Have you ever taken a job that you knew in your gut wasn’t a good fit for you, but you accepted it anyway? Or a job that when people asked you why you took it, your only answer was, “I fell into it,” or that someone else suggested you’d be good at it? These aren’t good reasons to accept a job and almost everyone has done this at some point. It happens, and if we find out the job truly wasn’t a fit like we thought, we can experience a strong sense of regret.
[See: Tips for Surviving a Career Transition.]
We’ve all experienced some form of career regret. Maybe it was a career change or a professional decision we wish we hadn’t made. Regrets can also happen if we aren’t as far along in our careers as we’d like to be. Or we haven’t achieved as much as we thought we would, whether it’s money, a certain title or a sales goal. How can we avoid making poor choices the next time?
Here are three basic steps to help you make a better decision the next time you feel torn.
Align your goals. First, it is important to align your goals with what is most important to you, internally and externally. To determine what’s critical to you internally, identify what your career values are and what is most fulfilling to you career-wise. This will help you ensure that when you set your career goals, you will be doing what matters most to you from the inside out. Your career values would be what give you a sense of reward, such as connecting with people, a collaborative work environment or creativity in your job. Then, your external priorities are the practical elements that will allow you to take care of yourself or your family, financially, emotionally and health-wise. Align your career choices and goals with both of these elements, the internal and external priorities. Too often, professionals neglect one or the other when establishing their goals.
— Action step: If you are having trouble identifying your career values, pick apart your day at work at your current job, and at previous jobs. What tasks were the most fulfilling or rewarding to you? Identify a peak personal experience where you felt like everything was going right in your life. Write about it and try to unearth the values underneath that moment.
[See: Famous CEOs and Executives Share Their Best Career Advice.]
Expand your thinking. Some of the reasons we experience career regret is because we didn’t push ourselves or we didn’t step out of our comfort zone. Once you have your values and priorities identified, you can start to set career goals. In this step, you want to push yourself to achieve larger goals than you would have otherwise. After you’ve identified your goals, are there some that could be expanded or approached more creatively? Dream big. Remember if you start small, you will get small. Now this isn’t about setting unrealistic goals that you’ll ultimately be frustrated by because you won’t achieve them. It’s about pushing yourself where you typically hide out or play small. Once you have your big goals, consider the practical side. Ask yourself how you can implement these goals in a smart way while not neglecting your priorities.
— Action step: To make sure you are thinking out of the box, ask a family member or friend for help. Don’t discard an idea immediately just because it sounds crazy. Instead, write everything down that comes to your mind. Once you have exhausted all of the ideas, then you can start to narrow them down. By taking the time to consider everything, you may discover that there is a very practical way to achieve one or two so-called crazy career goals.
[See: 10 Ways to Perfect Your Personal Brand.]
Evaluate the risk up front. Any steps we take toward a goal require some element of risk. In order to say yes to one thing, you need to say no to something else. Taking risks is part of the deal, but it’s important to evaluate each step first and make sure it’s the right risk, will move you toward your goal and is the best step to that end to achieve your goal. When evaluating, ask yourself: Will this move me toward my ultimate goal? How so and what is the time frame? What action steps must I take to achieve this goal? Are there any other ways to accomplish this goal?
— Action step: Write down your answers to the above questions. Then evaluate what steps will help you move forward in the right way. Remember that risk is necessary to avoid career regret. The key is to minimize and manage it along the way.
Finally, remember that everyone experiences regret at one time or another in their career. Keep moving forward past it. If you find you made a mistake, do what you can to fix it and move on. Don’t let it define you and keep in mind you probably learned something from the experience if nothing else — a lesson that you can take with you going forward. The key is to learn and move on.
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3 Simple Steps to Avoid Career Regret originally appeared on usnews.com
