The #1 Secret to Figuring Out What to Do With Your Life

Well, your work life, anyway… I can’t fix everything for you.

I’m not saying it’s easy to figure out what to do for work – it definitely isn’t, mainly because it requires so much effort on your part to figure out.

But I can share with you the No. 1 secret to figuring it out.

Ah, I can see what you’re thinking. Don’t close this yet, I promise this isn’t one of those tricky deals where I end up saying something vague like “you just have to be yourself!” and then skip off into the sunset without actually telling you anything you can use.

Figure out what really matters to you

I’ve seen this referred to all kinds of different ways. Some people call it “values”, and other people call it your “priorities”; some people talk about it in terms of a “matrix” and other people in terms of a wheel, or circles.

Personally, I find it most helpful to just think of this initially in the most straightforward terms possible: What really matters to you in terms of your career? (this post is always tacking on “in terms of your career”; you could really have this conversation with yourself about anything, but let’s agree to stick with career.)

So, what is it you care about? Working with people you can hang out with socially? Making a lot of money? Traveling for work? (or maybe, not traveling for work?) There are so many different things that could matter to you personally, so think carefully and I’m sure that your most important points will come to you.

…and then prioritize it

Once you know what they are, you just have to prioritize those things (the things you care about most) over all the other things that you could potentially have in a career (the list is endless, and we haven’t even scratched the surface).

However (yeah, there’s always a “however”)

OK. Full disclosure, this #1 thing can be trickier than it appears (and there are a bunch of reasons for that). I’ll just give you a few of the potential complications you can run into when you’re trying to figure out what really matters to you most, and then prioritize those things.

Our priorities aren’t always our priorities: Ugh, wait, what? I know, I promised not to be all confusing and tricky. All this means is, sometimes we don’t want to be honest (even with ourselves) about our priorities.

Choosing careers that don’t satisfy our actual top priority will likely be unsatisfying or even problematic. See, this is why we have to make sure we’re being honest with ourselves about our priorities.

But – simplified, this really just boils down to: Get clear on what’s important to you, and try not to get in your own way. Want help?

Rachel Gaddis

I’m a career transition coach who focuses on helping ADHD women over 40, particularly women who’ve been recently diagnosed. As a career transition coach who was diagnosed with inattentive-type ADHD at age 44, I understand the profound impact such a diagnosis can have on one’s professional and personal life. Using co-active coaching methodology, I help my clients align their professional paths with their core values and innate strengths. My approach is profoundly influenced by my personal experiences – including a late ADHD diagnosis, overcoming breast cancer, embracing my 50s, and executing a major career shift.