Have you ever thought, “I don’t know what I want to do but I know it’s not this”? A potential career change is quite the dilemma.

When I was in my own career change dilemma my best friend gave me the book “I don’t know what I want to do but I know it’s not this” written by Julie Jansen , as a gift. She knew I was in a place in my life where I didn’t know how to continue but I didn’t know what else to do either.

This book provided the first of opportunities, in my own journey, to take a look at what I actually wanted to do. Not what I had to do. Not what I was suppose to do but what I wanted to do. That concept alone rocked my world!

Today I am sharing with you 5 tips I’ve learned, to got unstuck and overcome the roadblocks that a career change dilemma brings.

1. Evaluate Your Skill Set: Julie’s book does a great job of this. There are exercises in the book to help you rewrite your resume; highlight your accomplishments and really dig in and look at all you have done these X many years.

2. Identify Your Roadblocks:  The pain of the current situation may be great enough to give you the desire to change but lack of vision or a dream may be stopping you – or maybe not. Maybe you lost your job and you’re scared or you have a very well paying job and you don’t want to take a step back. Whatever the roadblock, acknowledge your fears not so you can give into them but so you can overcome them. Because ignoring your fears only makes them stronger. If you have trouble accessing your roadblocks click here for help.

3. Start with Who You Are: Sometimes we focus so much on the WHAT that we become a WHAT rather than a WHO. You are not what you do ! You have an identity apart from your job and that person is wonderful but maybe you have forgotten since you haven’t spent much time with her. Click here to uncover things about yourself that may be hidden.

4. Evaluate Your Situation: WHAT about your situation makes you not want to continue?  Where do you have this WHAT in other areas of your life? Why do you think this WHAT causes you stress? The epiphany for me in this area was realizing that I take me with me and I was able to see what was my situation…and what was me. That was a hard pill to swallow but one that was needed.

5. Believe that You Have a Choice: So much power comes from the simple believe that this is your life and you have a choice. Maybe due to finances you may be stuck in your job right now but that doesn’t mean that you can’t chose to be happy while you’re planing your next steps. When you believe you have a choice you also have to say goodbye to instant gratification. All change, that is worth anything, takes work and time. No way around that. But working towards something you love is enpowering and melts the negativity of the things you can’t control.

How will you use these tips today to apply to your own Career Change Dilemma?

Copyright 2015, Mary R. Miller