Want Future Direction In Your Career? Start With The Career Compass

When I was about 7 years old my family and I went on a big camping trip up to Queensland and we went out on a long bushwalk. My mum and dad said, broadly, “We’re going to get to that waterfall” – way out somewhere – and I didn’t really know where we were. Along the way my brother and I got lost.

Eventually we were found but during that period I was absolutely frantic. I didn’t know where I was going. I still remember it to this day.

I work with people who are lost all the time. If you’re feeling a bit lost in your career, this is designed for you.

I’m going to share my career compass which allows people to move from LOST to getting a sense of where they’re going to go next.

When you’re out at sea… I don’t know if any of you goes boating or has been on a ship recently… when you’re out at sea and you don’t know where you’re going there’s a particular tool you use to get your bearings – it’s called a compass.

That’s exactly why I designed this tool because there are a whole lot of people that are lost and they need something to help them take stock, work out where they’re at, and use that as a basis to plan what they’re doing next.

The tool looks like a compass – it’s called “The Career Compass”, and it’s got four components to it, like North, South, East and West.

I’ll take you through each one, and you can apply it to your own career. We cover off four things…

The first thing we do is think about what’s IMPORTANT in your life right now. What I believe is that your career is only a component of your life. If you consider what’s important in your life that’s usually a determinant of how big that career bubble is in your life. So think about that for you. What’s important in your life right now?

The second thing, which I’ll cover in another blog post another time is – who do you want to SERVE? Who do you want to be a hero to… and what do you care most about. In the blog on passions and strengths I’ll cover off a process where you can find that out for yourself.

The third area is what are you best at (your TALENTS & STRENGTHS)? We can find out when you’re in flow by saying “What are the things you’re doing when you’re adding lots of value?” … people think “I’m getting incredible value from you” and for you it’s easy, you’re really good at it so it takes you less effort. Then… what do you love to do? It’s that combination of talents & strengths, where you add heaps of value, the things you’re good at and the things you love to do.

The fourth area on the career compass is then any PRACTICAL considerations. Life isn’t as simple as saying “If I work out what’s important to me, and I know my strengths and I know who I want to serve, then away I go!” There are often some very practical things that you need to consider in making your next move. I use a triangle of dollars, time and lifestyle. What are your constraints around money? What’s your mortgage, how much money do you need to earn per month, the baseline things you need to consider. How much time do you want to be at work? How much time do you want to spend on the things that are important in your life? And then what sort of lifestyle do you want to live? How often do you want to go on holidays? How far do you want to live from work? How long do you want your commute to be? All those things need to come into play when you’re planning your next career or your next job move.

To summarise: If you’re all at sea in your career and a little bit lost and you’re not sure what to do next in your career, use the CAREER COMPASS to get your bearings.

Consider what’s IMPORTANT in your life, work out who you want to SERVE and what you want to do, consider your TALENTS & STRENGTHS and work out any PRACTICAL considerations. What that will do is take you from the point where you’re churning and possibly on a spiral down, to getting clear and on a spiral upwards.

For those of you who want a copy of the career compass… if you’re on LinkedIn send me a message and I’ll happily email it to you, if you’re on Facebook send me a private message and I’ll happily send one back. For those of you on my website either leave me a comment or book in a time to talk to me and I can send this through to you and potentially even talk it through with you.

That’s the CAREER COMPASS, good luck. Talk to you soon.