A former client called me a few weeks ago telling me that she needed to reinvent herself. Her career had plateaued, and she was neither satisfied with her career path or hopeful about her future. Most of us will have 3 major career changes during our working life and perhaps upwards of 10-15 different jobs. While each of these changes may feel significant and probably scary, I prefer to see them as “reinventions.” In fact, over the past 10 years I’ve reinvented myself 3 times. The first was when I left my corporate job to begin my consulting practice, the second was when I refocused my work around resilience and the third is currently happening and is very exciting around the release of Strategy Driven Leadership. As I worked with my client, I suggested to her that our careers often follow the “S” curve formula and when your career starts to peak and flatten out, that is when you want to make a move to a new career opportunity. Stay on the curve and watch your career go nowhere. I’ve been doing career work for over 25 years and I always ask clients to respond to 3 key questions:

1. What does you enjoy doing and are good at achieving?
2. What are the career values (such as working environment, goals and purposes of the organization, kinds of people she enjoys working with and what level of responsibility and salary she wants to achieve) that are most important?
3. What is the best strategy to find and secure the desired position?

We worked through the process and my client shared that she had always wanted to run her own retail operation and given that she had been with her company for over 25 years, she thought she was ready to make a move and venture out on her own. She is now in the process of evaluating her options and is ready to make the leap to her new “S” curve. Your Challenge This Week: Doing a career refresh is rarely about leaving your job but just making sure your current job is meeting your needs.