3 Questions that will keep you stuck in career confusion (and what to ask instead)

Charo Pinilla
Career Relaunch
Published in
3 min readDec 20, 2016

When dealing with matters that affect our future, happiness and safety, (and making a career change will influence those three) our rational minds tend to go into overdrive.The mind, in its attempt to make things safer for us, can easily over complicate things.

We do that by asking the wrong questions, questions that will keep us stuck in analysis paralysis. I know that’s typically true for me.

There are 3 questions in particular that need some tweaking

if they’re meant to guide us out of career confusion. These questions are:

Question #1: What would I love to do with my life?

This question is so overwhelming.

Notice the tension that asking this question creates in your body. It makes us feel like our future depends on finding the right answer, otherwise…

…we’ll be screwed for the rest of our lives!

And by the way, that level of tension is not a good place to be in when you want to make wise decisions about your future.

So take the pressure off by asking this question instead:

What would I love to do next?

This one makes you body feel completely different, right? Now you’re just trying to figure out the next step:, one that feels good, one that you’re allowed to change in the future, and it’s not such a big deal.

Because, let’s be honest here, what you love now will change over time.

Question #2: What’s my passion?

Oh, this question is so limiting!

It implies you only have one passion or interest in life, so you need to figure out what the unique thing is, otherwise you’ll get trapped in a life of eternal boredom.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Forcing yourself to find the one and only thing you love, it’s very much like trying to find the one and only food you love the most, so you can feed yourself with it for the rest of your life.

Instead, open your mind, broaden the scope of your search and ask yourself:

What things and topics am I passionate about?

Admit that in order to enjoy a fulfilling career life you’ll need variety. That’s the only way to get all the different emotional and mental “nutrients” that you need to be happy.

Question #3: What would I love to be?

That question is too ungrounded for our minds to grasp.

Our minds have problems with a question like this because it’s not tangible enough for us to create a mental image of it. And even for those who can, their visions are rarely accurate when compared to reality.

Instead, ask yourself:

What activities do I enjoy performing?

It’s much easier to picture yourself doing something. You can either draw back from your past experiences or your can engage in new activities if you need to, by running one of the F.U.N. projects as I usually suggest.

Bonus Question: How do I come up with the right questions?

In order to help you get out of career confusion I’ve created a deck of Career Clarity Cards. They’re not only beautifully designed, they also contain a full array of questions to help you get you started in the process.

You can get your FREE access by visiting this link:

http://www.tappingyourpurpose.com/freestuff/careerclaritycards/

Originally Published at www.TappingYourPurpose.com

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Charo Pinilla
Career Relaunch

Helping professional women Escape a meaningless job to do what they love. www.TappingYourPurpose.com