Stop Asking Yourself What You Want To Do!

One of the toughest choices you're bound to confront throughout your career is what job or career choice is right for you?

To help you discover what job or career you should be doing, you may think about what you would like to do. But oftentimes, asking yourself what you want or would like to do actually draws a blank. In truth, asking “what do I want to do?” may not really assist you. You may find that the question is just plain unanswerable - because there is no one answer, or there are just too many answers, or because it presupposes some kind of commitment to an answer that you're unwilling or unable to make.

Perhaps, if you're struggling with knowing what you want to do career-wise, it's time for another question: what do you want to learn? That being the case, here's an exercise to help you determine what your next career move should be (whether it really is choosing a new career, or somehow modifying your current job or career): find some paper, or load up Notepad on your computer, and make a list of all the career or job-related knowledge and skills you want to develop. Now, arrange each thing you want to learn in order of priority. Finally, consider what careers or jobs will probably teach you what you want to know in the priority you want to know it.

And don't feel that one job or career - or indeed, organization - will necessarily deliver all the skills and knowledge you want. Nor is this list not static. Chances are that what you want to learn will change over time... and so too may your career or job choices. So be ready to update your list once or twice per annum.

But, for the time being, your list of what you want to learn and which careers and jobs are likely to teach you that, provides a great guide for choosing your next job or career.

Of course, I'm presuming that basing your next career move on what you most want to learn is how you will ultimately find a fulfilling career. You may prefer to base your next career move on other considerations - like what will pay you more or what seems "safe". But if you're unhappy in your current job or career choice and want to make a change, but don't know what to, then the "what do I want to learn?" approach is probably your best bet.

Therefore, stop trying to find an answer to the question of what you want to do. Go through the fun exercise above and let your answers as to what you want to learn guide you towards the right job(s) and/or career(s) for you.