‘If you only have a hammer, it’s difficult to eat spaghetti.’
David Allen
It’s difficult to fix a problem if you don’t know what it is. Any good problem solving starts with defining the problem clearly. That way you can focus your attention on solving a specific problem, rather than trying all kinds of things and hoping something will work.
Imagine going to see your doctor, and as you arrived the receptionist handed you a prescription. It may be perfectly good medication, but it may not be what you need.
If you don’t know what the problem is in your career, it’s easy to make impulsive work decisions, then wonder why you keep ending up in the same place.
Even worse, you decide that nothing has worked in the past, so you might as well just give up, which in turn leads to more problems.
After more than twenty years of consulting in this field, I have discovered there are four main problems people face in their work lives.
The first problem: Yourself
The first problem people face in their careers, is themselves. They sabotage themselves repeatedly with poor behaviour choices and attitudes when there is nothing else in their way.
Your choices may be sabotaging you too. It may be your passive and reactive approach to life, so you wait for things to happen rather than do what you can. Maybe you’ve decided you don’t have what it takes, even before you have put in the work. Perhaps the way you behave rubs people up the wrong way, or by continually putting other people’s needs before your own, you never achieve what is important to you. Your biggest obstacle might be expecting to get it all right, the first time, rather than being willing to learn as you go.
The good news is that your behaviour is not your personality. Once you realise that, new choices and changes become possible. You will see how you are not stuck with the choices you made in the past. Once you set yourself free to make new choices, you can begin to pursue those things that matter to you. Most importantly, you will take charge of your life and your career, no matter how tough it gets.
The second problem: Making Career Choices
Many people never make a choice at all, they simply follow the next job, the next promotion, or climb whatever ladder is put in front of them without question. Or they start out by making a poor choice, then feel trapped because they fear it’s too late for them to make a change.
A common refrain is “I don’t know what I want, but it’s not this!”
Albert Maslow, the famous psychologist who developed the Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, said: ‘It is not normal to know what you want. It is a rare and difficult psychological achievement.’
That means making choices is work too.
If there were fool proof systems, and if career tests did it all, everyone would be in jobs they loved. That sadly is not true. But if you are willing to do the work, to fail and try again, you will be richly rewarded for not giving up.
You have your own superpower; you just need to find it.
The good news is it’s never too late to make new choices, and you don’t have to take wild reckless leaps, you just need to weave your carpet, one day at a time.
The third problem: Taking Action
‘If you can dream it, you can do it’ they say.
There is the word do in that sentence, as well as the word dream.
The great physicist Isaac Newton, said that if anything is to change, an object must be acted upon, or it will stay at the same speed and go in the same direction it was travelling. Let’s take a lesson from physics and apply action.
There are people with great ideas and dreams, who have enviable knowledge and expertise, but who never move forward. They might have difficulty moving at all, but more often they don’t know what to do next, or it all seems just too much to tackle.
But you don’t have to weave your carpet all at once. Carpet weaving is about taking one small step, then weaving your carpet one thread, one day at a time.
The fourth problem: Finding Work
Whether you are a business or an individual, you need to find people who need what you do and are willing to pay for it. There are talented and competent people out there who cannot find work, often believing no one needs what they do, when in truth the people who need them don’t know about them.
Looking for work can be tiring and discouraging. The good news is you don’t have to be gung-ho and super confident to job hunt.
But you do need to make job hunting your new day job.
Self-Help
I have provided a range of blogs and self-help conversations to identify and solve whatever problem you may be facing.
Read our growing list of blogs on topics around the four problems.https://www.careerwarriors.co.za/blogs
Try our Self-Help conversations with podcasts and videos: https://www.careerwarriors.co.za/self-help/
Arrange an individual online consultation from anywhere in the world: https://www.careerwarriors.co.za/consultations/
©Andrew Bramley, Career Warriors®. All Rights Reserved. 2023