What Does Work Need to Give You Now?
Some people plan their careers. Others just fall into them.
Either way, many of us do not think much about the choice after that. We go about our lives, doing what we have always done – until something changes.
Maybe the work is not fun anymore. Maybe it is not serving us the way it used to. Or maybe we begin to wonder whether we should have been doing it at all.
Different things matter at different stages of life. Some things become less important, while others become much more important. The work that once suited you may no longer fit who you are, what you value, or what you need from your life.
That does not immediately answer the question of what you should do next. It gives you a better place to begin:
What has changed?
What needs to change?
Before deciding whether to stay, leave, or do something completely different, it helps to ask what your work needs to give you now. What are the non-negotiables you need in your job and your life moving forward? What has become more meaningful? What are you no longer willing to accept? What matters now that did not matter as much before?
It can also be difficult to answer these questions when you do not fully appreciate your own potential.
People do not always see what they are capable of. They may have forgotten what they once wanted to do ‘when they grew up’. Even that answer can keep changing, because we keep changing.
When you cannot see your potential clearly, you may also struggle to see what is possible for you.
So the question is not simply, “What other job c uld I do?”
It may be: How do I reconnect with the passion I used to have? How do I identify what matters to me now? How do I create a path toward it?
Those are difficult questions to work through when you are inside your own head. Sometimes you need an objective person to talk to – someone who can help you explore what has changed, recognize the potential you may not see in yourself, and begin finding a way forward.
I think there is nothing sadder than someone not living up to their potential or realizing their dreams.
The answer – and the final outcome – is usually not what you expect it to be. I have seen this time and time again with my clients. But it is worth taking the journey to find out.
As a starting point, I would ask:
“If nothing changed and you were still in this same role two – three years from now, how would you feel about that?”
You do not have to know the final destination before you begin. You can start by asking what your work and life need to give you now.