“I need to be more intentional about my next career move.” I often hear this kind of statement in conversation with a potential career coaching client. They know they need a different way but not sure how to figure out their next career move.
They’ve been going going, achieving achieving, but not feeling the fulfillment and not clear on what needs to change.
There’s something about that word *intentional*. Perhaps especially so for introverts and highly sensitive people (HSPs), like myself. We tend to have a high need for meaning and calm in our work. In order to have that, we need a more intentional process for choosing well, unlike the typical way.
Does it sound familiar to you too?
Here’s a simple picture of how the intentional way could look, but first, the problem with the non-intentional way:
The Typical Non-intentional Way
I think it’s more the norm to just see what’s out there for work options, and try to fit oneself to it. That’s the *non-intentional* way. Have you been doing that?
Introverts and highly sensitive people (HSP), like myself and my clients, often got too used to fitting ourselves into a mold of what seems most wanted or expected. That is so tiring! It can lead to burnout. You thought you chose well at first, but somehow it didn’t pan out that way.
So then you can tend to end up needing a mid-career shift because you got off your own true path for the best use of you.
Luckily this is when you start wondering about a more intentional way to choose. Congratulations for even saying you want that. Luckily, it’s doable from there.
The Intentional Way to Figure Out Your Next Career Move
The intentional way to think about careers is to hold off from looking at what’s out there, and to start with a question something like:
“What do I actually want?… And how do I figure that out?”
Sadly we are not taught how to answer those questions for ourselves. Which seems kinda strange in way, but it’s the norm in the U.S. at least. Sigh.
To find my way, I tried all the things over many years: career books, asking friends, research, informational interviews, volunteering, a free career counselor, various assessments… and trying different career paths.
These were part of the intentional way, and these things added up to pieces of clarity and some pretty good fit jobs here and there.
But it wasn’t until mid-life, when I got a thinking partner with the right career coach who got me, that things came into more satisfying focus for me. I could finally see myself and what I wanted on a deeper level. 💡
It felt amazing! Even before I found the right work.
Just the feeling of knowing myself more and feeling seen — my strengths, my values, my hopes, etc. — was the first amazing thing. That in turn gave me hope for finding my path, because when you feel uplifted and also grounded like that, the whole game changes. So much good rolled out from there.
I love seeing these lightbulbs go on with my career coaching clients, in my career group for sensitive souls, and for people in my Career Clarity Course.
It doesn’t take that long to find clarity once you set an intention and take a few steps to find your way. Really.
Summary
Many introverts and sensitive souls want a more intentional way to find their next career move but they often don’t know how to do that. It can be easier than you might think.
The intentional way is about starting by getting clear on what you really want and where you would best thrive.
The desire for the more intentional way is exactly why people see a career coach, join a career transition support group, or use a career clarity process of some kind. And why they might use an understanding job search coach so that the job search process itself can be more intentional and effective.
