
This daunting question seems to smack us in the face every few years. We want to be better and get better, and often find ourselves stuck wondering, what’s next? Having honed my craft through three plus years, supporting 100+ women through their successful pivot points, I wanted to share our lessons learned.
What your past tells you about your future
My favorite read on career transition (other than Pivot PointJ) is Now What by Laura Berman Fortgang. She offers success stories, tools, and practical exercises to navigate your “what’s next” moment. In fact, I have all of my career transition clients read it and do the life history exercise. The life history exercise often reveals nuggets and themes from the past.
Try it yourself by:
- Writing down all major life experiences by age ranges (newborn – child, child – teenager, teenager to young adult, young adult to 20’s, 30’s, and so on…)
- Then, reflecting on how each event made you feel, document a succinct and bullet-pointed list with the event and the emotion
- Circling the overlapping themes and feelings
- Reviewing with peers, family, mentors, and coaches