Take Your Next Step With Intention

Career GrowthPersonal Growth
Written By Leigh Allen-Arredondo

Clarity & intention require deep understanding. And that’s the purpose of this Journey mapping of your own career & life.

Journey Mapping Your Career - This is a process I’ve developed in my coaching practice that’s designed to give you insights about yourself, your values and strengths, what motivates you, what makes you thrive, what’s really important. This is especially helpful if you’re thinking about any kind of a next step or if you’ve been wondering “what’s next” or even just “what now?”

If you're interested in exploring your journey with me to help you uncover insights, strengths, and motivation, set up a free discovery call with me to find out how we can do that together.

Download my Career Journey Mapping Template

Instructions

Approaching this in steps, vs. all-at-once, can help you reach deeper insights, in the end, because by focusing on one step at a time, and then going back and looking at the information in another step, we can begin to shift our lens or perspective. Yes, this is all information you already know, but accessing your own semi- or un-conscious thoughts doesn't "just happen" and it takes more effort than asking one straight-forward question. Try this process for yourself!

Step 1: Timeline - start at the beginning of adulthood!
What was I doing : Job, role/title, school, training, side hustle, challenges, accomplishments

Note - these are more or less neutral. You aren’t assigning judgement here. This isn’t how you felt about it, just the thing itself. But do try to remember anything that had an impact on you, to include here.

Step 2: Research
What did I learn? Hard & soft skills, self awareness

  • What was in/out of alignment
    What worked or didn’t work for me? What did/didn’t I enjoy? What did I do well? What am I proud of?

  • Motivation
    Why did I take this on? Why did I stop, or want to stop?

    Write these things out next to each thing on your timeline. Look through a positive lens here! For this research, pretend you are interviewing a dear friend, someone you love who you want to succeed. Do not use this as a time to point out your own ‘weaknesses’ or ‘mistakes’ or ‘failures’ - those are negative thoughts that we use on ourselves that are not helpful to us, in fact they are detrimental, they are part of what keeps us stuck and blocked. Reframe that thought into, what wasn't working well for me? And don’t over-generalize! For example: “I found out I suck at marketing.” What, specifically, was out of alignment? “Creating email campaigns and funnels was something I’d never done before, and I really didn’t like it. I didn’t enjoy it, and I didn’t feel like I was good at it, and it took a lot of my time.”

    Do not judge yourself harshly. What would you say to a friend who’s struggling at work? Would you say - "well, you suck at that." Chances are, no. We want to help a friend - point out what they do well, point out why things aren’t their ‘fault,’ offer words of compassion. Negative self-thinking limits us, and can even keep us from seeing our own potential. This is an opportunity to identify what has been in alignment, and what isn't in alignment, with what's important to you. You may also discover opportunities to learn or practice at things you could improve, if they're important to you. That'll come in the next couple of steps.


Step 3: Patterns
You might want to switch the color of your pen for this step, to help you as you look for patterns.

Go back to the beginning, and, looking through what you've written, circle all the the things that jump out as recurring patterns. Maybe you tend to get jobs through referrals from people you've worked with before. Maybe many places you go, you connect people, or maybe you build communities. Maybe you have created new processes in many of the places you've been. Maybe you've mentored many others.

Once you've gone through looking for patterns, look at them each and name the pattern. "Relationship building," "Community," "Designing processes," "mentoring/coaching," etc. Start looking specifically for things that point to strengths and values, or what is important to you. You may also see patterns of things out of alignment, like "too tactical, not strategic," "underpaid," "difficulty communicating with my boss." Those are also important to note.

Look for:

  • Strengths - Capability that brings value to others, natural aptitude combined with skill

  • Values - A principle or quality that is essentially valuable or desirable. Things or ways of being that are vital to us.

  • Limiting Beliefs - Do you see patterns of thoughts or behaviors that may hold you back?


Step 4: Opportunities

Now it's time to fill out the Opportunities page. On a new sheet of paper, create 3 columns:

  • What I want more of
    What is in alignment with your strengths, values, what motivates you

  • What I want less of, what to avoid
    What is out of alignment with what you want, blocks you?

  • What I want to learn or develop​, or change

As you fill these out, what ideas are emerging? Maybe you've found that you have a strength for developing relationships, and you value community. Could you put those two things together to create a new opportunity for yourself? Perhaps volunteering in an organization in a field you're interested in but don't have much experience, to get to know and learn from others working in that field. Maybe you have developed skills in mentoring, and you value helping others. Could you explore management roles, or try signing up to be a mentor in a mentor program. You may see where you have opportunities to develop - maybe something has often been difficult but it is important, like communicating with your boss. How could you develop better communication skills? Possibly through online courses, or books.

This step is also where it can be really helpful to meet with a mentor, or a coach, to get another set of eyes on your journey, to look for more patterns and connect more dots, and maybe even brainstorm ideas with you. If you'd like a coaching partner in this part of your journey, set up a free discovery call with me to find out how coaching might help you.

Resources

Leigh Allen-Arredondo
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Values Alignment Worksheet