Are you feeling stuck in your head? Going round in circles as you try and find a solution to your career dilemma?
Do I stay or do I go?
If I stay, how? If I go, what and how?
It can feel overwhelming, can’t it? And then you get frustrated with yourself because you’re not managing to come up with an answer.
In my experience, there can be so many things that keep us stuck in these initial stages, and other factors which come into play further down the line.
And one of those things is that, as medics, we’ve been trained to use our cognition to solve problems. And that is a very handy skill, in many different scenarios.
Of course, it is somewhat harder to apply to ourselves (there’s a reason that self-diagnosis is discouraged), particularly so if we’re trying to apply it in a less familiar scenario (career dilemma, for example).
And it’s also only one modality.
The way I look at things, we’re either thinking, doing or being.
Let’s start off with thinking and doing in your career dilemma - they may look like:
Thinking – what’s going on currently, what's important to me, what are my strengths and how could I get the most out of these now and in my next career move, how do I want work to fit into the rest of my life, who do I want to be at work, how can I align my career with my strengths and values, etc.
Doing – researching options, having conversations with others, trying things out and making things happen, etc.
You need a bit of both of these going on to make effective progress.
But to really get you ahead, you also need that third ingredient - being.
This is what ‘being’ could look like in your career dilemma:
Being – enjoying the moment, in whatever way enables you to do that.
So in fact, it’s nothing related to your career at all. It’s those times when you’re immersed in the here and now. Sometimes that may well include some ‘doing’ but it’s different from the ‘doing’ that I’ve described above.
That first ‘doing’ is aiming to achieve a specific outcome, e.g. at the end of this conversation I want to have a much clearer picture of what is entailed in the day-to-day of working in this specific area of healthtech.
What I’m referring to here are those things that you do just for the pure joy of it, rather than with a specific outcome in mind, e.g. spending time with friends, doing yoga, painting, reading, cooking. What is it for you?
As well as those times, ‘being’ can also be about those small moments that make up your day – noticing the birds singing, fully savouring the taste of your food, tuning into your body, that kind of thing.
This enables you to get ahead with your career dilemma in 2 ways:
➡️ Creates ideal conditions for your intuition to get a look-in, enabling you to come up with insights and potential solutions that your cognition just can’t quite get to on its own.
➡️ Keeps your energy levels topped up and creates more headspace – both of which are very helpful to apply to your career dilemma.
So, think, do and be. A great combination to get ahead with your career dilemma.
If you would like any support in creating these ideal conditions, drop me an email at info@sallyhambly.co.uk.