Changing Careers in the New Year? How to Develop Clarity through Contrast

As individuals are finishing up 2013 and making plans and setting goals for the new year, it is a time of reflection.  Very often an individual comes to the realization they want to take a different direction in their work and decide to change jobs in the new year.   

When a person is going through this type of scenario, as it is important to take time to stop and reflect.  During this reflection time a great exercise to do is to make a list of all the things you don't want and the reasons you want a new direction, and,  a list of all the things that are important to you in your next step.   This is called clarity through contrast, and it is in engaging in this type of exercise that one can gain a lot of clarity.  Spending the time to identify and put on paper what you don't want, is a reminder not to fall into the same scenario with a new job.  Listing all the things that are important to you in a new direction allows you to identify what is really important this time around. 

Once the exercise has been completed, you may not know exactly what it is you want to do, however, having the clear vision of what you don't want and what you do allows you to identify confidently when the new opportunity is a match.