I honestly believe that knowing yourself well, understanding your innate 
strengths of what you love to do and you’re also brilliant at, knowing the environment you excel in and the people and situations that get the best out of you and make you happiest can be the best career move you make. It’s an unshakable foundation for carving a career you’ll love. Knowing yourself well and understanding what makes you tick, what you want and checking in with that regularly as you develop and change over the years is key to a great career.
So many people end up in jobs they hate, don’t like very much, or are just comfortable in. That doesn’t give them the motivation or excitement to really own and shape their career to be a great addition to their lives.
Being honest with yourself about who you are, what you love, what you want and how you want your career to be, and everything in between is the best career move you’ll ever make. You’ll know the working environment you want to work in, what you want to do, what you want to impact on and how, the type of people you want to work with and what hours work best for you.
How to be honest with yourself to make the best career move of your life
What if you don’t know what you love? What if you don’t know what your innate strengths are? Or what if you don’t have just one career that interests you and you want variety of careers and an unconventional path?
My answer to those questions? Start figuring it all out. And start now. If you don’t have all the answers that’s okay. Make it your quest to follow your own rules and your own compass rather than what others expect or what others are doing and you’ll be on your way to your best career move.
Here are a few suggestions to find the best career move for you personally:
What are your innate strengths? If you know what they are, map them out and make sense of them, refer to them often when carving our your next career move or enhancing your current position. If you don’t know, I recommend StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup’s Now Discover Your Strengths by Tom Rath to find out what your top strengths are.
What do you like to do in your job? What do you like getting involved in? When are you happiest?
Whose job do you wish you had? Why? Write down everything about that job that you love the look of and why.
What does your perfect day look like in your career? Don’t let realism stop you here, write down what you would love your day to day life to look like in your career. How can you make this happen? What aspects of that dream can you make happen now or in the near future?
What working environment do you love? When have you been happiest in a working environment? Do you like being in a shared office, your own office, working from home, working outside or a mix? Do you like to travel to different places? Do you like creative work spaces or quiet, traditional work spaces? Where do you wish you could work?
What work situations have you been in that you loved the most? Why? What do you see others doing which you wish you could do? What is it about those situations that appeal to you?
What do you value in your work? Prestige? Impact on performance? Meeting targets? Providing great service? Having an impact on the lives or situations of other? Inspiring others? Creativity?
Start thinking about and mapping out your answers to these questions to start understanding yourself, what you love to do, why, where you like to work and why, and ultimately what it is that makes up the best career move for you. You don’t have to have all the answers now. It may take time and experience to really hone in on what it is you want and what fits you best. It also might change as you grow and move into different phases of your life. That’s all okay. Keep checking in with yourself and keep carving out the best career for you.
Being honest with yourself really is the best move you will make in your career.
Over to you
Let me know what your next best career move is in the comments below.
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