involved you expanding in your speaking opportunities , then you can hone in and focus on that one area .

Speaker 1 7:31

Another way to assess and decide which option is best for you is which one is calling you out the most . Is it that you're choosing this particular path because it's the logical next path , it's safe , it's comfortable and , yeah , you're relatively happy to move forward in that area . Or is it really exciting you and calling you to that next level version of yourself ? Have a think about , when you assess each of your options , which one actually feels most exciting for you . And it might not be the safe option , right , but it could be the one that's the path less traveled , that opens up different opportunities for you that you don't even know what that may look like . Yet Another question that an attendee of that workshop asked me , which is again along the lines of making a decision , is how do I know what the best role for me is ?

Speaker 1 8:28

So , to give you context this attendee , she was finishing up in her current role and she was assessing what she wanted to do next . So this is quite a big question , obviously , and there's no one right answer or a simple way to answer this , but I walked her through a decision-making process to help her when it came to choosing between a few roles , how to make the best decision for herself , so that she then felt confident that she has made the right decision for herself . I said to her instead of you looking at these roles and saying , well , how can I fit myself into these roles and really focusing on you meeting the selection criteria of these roles , take a bit of a zoom out approach first and think about well , what do I actually want out of my next role ? So don't even consider the key selection criteria of these roles just yet . Firstly think about what do I actually want out of my next role . What type of environment do I want to be in ? What area do I want to develop in ? You know , what skills do I want to develop ? What are my key contributing factors ? What are my strengths that I want to bring to the next role ? What type of culture do I want to be like ?

Speaker 1 9:51

Consider your how you want your next role to look like from a holistic point of view , and then think about what your non-negotiables are . So what are things that are really important to you for your next role that you will not compromise on ? Is that having strong leadership around you , you know , career development opportunities , whatever that may be . And then , once you know what you're looking out for in terms of your next role and what your non-negotiables are , you can then look at those roles from the lens of are these roles actually meeting my career needs ? Are they actually going to support me in how I want to develop in the next chapter of my career ?

Speaker 1 10:37

By doing this , you will then be much more clearer around making the best decision for yourself , around what is the best role for you , because now you're clear on what you actually want and whether these roles fit into your goals . And then you can go into an interview setting , for example , knowing exactly what questions to ask to ensure that you are then going to make the right decision on whether the roles are a right fit for you . And also , by doing this exercise , you also know what value you bring . So then you can talk about how your skills and strengths and all of that can actually shape the role . And that's where career design really comes into it , because you become now intentional from just applying for a role to then being able to talk about how you can add value to shape this role as well

Career Decision-Making Process Simplified

Speaker 1 11:36

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Speaker 1 11:36

So I hope that this episode has provided you with an easy process to follow to make your next career decision . Thank you so much for tuning into another episode of the Career Confidence Podcast and I will chat to you very soon . Bye , thanks for tuning into the Career Confidence Podcast . Like what you learned today , why not share this episode with your work , bestie , and leave us a five-star review on ? Wherever you listen to your podcast on ? We'd absolutely love to get into more ears and help more women just like you build fulfilling and thriving careers . Until next time .