Happen To Your Career - Meaningful Work, Career Change, Career Design, & Job Search

Here’s the reality: Decisions are hard. They don’t sound like they should be hard, but they stop people every single day, usually many many times a day from doing something productive.  So much so that I personally spend much of my energy eliminating unimportant decision making from my life that I won’t care about years or even weeks from now. Decisions like what do I have for breakfast or what should I wear today or what order should I begin my day take only small amounts of energy, time and effort separately but they start to add up quickly.  And Big decisions like where should I spend my time and effort and energy in my career sometimes seem almost overwhelming to tackle.    By the way, if you want to get this sent straight to your email box to you can always go to FigureItOut.co and drop in your email address. And that will get sent right to your email box. Or you can text HAPPEN to 44222 and you get the exact same thing.

Our minds are amazing. We can do absolutely unbelievable things with our brains! One thing we can do is we can very effectively filter and sort information. This is a huge benefit to us, but can also cause a lot of problems in the form of cognitive bias. This just means that as human beings the way our brains function can actually bias us toward or away from certain things like steering us away from those areas that might be uncomfortable and toward familiarity. But what if you could take some of this knowledge about your brain and use it to turn potentially negative biases into an advantage. 15 years ago, the first time I really realized that you could hack your brain’s normal functions, my mind was blown, too.    By the way, if you want to get this sent straight to your email box to you can always go to FigureItOut.co and drop in your email address. And that will get sent right to your email box. Or you can text HAPPEN to 44222 and you get the exact same thing.

Remember in the last lesson when we talked about how most people miss the simple logic: you have to know where you’re going to be able to figure out how to get there.  Well, this applies to more than just the job you have or a business that you run.  Just try to separate out your work from the rest of your life! You can’t.   The people you spend the most time with or don’t spend the most time with is often influenced by your work.  So is your personal growth as a person, where you physically spend your time, and even the amount of money that you earn.  For this reason, it’s incredibly important for you to understand not just what you want in your work but also what you want in every other area of your life! And guess what else, anything that you want in your life isn’t going to happen by accident.    By the way, if you want to get this sent straight to your email box to you can always go to FigureItOut.co and drop in your email address. And that will get sent right to your email box. Or you can text HAPPEN to 44222 and you get the exact same thing.

What do you want?   It’s a simple enough question.  I’ll bet you can't easily answer that question?  Go ahead and give it a try! I’ll wait! Harder than it seems right?    But what if you could intentionally and succintly answer that question? When you have the answer to what you really want in your career and in your life and really go after it, it allows you to do things most people would consider exceptional or even impossible.    And that is exactly what we’re going to cover today!   By the way, if you want to get this sent straight to your email box to you can always go to FigureItOut.co and drop in your email address. And that will get sent right to your email box. Or you can text HAPPEN to 44222 and you get the exact same thing.

IS REFLECTION ON THE PAST YOUR KEY TO CAREER HAPPINESS? The short answer is “H-E- double hockey sticks to the NO”. (mostly because I love hockey and a little because reflection is not the magic bullet alone!) But what’s the longer more nuanced answer? To be clear; reflecting on the past alone is not going to get you where you want to go in your career or your life. It will take intentional action to move toward work that fits you, your values, and your strengths (and even your income expectations).  But what’s also true is that for the action to be intentional you must know exactly what you want.  How do you do that?   By the way, if you want to get this sent straight to your email box to you can always go to FigureItOut.co and drop in your email address. And that will get sent right to your email box. Or you can text HAPPEN to 44222 and you get the exact same thing.    

MOST PEOPLE THINK THAT THEY KNOW THEIR STRENGTHS… I hear them say things like “I learn fast” or “I’m good with people” but most people have not spent enough time or effort to truly understand what it is that they are great at or have the potential to be great at! Maybe these are true, but these aren’t specific enough to really be what you are great at. What is it that makes you great with people, What is it specifically that you enjoy in the interaction with others, is it even the interaction at all, or maybe something else. When I hear something as vague as “I’m good with people”, which I do in maybe 7 out of every 10 interviews with professionals, I immediately try to start digging to understand what they really actually mean. It could be that they are great at: relating to others OR communicating with people OR helping people problem solve OR building relationships quickly OR about a million other possibilities. What on earth do you really mean?   By the way, if you want to get this sent straight to your email box to you can always go to FigureItOut.co and drop in your email address. And that will get sent right to your email box. Or you can text HAPPEN to 44222 and you get the exact same thing.

We've now had over 30,000 people go through our figure it out eight the mini course. (and that's a lot of people, as it turns out) Also, we realized, as we were talking behind the scenes, that it had been a long time, like six years long time, since we really updated this mini course. So guess what? We've updated it! But we're going to do you one better, because we're actually going to share each and every day with you right here on the HTYC podcast for the next eight days. So if you're not already subscribed to the podcast, then guess what, pause this right now hit the subscribe button on your player, because every single day, for the next eight days, you're going to get a dose of the mini-course that helps you figure out what it is that you want to do. By the way, if you want to get this sent straight to your email box to you can always go to FigureItOut.co and drop in your email address. And that will get sent right to your email box. Or you can text HAPPEN to 44222 and you get the exact same thing.

As human beings, when we get stuck, we tend to focus on one thing that we latch onto as the “reason” why. Or one thing that if we could only do, it would solve all of our problems.  It’s never just one thing. It’s always more nuanced than that.  There is one thing that is very clear though, The reasons why you think you’re stuck and the reasons why you’re actually stuck, are two completely different things.   To binge-listen to more career happiness success stories (and career hacks), find all the podcasts at https://happentoyourcareer.com/podcast  Or tell us more about your personal career situation and schedule a conversation with our team go to https://happentoyourcareer.com/schedule-htyc to learn how we can best help! 

One of the most common career change misconceptions is that you’ll have to start over – that all of your experience will go out the window if you make a change. It’s difficult to imagine a scenario where you don’t take a step down… where you actually get a promotion on top of finally finding work you actually love. How can you make that happen? In today’s episode, we’re revealing the 4 most common ways that people change careers (without starting over!) and talking to 4 people from each category. What you’ll learn  The 4 types of career transitions  How to use transferable skills & your experience when changing careers (it’s different than you think!) How career coaches rank the difficulty of the different career transitions    Have career change questions or want to make an introduction? Email scott@happentoyourcareer.com   Free Resources What career fits you? Join our free 8 Day Mini Course to figure it out!  Career Change Guide - Learn how high-performers discover their ideal career and find meaningful, well-paid work without starting over.   Related Episodes Changing Careers (When You Don’t Know Your Next Job Title) (Spotify / Apple Podcasts) How to Figure Out What You Really Want (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)    To binge-listen to more career happiness success stories (and career hacks), find all the podcasts at https://happentoyourcareer.com/podcast  Or tell us more about your personal career situation and schedule a conversation with our team go to https://happentoyourcareer.com/schedule-htyc to learn how we can best help!

In this episode, Laura Morrison, a former sustainability engineer turned product developer, shares her inspiring journey from disillusionment to fulfillment. She discusses how many people overlook the transferability of their skills when considering a career shift. Laura highlights the emotional toll of unfulfilling jobs and the importance of aligning personal values with professional choices. Listeners can learn practical strategies for identifying their strengths and creating an ideal career profile that reflects their passions and aspirations.