Insight on Making Different Choices in Your Career and Making an Impact Moving Forward  

The definition of a choice is the act of deciding or making a decision. It’s the power of choosing something that feels right to you.

Your career is determined by a series of choices. Some are good choices, and some are not so good. No matter how it has turned out, you are the person who has been doing the choosing. At times it may have felt like you had no choice or that someone else was making choices for you, but the truth is that you have always been the chooser.

What going on in your career currently? Fear? Uncertainty? Frustration? Exhaustion? We all deal with these things in today’s workplace. (It’s good to know that you are not alone.) Work is tough, and demands are plentiful and do not go away.

If your career is not where you want it to be, it’s up to you to do something about it. If you want something different, you have to do something different. The old cliché, “Good things come to those who wait,” hurts more than it helps. It gets you off the hook because you believe things will happen on their own over time, and things will magically happen by themselves. Action is what gets results, not waiting.

So what are you choosing? Are you choosing to work on making more money or quietly wishing a raise will come to you? Are you choosing to update your resume or letting being busy prevail? Are you actively choosing to discover your true passion, or are you hoping the answer will miraculously appear? The choices you make today will determine whether you are happy or not tomorrow.

In order to go forward, sometimes you have to look back. Once you can accept where you have been and the choices you have made, then you can make plans to move forward.

Look at your career. What do you see? Where have your choices led you? Ask yourself these three questions:

Have Bad Choices Led to Regret?
Everyone has something in their career they wish they’d done differently. Maybe you misspoke in an interview or a meeting, and you blew an opportunity. Maybe you could have negotiated a bigger salary, but you did not. Maybe you ran into someone in your career who could have helped you move to greater heights, but you failed to ask for help. Again, know that you are not alone. Bad choices are something that we all share. It’s not what happens to you in your career that matters, but how you recover from it. Have you moved on, or are you replaying every moment over again in your mind? Replays are for sports, not for your career. Let it go so you can move on to something better.

Have Bad Choices Led to a Bad Attitude?
Are you fun to be around? Or do people ignore you? What kind of vibe are you sending at work or on interviews? Believe you are hiding a bad attitude? Your belief is wrong. People can pick it up from a mile away. No one can hide unhappiness or anger. You may think that you have a right to be gloomy, but the person you are hurting the most is you. No one cares that you are upset. They do care that you are being difficult. If you want to shake things up in your career and see real results, become a more positive person. This one act alone can transform your career.

Have Bad Choices Led to Fear?
What are you afraid of? Afraid to ask for more money or resources? Afraid to speak up in meetings? Afraid to call people you know to see if they have a job opportunity for you? Afraid to go after your passion? Fear is normal. You wouldn’t be alive without it. However, there is a difference between being afraid and letting fear paralyze you. Even though you are busy, you know yourself pretty well. You know when fear is getting in the way, but what will you do about it? Will you let fear win or not?

Now Start Making Good Choices

Until you make better choices, your old choices will continue to haunt you. Change happens one step at a time. Start today by making one good choice. One choice will lead to two and so on. You have to start somewhere, so start where you are right now. Good choices made repeatedly will lead you to a more fulfilling career.