How to choose the best direction in your business (or career) when you feel unsure
When you don’t know which path to follow, do this
Is feeling frozen from too many options stopping you from starting a business or making the career pivot you want?
Today I want to share exactly how to choose your best direction so you can find your purpose and monetize it.
Debating between paths can feel paralyzing. It feels like a life or death choice, with your success, happiness and potential hanging in the balance.
Yet if you want to earn money from your purpose, you have to choose!
I’ve been there —
My blog started 10 years ago cataloging my spiritual awakening. Through every pivot to now being a spiritual life coach who guides ambitious women to find their purpose and make it their career, I’ve felt uncertain and overwhelmed at many points along the way.
Over the years, I’ve developed a highly effective process for evaluating choices and deciding quickly.
You don’t need to think forever before making a choice. What you need is higher-level thinking.
Why thinking too long can lead to worse choices, not better
Good decisions are determined by deep thought, not necessarily long thought.
You can think nervous, circular thoughts for a long time, and that won’t result in a good decision — or any decision.
Meanwhile, deep thought for a short period of time can result in a good decision.Thinking too long creates doubt.
If you don’t take action, you’ll start second guessing yourself. That leaves you stuck and uncertain, which paralyzes you more. Clarity comes from action.
Prolonged thinking raises the stakes of your decision.
The more you postpone your decision, the more you build it up in your mind as a do-or-die scenario. Freaking out increases the odds of making a less-than-ideal choice.
Keep in mind: You’re not figuring out your entire life. You’re figuring out your next step. You can change your mind. Everything is fixable.
You want to make good decisions, but good decisions are based on deep thought. Not long thought.
That’s why working with a coach like me either 1:1 or in the Journaling Club to guide your own high-level, deep thinking about your next career move will create amazing breakthroughs.
Deep thinking about important problems is difficult to do, and it’s very easy to avoid.
This is the process I guide my clients through
1. Define your values
Create a solid foundation for high-level thinking through clarifying your values. Your values inform your vision, which in turns guides your next move.
What truly matters to you, and in what priority? These are the pillars that guide all other decisions, making some options easy to say no to and others an obvious yes.
We dive into this during the first 1:1 call of Profit from Your Purpose.
2. Identify your lifestyle requirements
My values led me to build a location-free business. It’s about more than the ability to travel — I currently live a very still, chill life, but about freedom: time, financial and location.
Maintaining a spacious schedule with time for family, the gym, self-care, cooking, lying in the sun and reading matters to me.
I usually work from around 10 or 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. to have plenty of time to workout and rest before cooking dinner. I like knowing that if I did want to spend a week at the beach or a month in Paris, I could do that. And it’s important that I have enough money for what matters to me like high-quality food and clothes. (Unapologetic clothes horse!)
3. Celebrate your unique gifts
One of the biggest causes of uncertainty about which path to take is being objectively good at your current job, even if it doesn’t fulfill you.
When you’re smart, you’re good at everything. That makes it harder to identify your soul’s true unique gifts. You can easily skate by, excelling at things you don’t like, and talk yourself into continuing on that path because you’re good at it.
You’re good at everything. The real question is — are you happy? If you’re not, then you’re not on the right path. Once you get on your true path, you could uncover entirely new, soul gifts. Gifts I can help you package and get paid for inside Profit from Your Purpose.
4. Overcome fears
Fears of making the wrong choice, of doubting your capability, of starting over, of making mistakes, of failure, disappointing others, getting laughed at and so much more are often the real, underlying cause of indecision or lack of momentum.
The way to deal with fear is to shine a light on it, understand it. That doesn’t always make it go away, but it does make it easier to act anyway.
It also ensures you’re making the best choices, from desire and not fear.
5. Upgrade your identity
We all have a self-image — a mental picture of who we are, how capable we are, what’s possible for us. This identity forms our thoughts, beliefs, responses and habits.
Your experience of life reflects your current identity, and if you want your life to become more passionate, bold and fulfilling, you must do the inner work to upgrade your thoughts, beliefs, habits and self-perception.
6. Make a decision
Now that you’ve done all this inner work to support high-level thinking, it’s time to choose.
Often the choice becomes clear through doing inner work.
If not, evaluate your choices. Which align with your values, vision and lifestyle requirements? You might still feel nervous. Choose anyway.
Failing to choose is a choice. Feeling stuck is a choice. Feeling confused is a choice.
Stuck, lost and confused are energies and thought patterns. You can shift out of them. This is the work I’ll guide you through as a client.
7. Create a phased action plan
Big dreams lead to big plans that easily cause overwhelm. The key is to break down your vision into phases and focus on one thing at a time.
Building momentum toward your goals requires laser-precision focus. You don’t want to dilute your energy or cause overwhelm by scattering your attention across multiple goals.
Write your plan down. Don’t get distracted by shiny objects. Stick to the plan and develop consistency.
8. Commit for at least 3 months
Three months is the perfect length of time because it’s long enough to gain momentum and see results but short enough so you don’t feel trapped if the path you choose isn’t quite right.
You’ll experience a big learning curve as you push beyond your comfort zone, and it’s important to commit so you don’t give up prematurely.
Eventually you’ll want to embrace longer commitments, but short timeframes to start will help you create momentum.
9. Evaluate
You always want to be learning, growing and clarifying your approach, but after the three-month mark, enough time has passed to evaluate if you want to double down on your current path or make adjustments.
Don’t abandon a project or goal because it’s hard. Achieving your dreams is hard. That’s why 99% of people don’t even try. But you also don’t want to continue down a path that’s not aligned or not working.
Repeat this process to lay out your choices, reconnect to your vision and choose your next path.
This is how you shift out of uncertainty and into the purpose-driven business or career you’ve been dreaming of.
Doing this work by yourself is hard. It requires sustained high-level thinking while simultaneously becoming aware of and shifting limiting beliefs, doubts, fears and self-sabotage.
Gaining clarity is only the first step. Then you need to commit to new habits, which brings up additional layers of bad habits, limiting beliefs, doubts and fears.
That’s exactly why I created Profit from Your Purpose —
A 1:1 coaching program for creative, ambitious women who are ready to start a business or find a career aligned with their purpose in 90 days.
This is a powerful program containing years of hard-won wisdom following my purpose and helping other smart, creative women do the same.
This is for the woman ready to:
🌹 Give herself permission to reinvent herself
🌹 Break the mold and be your creative, carefree self while getting paid for it
🌹 Feel emboldened by a clear vision and plug-and-play roadmap
🌹 Love yourself more deeply so you no longer hold yourself back from the opportunities you deserve
🌹 Express your unique gifts that will get you recognized, respected and paid for your great work
🌹 No longer settle for a boring life that's practical or one you *should* live
🌹 Own your true power and stake your claim in the world
🌹 Live a fulfilling, meaningful life, where you feel so certain and peaceful that you're on the right path, doing what you're meant to do
If you’re ready to stop endless daydreaming and start building your purpose-driven business or career, here’s your next step —
Reply to this email now. Share with me your goals and the areas where you want support.
I’ll give you an overview of what we’ll cover, and what you’ll receive as one of my private clients.
I am SO excited for this work and cannot wait to help you create a life reflecting the magnitude of what’s inside your soul, when you’re ready.
Talk soon!
All the love,
Suzanne