When we’re at a crossroad in our career, either by our own volition, or pushed by an unexpected restructure for example, we are often faced with hard choices.
Career choices are hard choices.
Hard choices are often defined by alternatives that while different, have both positive and negative complex variables, leading them to remain both possible options on your list.
Our tendency to analyse and intricately deconstruct these options is useful.
A career change, relocating to a new city, or deciding to structure your commitments to strive for promotion, can profoundly change your life overall.
However, some contemporary perspectives suggests that the choice itself may not be the most important part at all – but rather how much energy and effort we have to put into the follow through. To make the decision that you made a good decision.
Executive coach Ed Batista (2013) supports detailed analysis to support decisions, however, recommends the following approach to avoiding paralysis-by-analysis and moving forward:
1. paying close attention to the feeling and emotions that accompany the decision we’re facing,
2. assessing how motivated we are to work towards the success of any given option, and
3. recognising that no matter what option we choose, our efforts to support its success will be more important than the initial guesswork that led to our choice.
Ruth Chang supports this view and elaborates this process of choosing is an opportunity to take your own agency to decide to create the type of person that you will be.
She recommends stepping back from looking outside for answers, and instead focusing inward and asking: “Who am I to be?”
References
Batista, E. (2013, November 8). Stop Worrying about making the right decision. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2013/11/stop-worrying-about-making-the-right-decision
Cheng, R. (2014, May). How to make hard choices [Video]. Full length: https://www.ted.com/talks/ruth_chang_how_to_make_hard_choices?subtitle=en
N.B. Except of Cheng’s Ted Talk is included in text is at https://youtu.be/20xieiUGQOI
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