How happy are you with your career?

It can often be hard for us to pin down what might be bothering us about our work.

The Balance Wheel (left) is a very effective tool to help you assess how happy you are with the different elements of your work. Draw the wheel (left) on a piece of paper and divide each segment in to 10. Label each segment with the headings listed below (if these are not relevant to your job, then please substitute them accordingly). Use a scale of 1 to 10, to rate your level of satisfaction with each area of your work: 1 is low (mark it down towards the centre of the wheel) and means that you're not at all happy about that particular area, and 10 is as good as it gets (mark right on the outer edge).



[] Use favourite skills
[] Working relationships
[] Learning and development
[] Flexible working
[] Control over workload
[] Support from manager/supervisor
[] Fit with corporate culture
[] Salary

What does your wheel look like? Maybe your salary is pretty good and you gave it a 7 or 8 rating. Perhaps you have reasonably good working relationships, so you rate those as a 6, but you have no control over your workload and feel overwhelmed, so rated this area as a 1 or 2? How balanced is your wheel, if you put it on a car or bike - how bumpy would the ride be? Once you have rated each area, take a look at the 3 segments that you rated the lowest. In each of these areas list 3 things that you can do NOW that will make the biggest difference in your current situation.

Then Take Action - NOW!

Whatever your ratings, career coaching can help you either to change course entirely, or to start afresh in your current organisation. Coaching is highly effective in helping you to find what's right for you, taking into account your skills, what interests you, and the kind of working arrangements and work life balance you want. By looking at what you value in life, you can start to explore options that are the right fit for you, rather than looking around in too many directions and feeling overwhelmed by choice. Many of us often talk ourselves out of change because we lack confidence, career coaching will also help you to overcome the self limiting beliefs that keep you stuck in a rut.

Once you've established what it is that you want to do, your coach can help you with: writing CVs that work, creative job searches, and interview techniques. If you want a more fulfilling career, coaching is a highly- tailored process to help you become clear about the work that you want to do and take action so that you don't just dream about it, but actually do it!

by Michelle Bayley

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Working with a Move Beyond Career Coach is a highly effective way to make the changes you want in your life - it will help you get from a level 5-8 of success, to a level 9-10. You will get support, motivation and most of all accountability - someone who will hold you to your "word" so you follow-through and step-out of your comfort zone to make it real!

We invite you to schedule a free no obligation find a job you love exploratory call with one of our career coaches to discuss the suitability of our programmes for your needs and find out how we can help you get from where you are now, to where you have want to be.

Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there...

(Will Rogers)